Western Virginia's mineral-spring resorts were extremely popular in the 19th century. Travelers from throughout the United States, but especially from southern states, visited the resorts. There people would take in the "cure" or spring water, enjoy the bucolic rural landscapes, and what they believed was the restorative mountain air. On their way to the springs, travelers also sought the picturesque beauty of the state's natural wonders such as the Peaks of Otter and Natural Bridge.
The expansion of the railroad network during the 1850s made the long trip to western Virginia's resorts far easier. Broadside advertisements urged urban dwellers from Richmond, Petersburg, and other cities to escape the humid, unhealthy summers by traveling the railroads to visit mountain resorts. Travelers could complete their journey in one day (getting "through by day-light") instead of a trip that had formerly taken several days over bumpy, dusty mountain roads. In 1855, Virginians visiting the springs could travel on the state's newest railroad, the Virginia and Tennessee. The route linked several other rail lines and accelerated the population growth and economic development of much of southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee.
Broadsides, often overside printed sheets of paper, typically contained proclamations, announcements, or advertisements, and were publicly posted or distributed door to door.
Citation: Virginia Springs, Richmond & Danville, South-side and Virginia and Tennessee Railroads: summer arrangement. Richmond: Dispatch Steam Presses, 1855. Broadside 1855 .V8 FH, Manuscripts & Special Collections, Library of Virginia.
Preview Activity
Look at It: Look at the broadside poster. What is being advertised? Why would this type of advertisment encourage travel?
Post Activities
Analyze: Taking this broadside as a starting point, how has travel changed since the 1850s? Take into consideration technology and economics of the time period.
Artistic Exploration: Design a broadside like this item for a trip you would enjoy. Be sure to include information about the location and why people might like to visit the area.
Completed in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France. In it, the United States acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River from French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for about $15 million. By that time, the United States had expanded westward towards the Mississippi River and controlling navigation of the river and access to the port of New Orleans had become vital to American commerce.
The Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. At the time the United States bought the territory, it was home to thousands of Native Americans across dozens of tribes. As increasing numbers of people from the eastern United States moved west, the U. S. government forcibly moved the Native Americans from their ancestral lands on to reservations. Part or all of 15 states were eventually created from the land included in the deal. It is considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas Jefferson's presidency.
This map, printed in 1816, shows the new boundaries of the United States following the rapid territorial expansion from the Louisiana Purchase. It is one of the earliest large-scale detailed maps made in the United States that showed the entire country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The light green color-coding implies that American territory then extended to the Pacific and to embrace all of the west coast from what is now California into what is now British Columbia, Canada. Much of the Great Plains, including areas outside of the Louisiana Purchase, were also shown to be part of the United States.
Preview Activity
Look at It: Look at the map. What do you notice about it? Consider the date of the map. What important event took place around that time?
Post activities
STEM STAT: The land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase allowed for settlement in a new part of the country. How might the land have been different from land typically found on the east coast. Consider how land in the midwest is used today and the natural resources that were abundant in the early 1800s.
Artistic Exploration: Often early maps had images representing the subject of the map. Create two or three images that would be appropriate for a map drawn after the Louisiana Purchase. Consider that the Port of New Orleans and land to the Rocky Mountains were included as part of the United States for the first time on the map.
Social Media Spin: Create a post for a social media platform in which you encourage people to settle land west of the Mississippi River. Include information that one might need before choosing to take such a risk.
In December 1833, a group of about sixty Black and white men met in Philadelphia and organized the American Anti-Slavery Society to seek the immediate emancipation of enslaved people. The Society viewed slavery as a violation of the principle of equality found in the Declaration of Independence. Members were urged to use non-violent means to work for emancipation, including public lectures, the publication of anti-slavery literature, and the boycott of cotton and other items produced by enslaved labor. Leaders in southern states attempted to silence anti-slavery rhetoric and limit the distribution of such materials through the postal service.
The American Anti-Slavery Society published this broadside, "Slave Market of America," in 1836 to protest slavery and the sale of enslaved people in the District of Columbia. Using quotations from the Bible and some of America's founding documents, it highlights the contradiction of slavery in "The Land of the Free." Using text and woodcut illustrations describing the atrocities of slavery, the creators of the broadside demanded that Congress abolish slavery in the nation's capital. One image on the bottom row depicts a ship at the port of Alexandria taking on a cargo of enslaved people for sale in New Orleans or elsewhere in the south. Another shows the private slave prison of Franklin and Armfield, an Alexandria firm that was one of the largest traffickers in human property in the United States. Slavery continued in the District of Columbia until April 16, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill passed by Congress abolishing slavery there.
Broadsides are single sheets of paper with printed matter intended to be distributed in public. They could be posters announcing events or proclamations, advertisements, or a written argument (often describing political views).
Citation: "Slave Market of America," American Anti-Slavery Society Broadside, 1836, Broadside Collection, Library of Virginia.
Preview Activity
Look at it: Look at the images in the broadside. What do the images reveal about the topics addressed by the broadside?
Post Activities
Analyze: Why do you think the author wrote this broadside? What do you think the author hoped to accomplish?
Another Perspective: How do you think Black Americans might have felt seeing a broadside like this one?
A Narrative on Nat Turner’s Revolt, Samuel Warner, 1831
Nat Turner was born enslaved in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1800. He became a preacher and self-proclaimed prophet who believed that he had been called to lead a rebellion against slavery. On August 21, 1831, Turner began a slave revolt that left approximately fifty-five white people in Southampton County dead. He was joined by about sixty African American men and boys who were defeated by white militia members and a contingent of state and federal troops. A few slaves escaped and went into hiding, including Nat Turner. Public attention focused on Turner, who was blamed for inciting enslaved laborers to rebel through his "imagined spirit of prophecy" and his extraordinary powers of persuasion. Turner's ability to elude capture for more than two months only enhanced his mythic stature.
Nat Turner's revolt prompted a debate in Virginia's General Assembly about whether slavery should continue in the state. Instead, the legislature passed additional laws to tighten control over the actions of enslaved and free Black men and women. They were forbidden from gathering together for religious, educational, or other reasons, and Black church congregations had to be supervised by white ministers. Free Blacks also lost their right to a trial by jury and were treated in the same manner as slaves in the court system.
Before Turner had been captured, convicted, and executed in November 1831, Samuel Warner published Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene: Which was Witnessed in Southampton County (Virginia) on Monday the 22d of August Last. . . , which included this engraving of the "wanton barbarity" of Turner and his followers that Warner described in considerable detail.
Citation: "Horrid Massacre in Virginia, Nat Turner's Rebellion," frontispiece image in Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene, By Samuel Warner (New York: Warner West, 1831), Library of Virginia.
Preview Activity
Look at it: Look at the document. List three images that you find moving or powerful and explain your reaction to those images.
Post Activities
Analyze: Take a close look at the images on the first page of this narrative by Samuel Warner. How do you think Warner felt about Turner's actions? How does he portray the revolt?
Social media Spin: Create a social media post in which you describe Nat Turner’s revolt from a neutral perspective. Be sure to include information which is relevant to understanding the context of the revolt.