The 1857 image of fugitive slaves was originally published in William Still’s The Underground Railroad (1872). This section of Still’s book describes the incident depicted in that image. As for the 1862 image, it was appeared in Harper’s Weekly Magazine on November 8.
October 28, 1857 – “Twenty-eight fugitives Escaping from the Eastern Shore of Maryland” – See image record on House Divided.
November 1862 – Captured African-Americans Being Driven South, artist’s impression – See image record on House Divided.
Life & Family
Abraham Lincoln was a southerner who led the North during the Civil War. Born on February 12, 1809, the same day as scientist Charles Darwin, Lincoln began his life on a farm in Kentucky before moving as a young child to Indiana and eventually to Illinois. He settled in Springfield, married Mary Todd, and raised four boys (two of whom died before he did). Lincoln was six-feet, four inches tall and weighed about 180 pounds. He was well respected as a politician and attorney and well-liked for his story-telling abilities. Lincoln served one term in Congress where he gained notice for opposing the Mexican War but otherwise had no experience in Washington before becoming president. During the 1850s, Lincoln helped organize the Republican Party in Illinois and distinguished himself as an anti-slavery orator, especially during the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858. Two years later, Lincoln and Stephen Douglas faced each other again, this time as part of the dramatic four-way presidential contest of 1860. Lincoln won an electoral majority and seven Deep South states seceded. President Lincoln refused to bend and war erupted at Fort Sumter in April 1861. As a wartime leader, Lincoln has been widely revered for his actions to save the nation, free the slaves and for his astounding ability to communicate the values of democratic self-government in simple, elegant phrases. He won reelection in 1864 but was shot and killed by actor John Wilkes Booth in mid-April 1865, just over one month into his second term.
In December 1859 Lincoln wrote a short autobiographical sketch and sent it to Jesse W. Fell. You can listen to this letter through the audio player below:
Places to Visit
You can find a historical marker about the November 1865 USCT Grand Review that Day helped organize in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A historical marker about Day is also located in Steelton, Pennsylvania at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Carlisle Street. While the William Howard Day Cemetery is also located in Steelton, Day was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Penbrook, Pennsylvania.
Images
A photograph is available from Day’s profile on House Divided.
Places to Visit
You can visit Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia and see John Brown’s fort and the historic town. In addition, the Kennedy Farmhouse is only about 30 minutes from Harpers Ferry. The farmhouse, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1973, is the place where Brown’s raiders launched their attack on Harpers Ferry.
Places to Visit
You can visit Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia and see John Brown’s fort and the historic town. In addition, the Kennedy Farmhouse is only about 30 minutes from Harpers Ferry. The farmhouse, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1973, is the place where Brown’s raiders launched their attack on Harpers Ferry.
Hutchinson Family Singers, 1845 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Sources
Important primary sources include the collection at the Wadleigh Memorial Public Library in Milford, New Hampshire and Dale Cockrell’s Excelsior: Journals of the Hutchinson Family Singers, 1842-1846 (1989). In addition, Joshua Hutchinson published A Brief Narrative of the Hutchinson Family in 1874 and John Hutchinson recalled his experiences in The Story of the Hutchinsons in 1896 (Vol. 1 ; Vol. 2). While Joshua’s work offers “intimate vignettes” of the singers, historian Scott E. Gac cautions that John Hutchinson’s “memoir… is a less accurate but entertaining reconstruction of the group.” In addition, a collection at the Wadleigh Memorial Public Library in Milford, New Hampshire has sheet music and newspaper clippings about the Hutchinsons. Important secondary sources include Philip D. Jordan’s Singin’ Yankees (1946), Carol Brink’s Harps in the Wind: The Story of the Singing Hutchinsons (1947), Caroline Moseley’s “The Hutchinson Family: The Function of their Song in Ante-Bellum America,” Journal of American Culture 1, no. 4 (1978): 713-23, Scott Gac’s Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Reform (2007), and Matthew Warner Osborn’s “Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Antebellum Reform,” Journal of the Early Republic 28 (2008): 488-491.
Places to Visit
Apparently no structures or sites related to the Hutchinson Family Singers exist. Jesse and Mary Hutchinson were from Milford, New Hampshire. Thirteen of their children formed the original Hutchinson Family Singers.
Life & Family
In late 1860 South Carolina Governor Gist William Henry Gist referred to the “John Brown Pike” in his message to the state legislature. As the Charleston (SC) Mercury reported, Ruffin gave this pike to South Carolina to display in January 1860 and included a note which read in part: “Sample of the favors designed for us by our NORTHERN BRETHREN.” When John Brown attacked Harpers Ferry in October 1859, he brought pikes with him as a way to arm the slaves who rebelled.
Sources
Key primary sources include Ruffin’s The Political Economy of Slavery (1857), William K. Scarborough’s three volume Diary of Edmund Ruffin (1972-89), and David F. Allmendinger’s Incidents of My Life: Edmund Ruffin’s Autobiographical Essays (1990). Ruffin also wrote a number of other books and pamphlets, including Agricultural, Geological, and Descriptive Sketches of Lower North Carolina, and the Similar Adjacent Lands (1861). In addition, the Bland-Ruffin Papers at the Library of Virginia has some of Ruffin’s correspondence from the Civil War. These letters “document Ruffin’s unflagging support of the Confederacy,” as the finding aid notes. The Library of Virginia also has the diary that Ruffin used between 1841-1851. In addition, the Southern Historical Collection at UNC has Edmund Ruffin Jr’s Journal (1851-1862, 1866-1873). Other studies on Ruffin’s life include Betty L. Mitchell’s Edmund Ruffin: A Biography (1981) and David F. Allmendinger’s Ruffin: Family and Reform in the Old South (1990). Several historians have focused their research on Ruffin’s role in the secession crisis: Avery O. Craven, Edmund Ruffin, Southerner: A Study in Secession (1932), Eric H. Walther’s The Fire-Eaters (1992), and Kenneth L. Smith’s “Edmund Ruffin and the Raid on Harper’s Ferry.” Virginia Cavalcade (1972). In addition, the online Encyclopedia Virgina has an entry on Ruffin. For more information about John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in October 1859, see Paul Finkelman’s His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid (1995) and David S. Reynolds’ John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights (2005).
Places to Visit
You can visit Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia and see John Brown’s fort and the historic town. In addition, the Kennedy Farmhouse is only about 30 minutes from Harpers Ferry. The farmhouse, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1973, is the place where Brown’s raiders launched their attack on Harpers Ferry. In addition, a historical marker notes the location in Charles Town, West Virginia where Brown was executed in December 1859. Ruffin’s plantation (Marlbourne) was located in Hanover County, Virginia and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1964. While Ruffin was buried at his estate, a historical marker for his grave is located near Mechanicsville in Virginia.
Images
Ruffin watched John Brown’s execution on December 2, 1859 in Charlestown, Virginia with cadets from the Virginia Military Institute. A drawing of the VMI Cadet Guard at Charlestown is online at the Encyclopedia Virgina. The image is originally from the Virginia Military Institute Archives.
The slideshow below includes political cartoons about the Election of 1860. You can learn more at the Election of 1860 major topic page on House Divided.
