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Boston in the Civil War
1850 The "Associates," 15 rich families in Boston, control 20 percent of 1850 The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Underground railway Violent clashes in Boston as abolitionist mobs attempt to 1850 BS N53.2 pix “…an original style “open car” in use of Boston some time prior to 1864,,,also an interesting view of Winthrop House on the corner of Tremont and Boylston. Destroyed by fire in April 1864. Opened in 1850 = site of today’s Masonic temple. 1852 BS L21 “In 1826 Louisburg Square was considered out of town…First house built in 1834. There is correspondence shows that when Benjamin Joy lived on Spring Lane near the Old South his wife was advised by her physician to go into the country for her health. She went to a house on the corner of Joy and Beacon, and in a letter to her husband she said that if ever they had to live so far out in the country it would be necessary to get a horse and carriage, BSN “In 1851 a woman appeared dressed in a queer sort of trowsers instead of skirt. She was crusading for this odd dress – and she put it over. Her name was Amelia Bloomer” 1854 Kansas x Nebraska Bill 1854 Henry David Thoreau, Walden; Massachusetts Emigrant 1854 May, Attack on Boston Court House to free fugitive slave Anthony Burns; State Street demonstration x 2000 men lined streets BS N85 Burns…Old Court House: Artillery was placed in the corridors of the building…Chains were stretched across the entrances. It is related that Chief Justice Shaw had these chains removed at the entrance where he sought to enter. 9 o’clock Friday, May 26, the courthouse was attacked by a mob of white men and Negroes. All sorts of weapons were brought into play…With a piece of timber a part of the mob attempted to batter down the central door on the west side of the building. Higginson seems to have been the only person who was known to have gotten in but met with such a warm reception that he made haste to get out again… …Rev Leonard Grimes of Boston raised the price $1,311 which His master wanted for Burns, and it is said that Burns had the pleasure of tendering the money to compete the transaction. The ransomed slave was soon back in Boston. He died some years afterward in Canada. BS R 307 “Mr. Joseph Bragdon now in his 81st year served on the grand jury at a time when one Mr. Douglas, a Negro, in the clothing business on Green Street was arrested and tried for aiding and abetting runaway Burns. The jury disagreed – ten for conviction and two for acquittal, One juror argued that Douglas should be used as an example, but Mr. Bragdon argued that as the evidence was not enough to prove him guilt he should be dismissed. Mr. Douglas afterwards gratefully thanked Mr. Bragden for abiding by the principles he professed. 1855 Boston public schools racially integrated 1856 John Brown BS T31 1856 Christmas made a legal holiday in MA 1857 Boston Asylum and Farm School for Boys – Thompson’s Island 1859 Oct John Brown x Harper’s Ferry 1859 Catholic boy Thomas Wall brutally whipped for refusing to repeat the ten commandments in a Protestant translation 1860 First formal kindergarten opened in Boston by Elizabeth Palmer 1860 election 1861 war 1861 Battle Hymn of the Republic – Julia Ward Howe BS G181 Enlistment at the Old South Church BS 138 Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel boarded at the Montgomery House with his family in 1850s. He was surveyor of the port of Boston. Gay, facile, and an admirable raconteur, he was a very agreeable companion, but too indolent to make a great figure in the world. He always claimed that he never had a fair chance. His father’s colossal figure so overtopped him that he must have always been dwarfed by his side, There was something in this but the main cause of Fletcher’s inefficiency was his indolence and the fatal ease with which he yielded to the attractions of good company, No man ever loved his children more tenderly than Daniel Webster or would have been more gratified at their distinction. In 1850 Fletcher was about 36, always neatly dressed band attractive in appearance. There were many who afterwards rejoiced when he made a manly effort and threw himself into the war for the Union. The Sunday meeting on State Street to raise the Webster regiment was one of the great days in Boston. The discipline of the regiment may not have been very high, but the boys loved their colonel, and appreciated his kindness of heart, They well remember the cheerfulness and unaffected courage with which he rode among them on the morning of the second Bull Run battle, which proved to be his last, He had discarded the charger which ran away with him on a previous occasion. “Boys we are all right today, this little fellow will not run away. Thus indeed, nothing in his life became him like the ending of it. Civil War effect on city’s Irish community – third of population – became a highly visible and highly desirable part of the war effort “Little Giant” Douglas supported by Boston Irish– to save Union, not to free slaves Irish Catholic children no longer forced to read the Protestant Bible Dorothea Lynde Dix (school for girls x asylum 1843) – nurses for the Union Army 1863 Jan Emancipation Proclamation gala at Music Hall “a new era of American life” 1863 54th Regiment to war First black regiment in any state BSN: “The negroes are now enshrined in bronze and are respectable but when Col Shaw marched them up Beacon St. the residents pulled down their shades and the gallant Colonel was refused admittance to the Somerset Club – That’s how the Union Club came into existence. The elms shading the Shaw memorial are the oldest trees on the Common. They were planted by Hancock. 55th? Garrison, son of the abolitionist, marched into Charleston S Carolina 1864 Northernmost engagement of Civil War at St. Albans, Vt.; Bates BSN: General Hooker: Only battle was at Chancelorville where he was defeated. His commanding officer Gen Grant said of him: “I regard him as a dangerous man. He was not subordinate to his superiors. He was ambitious to the extent of caring nothing for the rights of others.” His private life was nothing to put on a monument. Statue bears the one word Hooker. Civil War saw crumbling of trade with the south 1864: BS Notebook of Long Wharf clerk Go Watson Prescott “ Nov 21 to 25 1864,,,The US steamer Kearsarge, Capt Winslow, that sunk the confederate steamer Alabama lay at the end of the wharf on public exhibition and was visited by thousands of people. She carried an unexploded shell in her sternpost that was lodged there, while in action, and was plainly visible.
BIBL Harper’s December 1865 “A Village in Massachusetts” = Boston
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