A slave whipping   I am going to let the transcripts of several articles from the Edgefield, SC, Advertiser of March 23, 1859 speak for themselves. I have added a few notes in red to clarify terms or allusions to current events, modern readers would not understand. There is not much a decent or sane person can add otherwise, so I won't.       Edgefield SC—letter from a Northern lady of Oswego, NY   Re-Printed in the Edgefield, S.C. Advertiser, March 23, 1859   From the Oswego Times in New York State.   The following is an extract from a private   letter, by a New York lady to her brother. She is spending the winter with an invalid daughter in South Carolina:   AIKEN, S. C., Feb. 2d, 1859.        My DEAR BROTHER:-We are in what is called the Pine Woods District, 120 miles   west of Charleston. Aiken is a small town of not more than 1000 inhabitants, and the dullest place I was ever in. All the work that is done in this country is done by the slaves, and they do just

  "Socialism in Arkansas"  1858         As you can read in the two excerpts from newspapers below, socialism was once acceptable in Arkansas as long as it did not promote abolitionists and "...other isms, germinating in the north."           Utopian communities of all sorts were promoted in  the twenty years before the Civil War and the two decades following.  The most enduring of these was the Amana group in Iowa, founded in 1840.  Amana morphed from an agricultural commune into a manufacturing commune. Eventually, it was sold to corporate America and endures today as a brand of microwaves sold in the US.         Over the next several weeks, I'll take a look at some of the more interesting and/or exemplary specimens  of ante bellum utopians.            There were "free love" communities with varying definitions of "free love." Most of the definitions of "free love," would strike the modern viewer as simply common sense or civil rig

            New York City, 1854 courtesy of NY Historical Society         Elizabeth Jennings and Sarah Adams just wanted to get to church on time, not start a civil rights case. Elizabeth was organist and head of the music program at First African Congregational Church in New York City.      Record breaking heat blanketed the city of around a half million. Horses, dogs, and hogs had died in greater numbers than usual from heatstroke.  As usual, the city was slow to remove animal carcasses from public streets. Too, two hundred tons of horse manure a day was deposited by the 22,000+ horses pulling wagons and carriages in the city.      Elizabeth and Sarah were running late July 16, 1854. A two mile walk through heat and what must have been an awful stench, was not appealing.  Wearing inch and half heel boots and "pages" --loops of rope sewn into and around their skirts used to pull a lady's skirt up several inches to avoid mud, horse manure and worse-they made their way

     While the West was being won, slavery was an issue and Queen Victoria sat on her throne, there were a few ultra modern things going on, hilariously phrased by modern standards, but modern nonetheless.    Another Girl in Pants Boston, MA  Jan 1, 1853      Both Emma and Harriet would be arrested several more times in various places for wearing pants. When Harriet was arrested for a third time in New York she claimed she had only worn trousers "to get more wages" as a man.  As early as 1845 American cities were passing ordnances forbidding crossdressing or men wearing makeup.  Cross dressing was considered "being in disguise."  When not being lampooned, bloomers were sharply criticized as immoral because "women shouldn't wear men's clothes."      Today, we'd hardly think of "bloomers" or "Turkish Trousers" as being pants.  Named for an advocate of dress reform, Amelia Bloomer, the clothing was loose pants, tied at the ankl