Amalgamationist & Abolitionists "Amalgamation"--the code word for sexual relations between the races--was feared.  "Amalgamationists vs Abolitionists"      Anybody liberal enough to publicly espouse the view that Blacks were human and deserved the same legal rights as Whites was labeled "an Amalgamationist." Further, it implied legal inter racial marriages.   It was possible--quite common, in fact--to be an abolitionist and not  an amalgamationist.        Abolitionists were considered a Northern fringe group of eccentrics demanding the impossible.  Abolitionists existed before the founding of the republic, but the movement stirred the South's ire starting in the 1830s.      In modern terms they were a bit like PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.) For example, most people do not think animals should be treated with mindless cruelty--that does not mean most people think chickens should h...

    A DUCK OF A WIFE Litchfield CT April 7, 1859             A duck of a wife, whose husband went for a day or two on a bit of a lark, thus advertises him:             LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN—An individual whom I, in an unguarded moment of loneliness, was thoughtless enough to adopt as my husband. He is a good looking and feeble individual, knowing enough to go in when it rains, unless some good looking girl offers her umbrella. Answers to the name of John. Was last seen in the company of Julia Harris, walking, his arm around her waist, up the plank road, looking more like a fool, if possible, than ever. Anybody who will catch the poor fellow and bring him carefully back so that I can chastise him for running away, will be asked to stay for tea. —HENRIETTA A. SMITH A Runaway Woman? RUNAWAY WIVES AND RAILROADS Jan 14, 1860 NY Times    ...

  We Were Warned A Long Time Ago             In 1856,  an American woman,  Mrs. Eunice Foote,  performed a series of experiments demonstrating that adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere would significantly raise the temperature of the climate. Moreover, she showed it would be very slow to cool back to normal--much slower than unpolluted air. The results were published in a scientific journal in November 1856.          Of course she could not be admitted to the professional scientific organizations. No women were allowed. On the other hand, she was married to a respected judge and inventor. And her paper was only 557 words long, about the length of a short news story or slightly longer than usual letter to the editor.          Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays: By Eunice Foote From the American Journal of Science and Arts   Nov 1856 Pages 382, ...