Slavery in America, Underground Railroad

Emeline Hawkins

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Slave Who Escaped from Bondage in Maryland Image: Exhibit at New Castle Court House Museum Simulates Sam and Emeline Hawkins in jail in New Castle, Delaware This exhibit Emeline Hawkins: Her Journey from Slavery to Freedom on the Underground Railroad chronicles the compelling story of Hawkins and her family. They were arrested in the slave state of Delaware while attempting to reach the free state of Pennsylvania. In 1845, three noted abolitionists guided Emeline Hawkins and her family on their journey along the Underground Railroad. Conductor Samuel Burris led the Hawkins family out of Maryland and into Delaware. Station Masters Thomas Garrett and John Hunn fed and sheltered the family, and aided their escape through the state of Delaware and…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Union Women Spies

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Civil War Women Spies for the Union The Union Army employed several other methods of gathering information about the South during the Civil War, but agents in the field – men and women – were the major source of espionage and intelligence gathering activities. Many agents operated under several different names. Due to the clandestine nature of their work, records were poorly kept or intentionally destroyed and the identity of most of these operatives will never be known. Image: Elizabeth Van Lew Union Spy in Richmond, Virginia Pinkerton’s Women Agents A former sheriff and native of Scotland, Allan Pinkerton had established a detective agency in Chicago in 1850. Pinkerton gained fame early on by foiling a plot to assassinate President…

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Women in Education, Women Settled the West

Tabitha Moffatt Brown

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Pioneer, Educator and Founder of Early Oregon Schools Tabitha Moffatt Brown was an early pioneer on a treachorus journey by wagon train along the Oregon Trail in 1846. She settled with her family in Oregon Country, where she and two reverends founded Tualatin Academy in 1849, and eventually Pacific University in Forest Grove in 1854. In the Oregon State Capitol, 158 names are inscribed in the legislative chambers; only six are women. One of those is Tabitha Moffat Brown. Early Years Tabitha Moffatt was born May 1, 1780 in Brimfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Dr. Joseph Moffatt and Lois Haynes Moffatt. Nothing is known of her childhood. Tabitha married Reverend Clark Brown December 1, 1799, and they had four children…

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Civil War Women, Famous Children

Eleanor Agnes Lee

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Daughter of Confederate General Robert E. Lee The Lee daughters had impressive pedigrees. They were direct descendants of the aristocratic Lees of Virginia and England, as well as George and Martha Washington. Mrs. Robert E. Lee’s father, George Washington Parke Custis, was the first president’s adopted son and the man who established the 1,100-acre plantation called Arlington. Several years later, Custis built Arlington House (1817), the ancestral home of the Custises and Lees on the Potomac River overlooking Washington DC. Agnes Lee Eleanor Agnes Lee, born February 27, 1841, was called Agnes. She was the third of four daughters and the fifth of seven children of Mary Anna Custis and Robert E. Lee, born at the family’s Virginia estate, Arlington….

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Famous Wives

Lucy Bakewell Audubon

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Educator and Wife of John James Audubon Lucy Bakewell met Frenchman John James Audubon when he came to America in 1803 to oversee his father’s estate, Mill Grove, next door to Lucy’s family home, Fatland Ford. Audubon was eighteen; Lucy was sixteen, and she might have been jealous of his new passion: American birds. She was educated and physically strong, and she sometimes observed birds in the forest with Audubon. Image: Lucy Bakewell Audubon in 1831 Early Years Born January 18, 1787 in England to a wealthy family, Lucy was the daughter of William Bakewell and Lucy Green. The family immigrated to the United States in 1801 and settled on an estate called Fatland Ford near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. John James…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Ann Eliza Rosecrans

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Wife of Union General William Rosecrans Ann Eliza Hegeman, the daughter of New York City judge Adrian Hegeman, was from an old and prosperous family. William Starke Rosecrans attended West Point, where he excelled in planning military maneuvers and he was considered brilliant in mathematics. He graduated from West Point in 1842, fifth in a class of 56 cadets, which included notable future generals such as Dana Harvey Hill, James Longstreet, and Don Carlos Buell. Ann Eliza Hegeman attended graduation at West Point with friends. After the ceremonies, Rosecrans invited her to go for a walk and they immediately fell in love. William Mathias Lamers, author of The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans (1961), states…

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Abolitionists, Slavery in America, Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad in Rhode Island

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Runaways Escaped to Freedom in Rhode Island Image: Elizabeth Buffum Chace House A station on the Underground Railroad Valley Falls, Rhode Island The Underground Railroad (UGRR) was a secret system of helping fugitive slaves escape to free states or Canada by hiding them in a succession of private homes by day and moving them farther north by night. In the 1830s, the small state of Rhode Island became increasingly involved in radical abolitionism. They were inspired by William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, the Liberator, and his call for immediate emancipation. During this period, twenty-five anti-slavery societies were formed in the state.
Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Civil War Cavalry Women

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Women Who Served in the Civil War Cavalry It is impossible to state with any certainty how many women served as cavalry soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies. The cavalry was considered more glamorous than infantry and artillery, but females who made it in the cavalry had to be excellent horsewomen, in addition to their other soldierly duties. Stories romanticizing their adventurous spirits and extolling their patriotism appeared in the New York Times, the Richmond Examiner and the Chicago Daily Tribune. Image: Federal Cavalry Charge! at Gettysburg Is there a cavalrywoman in this painting? Cavalrywomen Despite the physical strain, a few women are known to have served in the cavalry branches of both the Union and the Confederate armies….

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Famous Wives

Abigail Brooks Adams

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Wife of Charles Francis Adams Abigail Brown Brooks was born April 25, 1808 in Medford, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters of Peter Chardon Brooks and Ann Gorham Brooks. Peter Brooks was one of the wealthiest men in Boston, and he and his wife were highly regarded in Boston society. Image: Portrait of Abigail Brooks Adams By William E. West, 1847 Third son of John Quincy and Louisa Adams, Charles Francis Adams was born August 18, 1807 in Boston. He spent most of his early childhood abroad, where his father had diplomatic appointments. Charles Francis, like his father and grandfather, attended Harvard College, graduating in 1825. He spent the next two years studying law in Washington DC while his family…

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Civil War Women, Women Artists

Cornelia Adele Fassett

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Painter of Politicians and Officials in Washington DC Cornelia Adele Fassett was an American artist known for her political paintings and portraits. Her most famous work, The Florida Case Before the Electoral Commission (1878), now hangs in the United States Capitol. Her paintings of the Supreme Court and Justices are in the art collection of the U.S. Supreme Court. Image: Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett Between 1865 and 1880 Library of Congress Personal Life Cornelia Adele Strong was born November 9, 1831 in Owasco, New York, the third of six children of Captain Walker Strong and Sarah Devoe Strong. Cornelia was raised in Jefferson, Ohio, where her father was a hotel keeper. On August 26, 1851 Cornelia married Samuel Montague Fassett,…

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