Search Documents
30 Documents foundEdit Search
« Previous | 1 | 2 | Next »
-
1921 | Book
The School Days of an Indian Girl
Zitkalą-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) writes about her sense of dislocation on the railroad as she was taken to boarding school and the feelings she had on her return home.
-
1911 | Photograph
A Manicure on the "Modern Train"
This image from The Modern Railroad (1911) captures a white, female passenger receiving a manicure from an African-American woman while aboard the railroad.
-
1892 | Book
A Voice From the South: By A Woman of the South
Anna J. Cooper, the first African American woman to earn a PhD, worked as a speaker, educator, and reformer. In this excerpt from Voice From the South Cooper addresses the contrast between the expectations of any middle-class, well-dressed woman traveling and the realities of the experience for African American women. Read with Richard Wells' Manners, Culture and Dress of the Best American Society, also featured on this site.
-
1890 | Book
Manners, Culture and Dress of the Best American Society
Manuals of etiquette and behavior were incredibly popular during the 19th Century and covered every aspect of life from infancy to mourning. In this excerpt, some of the highly gendered expectations placed on a well-bred traveler on the railroad or on a steamboat are explained in detail.
-
1886 | Book
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
Isabella Bird, a peripatetic traveler, recounted her adventures in the American West to her sister in letters published as A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. In this excerpt, she writes about part of her 1873 train journey, describing the parlor car and conditions on the train.
-
1878 | Illustration
Women Leading a Mob in Baltimore
Railroad detective Allan Pinkerton's history of the strike emphasized the unruliness of the mob and the threat of foreign, anarchist, and communist influences on American labor. He also emphasized the role of women in inciting the conflict. Here, his illustration shows women leading a mob against the police during the 1877 railroad strike in Baltimore.
-
August 18, 1877 | Illustration
"The Moral of the Strikes"
An illustration of "The Moral of the Strikes" which emphasizes their cost to working-class women and children.
-
August 18, 1877 | Illustration
Pittsburgh Policemen Recovering Property Stolen by the Mob in the Recent Riots
On August 18, 1877, Leslie's Illustrated depicted the confiscation of property taken during the riots. Note that goods are being removed from working-class homes, to the distress of women and children.
-
August 1, 1877 | Illustration
"WifeI Guess We've Got To Strike!"
This cover illustration from the August 1, 1877 issue of PUCK Magazine depicts a poor family's decision to go on strike.
-
November 18, 1873 | Newspaper
DISCRIMINATION ON ACCOUNT OF COLOR ON RAILROADS
The New York Times reported on its front page the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Catharine Brown's case. The case aroused Republicans to reconsider the intent and purpose of the Congress in the midst of the Civil War because it turned on the railroad's Congressional charter from 1863 which clearly barred any discrimination on the basis of race or color. The railroad's main argument before the Supreme Court rested first on the idea that separate cars were customary, locally sanctioned, and equally accommodated, and second on the specious reasoning that because they carried colored passengers they had not violated the Congressional charter--colored persons were carried, just in a different car. The spirit of the Congress in 1863, the Court decided, suggested otherwise. The decision, however significant and newsworthy, was sorely limited in its application. Only a handful of railroads in the District of Columbia possessed such language in their originating charters.
-
April 28, 1870 | Legal decision
Draft of Catharine Brown, Evidence Given
Catharine Brown's case--Case No. 4582--was scheduled to go to trial in October 1868 in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, but was delayed because of various procedural motions by the railroad's attorneys. When these motions were denied, the case was tried over three days in March 1870. The all white jury rendered a verdict of guilty against the railroad company and awarded Brown $1,500 in damages. Then, the defendant railroad attorney's sought an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is their statement of argument, denying that the railroad used violence or made derogatory remarks. Furthermore, in denying Brown's claims, the railroad argued that there were distinctions between through and local passenger types of service, even on the Baltimore and Ohio, and that separate colored cars on local lines were run at the request of black passengers.
-
December 31, 1869 | Legal decision
Seth E. Beedy Deposition
Catharine Brown's attorneys deposed two white men who were on the train with Brown and witnessed her expulsion from the cars in Alexandria. Both lived in Maine and were deposed in December 1869. Seth Beedy was traveling with Benjamin Hinds, who knew and recognized "Kate" Brown. Beedy testified, "she was ejected by violence and that alone."
-
December 31, 1869 | Legal decision
Benjamin H. Hinds Deposition
Catharine Brown's attorneys deposed two white men who were on the train with Brown and witnessed her expulsion from the cars in Alexandria. Both lived in Maine and were deposed in December 1869. Benjamin Hinds' testimony was particularly significant because he described in detail the violence he witnessed, and because he knew Brown "since January 1866," perhaps from her work in the U.S. Capitol, and tried to intervene on her behalf.
-
June 18, 1868 | Newspaper
The Washington and Alexandria Railroad Car
The railroad's segregation of Catharine Brown in February 1868 and her subsequent lawsuit against the company came to the immediate attention of Senator Charles Sumner (Massachusetts) and Senator Waitman Willey (West Virginia), both of whom sat on the Senate's District of Columbia Committee. At their urging, the Senate Committee launched an investigation into the affair, deposed dozens of witnesses, and issued a stinging report against the railroad company. Many of these same witnesses testified later in Brown's civil suit against the railroad company.
-
June 17, 1868 | Government document
Senate Report on Catharine Brown
The U.S. Senate Committee on the District of Columbia hears testimony about the forcible ejection of Catherine Brown from the Alexandria and Washington Railroad coach. Multiple witnesses are called and the circumstances of her removal are described.
-
March 4, 1868
Catharine Brown, Complaint
Catharine Brown filed suit against the Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown Railroad in March 1868, arguing that a month earlier she was forcibly and violently ejected from the ladies car in Alexandria, Virginia, because of her color. She sought damages of $20,000 to pay for her medical care and to compensate for the injustice of segregation and discrimination. Brown's original petition focused on the railroad's duty as a common carrier and on Brown's first-class ticket which permitted her to ride in the ladies car.
-
March 4, 1868 | Legal decision
Catharine Brown, Plaintiff's Prayers
A brief description of the judgement Catherine Brown hoped for as the jury decided her case.
-
1868 | Book
A Manual of Etiquette with Hints on Politeness and Good Breeding
Manuals of etiquette and behavior were incredibly popular during the 19th Century and covered every aspect of life from infancy to mourning. In this excerpt, some of the gendered expectations placed on a well-bred traveler are recounted in detail.
-
September 12, 1867
Letter from Juliet L. Elwood to Jennie Reed, September 12, 1867
In this letter from September 12, 1867, Juliet L. Elwood writes to Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, discussing plans to travel to St. Louis and the possibility of accompanying her on a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. She inquires about the prospects of Mrs. Reed procuring a railway pass for her for the journey. She also details an encounter she had on the railroad cars during a day trip to Joliet, Illinois with a "military gentleman" who knew Samuel Reed. She states that she "understood him to say he was Prest of Pacific Road, but I think I must of course have misunderstood, as Gen Dix is President, or was."
-
August 15, 1867
Letter to Jennie Reed, August 15, 1867
In this letter from August 15, 1867, Mina writes to her sister Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, discussing her experiences working in Atlanta, Georgia. She states that her pay for the last month was only twenty dollars, as she was only in Atlanta for eleven days. She tells Jennie Reed that she will write to a Mr. Knowlton the next week regarding a railway pass, and hopes to "get up home in a week or two."
