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1290 Documents found

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  • | Newspaper

    OUTRAGE IN ALABAMA

    The ejection of a party of Alabama African American men and women from a first class car on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad is recounted in this letter from William Jenkins of Tuskeegee, Alabama.

  • | Newspaper

    Untitled [Grand Jury of the United States District Court Harrisonburg, Va., has found a bill of indictment]

    The United States District Court at Harrisionburg, Virginia, hands down an indictment against the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad for the ejection of Annie Smith.

  • | 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.

  • | Newspaper

    Account of the "Golden Spike" Ceremony, Promontory Point, UT on May 10, 1869

    This account of the "Golden Spike" ceremony at Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869, as printed in the May 11th edition of the Salt Lake Telegram, describes the festivities involved and lists some of the important attendees. Following the article, the compiler offers a one-sided picture of the situation regarding pay for the Union Pacific's construction crews and details Samuel Reed's actions after the ceremony.

  • | 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.

  • | Newspaper

    The Blue Ridge Railroad

    Comments on the prospects for the Blue Ridge Railroad, with comparisions to Virginia and New York systems.

  • | Newspaper

    Mr. Whitney's Railroad

    Asa Whitney's plans for a transcontinetal railroad were met alternately with scorn and acclaim. Whitney anticipated a United States as the central point for international trade; harbors on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts would be fed by rail lines criss-crossing the country, moving goods for import and export easily across country.

  • | Newspaper

    To The Public

    The plight of African Americans and their abolitionist supporters on New England railroads is addressed in depth in this passionate editorial.

  • | Newspaper

    Railroad Corporations

    The maltreatment of African Americans by New England rail companies acting as "epidermis-aristocrats" draws an abolitionist's wrath as a Southerner weighs in on the merits of Southern rail travel.

  • | Newspaper

    Rebuke of the Eastern Railroad Company, for their Treatment of Colored Passengers

    Northern railways continued to discriminate against African American passengers and are rebuked in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

  • | Map

    The Southern Railroad System, 1913

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States displays the extent of the Southern railroad system in 1913.

  • | Map

    The Harriman Railroad System, 1912

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States displays the Harriman Railroad System in 1914, including the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Los Angeles, San Pedro, and Salt Lake railroads.

  • | Map

    United States Railroads Lines, 1870

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States displays the United States' railroad lines in 1870 as well as some of the major cities they connected.

  • | Map

    Railroads 1850 and 1860; Overland Mail, 1850-1869

    These two maps from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States display overland mail routes and railroad lines in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century. The maps show the extent of railroads in 1850 and 1860 and overland mail from 1850 to 1869.

  • | Map

    Western Railroad Lines, 1880 and 1930

    These two maps from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States depict the extent of western railroads in 1880 and 1930. They illustrate the tremendous growth of the railroad in the western United States during this fifty-year period.

  • | Map

    Centers of Population

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States offers a geographic rendering of the United States' center of population from 1790 to 1930. It references six organizational categories, including total population, urban population, rural population, foreign-born population, and Negro population.

  • | Map

    The New York Central Railroad System, 1914

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States displays the extent of the New York Central railroad system in 1914.

  • | Map

    The Pennsylvania Railroad System, 1914

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States displays the extent of the Pennsylvania railroad system in 1914.

  • | Map

    Railroads in Operation, December, 1840

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States depicts the various railroad lines operating in the United States in 1840.

  • | Map

    Federal Land Grants for the Construction of Railroads and Wagon Roads 1823-1871

    This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States reveals the United States land grants available for the construction of railroads and wagon roads between 1823-1871. As the key indicates, dark lines represent the limits of the land grants, while white and striped areas differentiate between unforfeited and forfeited Federal land grants for railroads.