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  • | 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."

  • | 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.

  • | Letter

    Samuel G. White's Affidavit, October 27, 1854

    When two slaves were killed on the Blue Ridge Tunnel project, the Board of Public Works attorneys sought sworn affidavits from white men who knew the enslaved men to determine their value for compensation to the slaveholders. The legal process regularized and the practice of industrial slavery on the railroads.

  • | Newspaper

    Rights of Negroes

    The decision for Maime Caldwell in her case against the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company for discrimination is briefly recounted, noting the final award of $800.

  • | Newspaper

    Rev. Mr. Heard's Railroad Case

    The case of Rev. William Heard versus the Georgia Railroad Company is heard before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

  • | Letter

    Request for passes for African American railroad workers

    Passes for African American railroad employees requested of W. J. Stevens, Superintendent of the Military Railroad, Nashville.

  • | Annual report

    Report on the Condition and Prospects of the Southern Railroad of Mississippi

    This report details the financial and material state of the Southern Railroad Company in 1867.

  • | Contract

    Receipt for Sale of Slaves to the Mississippi Central Railroad Company, March 5, 1860 (#2)

    This March 5, 1860 receipt lists the names, ages, and purchase price of 31 slaves "sold & delivered" to the Mississippi Central Railroad.

  • | Contract

    Receipt for Sale of Slaves to the Mississippi Central Railroad Company, March 5, 1860

    This March 5, 1860 receipt lists the names, ages, and purchase price of 21 slaves sold to the Mississippi Central Railroad.

  • | Contract

    Receipt for Purchase of a Slave

    This receipt and letter describes the terms of sale for a slave in 1858.

  • | Contract

    Receipt for Purchase of a Slave

    This 1855 receipt describes the purchase of a young female slave and her two children.

  • | 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.

  • | 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.

  • | Photograph

    Railroad construction workers hammer track as a third watches

    African American laborers, free and contraband, worked for the Union Army to build and repair rail lines across the South. Note the bent and broken rails scattered in the background, signs of earlier destruction.

  • | Legal decision

    Railroad Company v. Brown, 84 U.S. 17 Wall. 445 445 (1873)

    In 1868, Catherine Brown, an African American woman, was ejected from the "ladies car" on the Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown Railroad Company when traveling from Alexandria, Virginia, to the District of Columbia. Brown sued the rail company and the case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court - the first case addressing race and public transportation to appear before the Court. Although the legal status of the railroad under Congressional rulings that had applied to earlier iterations of the company became a basis for appeal, the rights of African Americans became the most notable outcome of the Supreme Court's decision for Brown in 1873.

  • | Newspaper

    Race Problem on Railroads

    North Carolina plans for Jim Crow cars draw attention.

  • | Letter

    Quarterly Report

    In one of the first reports to the Board, Claudius Crozet explains the dangerous conditions in the construction and advises against using sink shafts on the project. Crozet refers to Col. Randolph, probably Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson of Thomas Jefferson and contractor of slaves to the project.

  • | Annual report

    Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company

    This collection of reports given at the first annual meeting of the stockholders of the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company in 1848 includes extensive information about the financial status of the railroad. Whit'l P. Tunstall, president of the company, also presents an extensive argument for Virginia's railroad development, predicated on the successes of railroads in other states.

  • | Illustration

    Pickets of the 1st Louisiana ?Native Guard? Guarding the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad

    United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) recruiters in 1863 fanned out along the railroads, especially in Tennessee, stopping at depots along the route to sign up soldiers. Over 180,000 black men volunteered and enlisted for service in the U.S.C.T. Both white regiments and U.S.C.T. units found themselves guarding railroads and watching for guerrillas.

  • | 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.