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February 1, 1855 | Contract
Contract Between the Illinois Central Railroad Company and Pinkerton & Company, February 1, 1855
In this February 1, 1855 contract between the Illinois Central Railroad and Allan Pinkerton's Detective Agency, Pinkerton & Company agree to establish a "Police Agency" in Chicago to assist the Railroad in the "prompt and efficient performance of their business."
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March 8, 1863 | Letter
Letter from Samuel B. Reed to Jennie Reed, March 8, 1863
In this letter from March 8, 1863, Samuel Reed writes to his wife describing how busy he has been preparing "the estimates for the western work." He notes the lack of available laborers and expects the situation to grow worse if the government calls for more troops (which he believes it should). He also states, however, that there has been a decrease in business over the past month and that they have been "discharging quite a number of men" as a result. Reed also describes accounts he has seen of rioting in Detroit, and details similar civil disobedience which took place recently in Keokuk, Iowa. He expresses fear of the possibility of "military despotism."
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July 23, 1864 | Illustration
The Great Railway Disaster Near Montreal, Canada
This image from the July 23, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a major railway disaster near Montreal, Canada. The conductor failed to heed a signal that the Belacil Bridge was open for barge traffic and the ensuing accident killed ninety people and wounded one hundred more.
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December 7, 1867 | Illustration
Railroad Disaster in Ohio
This image from the December 7, 1867 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a tragic November 21, 1864 railroad disaster near Lockland, Ohio in which two trains collided. At least four people were killed.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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March 23, 1872 | Illustration
Accident to the Boston Express
This image from the March 23, 1872 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a train derailment on the Boston Express near Springfield, Massachusetts.
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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.
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1877 | Photograph
28th St and Upper Round House, citizens shot here
Part of a series of stereographs published in the wake of the 1877 Railroad Strike. The images show the destruction at Pittsburgh, which resulted from violent clashes July 21-22.
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1877 | Photograph
The Great Railroad Strike, Interiors of Upper Round House
Part of a series of stereographs published in the wake of the 1877 Railroad Strike. The images show the destruction at Pittsburgh, which resulted from violent clashes July 21-22.
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1877 | Photograph
The Great Railroad Strike, Opposite 32nd and 31st Sts.
Part of a series of stereographs published in the wake of the 1877 Railroad Strike. The images show the destruction at Pittsburgh, which resulted from violent clashes July 21-22.
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July 11, 1877 | Newspaper
Garrett Announces Wage Reduction
This July 11, 1877 circular announces a wage reduction for workers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
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July 16, 1877 | Newspaper
The Military Called Out
The American reports that John King, vice-president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, requested state militia to guard the property of the railroad and quell the "riot." West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews in a telegraph assures King that he will do everything in his power to "suppress the riot."
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July 17, 1877 | Newspaper
A British View of the Baltimore Strike
This excerpt from the July 18, 1877 edition of the London Times offers a glimpse into the British view of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Strike.
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July 17, 1877 | Newspaper
Labor, Trouble, and Disturbances
This dispatch from West Virginia Governor Henry M. Matthews, reprinted in the July 17, 1877 edition of the Baltimore Sun, states Matthews' desire to preserve the peace and protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's trains.
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July 17, 1877 | Newspaper
Trouble on the Baltimore & Ohio
This article from the July 17, 1877 edition of the Baltimore American gives an account of the strike's origins in Baltimore, its spread to Martinsburg, West Virginia, the arrival of the miltary, and a description of the demonstrations that took place.
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July 18, 1877 | Newspaper
An Explanation by Captain Charles J. Faulkner, Jr.
This letter to the editor by Captain Charles J. Faulkner, printed in the July 19, 1877 edition of the Baltimore Sun defends his decision to leave the railroad yard at Martinsburg, West Virginia. Faulkner's letter comes in response to newspaper editors who suggested that his company left too soon.
