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1848 | 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.
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June 12, 1869 | Illustration
Pacific Railroad Complete
This image from the June 12, 1869 issue of Harper's Weekly presents a satirical look at race and the completion of the Union Pacific railroad.
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April 21, 1877 | 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.
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April 4, 1892 | Journal
Our Civil Rights
As African American civil rights are threatened with increasing segregation, a writer for a noted African American publication analyzes the situation.
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1855 | Book
My Bondage and My Freedom
In this excerpt from My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass recounts the segregation of Northern railcars and the attitudes of Northern passengers.
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October 16, 1864 | Letter
Letter from station/road masters to Adna Anderson, October 16, 1864
Labor bosses ask Adna Anderson to pressure the Quarter Master to approve the sale of winter clothing to contrabands.
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October 3, 1860
Letter from Samuel B. Reed to Jennie Reed, October 3, 1860
In this letter from October 3, 1860, Samuel Reed writes to his wife informing her that he has returned from his trip into the South. He tells her the engineer who promised him and John R. Boyle work was mistaken about the time it would be available and they do not know yet whether they will get it. He describes the wealth present in Vicksburg, Mississippi and states that he found it "very comfortable to have all the help wanted about a place and to feel that they are stationary and will not leave if any fault is found with them." He describes the slaves as "contented and happy," noting that they are better dressed than the laboring classes of the North. He also notes that Stephen A. Douglas is to speak in Chicago "and there will be a gathering of the people that will make the black Republicans quil in their shoes."
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September 12, 1863
Letter from Sally A. Kendrick to Jennie Reed, September 12, 1863
In this letter from September 12, 1863, Sally A. Kendrick writes to her friend Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, discussing the recent death of her brother and the war. She speculates that the war will not end until slavery is abolished, but notes that she did not think so until after the fall of Fort Sumter. She states that she is no abolitionist, does not believe in "the equality of the races," and does not "want them here among us," but does "want to see them free and colonized some where." She shares several ideas regarding what should be done with the slaves after they are freed.
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September 13, 1864 | Letter
Letter from J. M. Nash to Adna Anderson, September 13, 1864
J. M. Nash requests a guard to ensure that the African American engineer at the Lavergne station is not harassed or his work interfered with.
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February 20, 1864 | Letter
Letter from E. Benjamin to Adna Anderson, February 20, 1864
E. Benjamin requests passes for black workers so that they may avoid impressment.
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1861 | Book
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
In these excerpts from her memoir, Harriet Jacobs writes of the segregation and prejudice she faced in the North almost immediately after escaping from slavery.
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September 10, 1886 | Newspaper
In The First-Class Car
The plight of three African American passengers on a Georgia railcar is recounted in this reprint from the Macon Telegraph.
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March 26, 1883 | Newspaper
Georgia Letter
The plight of middle- and upper-class African Americans on Georgia railways and in public accommodations is briefly addressed in this report from Savannah, Georgia.
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January 5, 1889 | Newspaper
FACTS FROM GEORGIA
A correspondent of the New York Age reports on an Atlanta Evening Journal article recounting the expulsion of Reverend T. H. Lee from a Georgia Railroad Company coach.
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May 18, 1896 | Legal decision
Excerpts from Plessy v. Ferguson dissent
These excerpts from Justice John Harlan's dissent from the Supreme Court's Plessy v Ferguson decision include scathing counter-arguments to the majority decision that asserted the legality of "separate but equal" facilities.
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May 18, 1896 | Legal decision
Excerpts from Plessy v. Ferguson decision
These excerpts from the Supreme Court's Plessy v Ferguson decision outline primary points of the seven-man decision that asserted the constitutionality of "separate but equal" facilities.
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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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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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December 18, 1888 | Newspaper
Couldn't Ride on the Sleeper
The ejection of Reverend H. F. Lee from a Georgia railcar is reported.
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December 23, 1853 | Contract
Contract for Negro Slaves, December 23, 1853
In December 1853, George A. Farrow and David Hansbrough signed a contract with the Blue Ridge Railroad to provide fifty slaves to assist in the construction of the Blue Ridge railroad tunnel.
