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1928 | Book
Railroad Strike Violence at Martinsburg, WV
In this excerpt from The Story of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Historian Edward Hungerford offers an account of the violence at Martinsburg, WV during the 1877 railroad strike. This selection also includes Allan Pinkerton's vivid description of the event.
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1921 | Book
The School Days of an Indian Girl
Zitkalà-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.
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1918 | Book
Education of Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams is a personal account of the vast changes wrought on civilization over the course of the 19th century; technology, politics, economics, cultural, and intellectual transformations drive Adams' reflections. In the following excerpts, Adams addresses the transportation revolution.
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1918 | Book
My Ántonia
An excerpt from Willa Cather's My Ántonia.
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1907 | Book
The Road
An excerpt from Jack London's The Road.
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1901 | Book
The Marrow of Tradition
In this excerpt from Charles Chesnutt's novel, the African American doctor protagonist faces the reality of segregation on Southern railroads.
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1900 | Book
Sister Carrie
An excerpt from Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie.
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1899 | Book
The Awakening
An excerpt from Kate Chopin's The Awakening.
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1893 | Book
The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition
Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Irvine Garland Penn, Ferdinand L. Barnett, and Frederick Loudin published The Reason Why in response to the exclusion of Afircan Americans and their contributions to American life from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The excerpt included here is part of Wells' contribution and includes the Tennessee separate coach law.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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1882 | Book
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself
In this excerpt, Douglass relates the details of his dangerous escape from slavery. Traveling the railroad with borrowed papers, he flees to New York.
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May 4, 1881 | Book
Nemo, King of the Tramps: A Story of the Great Railroad Riots
This Dime Novel, written in 1881 by Captain Fred Whittaker, offers a popular, fictional account of the Great Railway Strike of 1877.
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1881 | Book
Leaves of Grass
An excerpt from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Whitman salutes the locomotive as a symbol of progress and writes of the hallmarks of a Western journey.
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1880 | Book
Democracy, An American Novel
An excerpt from Henry Adams' Democracy, An American Novel.
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1878 | Book
Strikers, Communists, Tramps and Detectives
In this excerpt from Allan Pinkerton's Strikers, Communists, Tramps and Detectives, Pinkerton gives his opinion regarding the origin of America's Great Railway Strike of 1877.
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1868 | Book
The Von Toodleburgs
An excerpt from F. Colburn Adams' The Von Toodleburgs.
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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.
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1867 | Book
Beyond the Mississippi; from the Great River to the Great Ocean
Albert D. Richardson's Beyond the Mississippi; from the Great River to the Great Ocean is a detailed and exciting account of life and travels in the West and Far West in the years before the transcontinental railroad was completed. From Native American life, to gold fields, to emigrant trains, Richardson's portrayals of the region are interesting and informative. In this section, he describes the building of the transcontinental railroad in Nebraska - "the Conquest of Nature moving toward the Pacific."