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Working Americans Vol. 9: From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War

Historical Snapshot 1810

  • The U.S. Census recorded the United States population of 7,239,881, 19 percent of whom were black

  • The Maryland legislature authorized a lottery to build a memorial to George Washington

  • The first United States fire insurance joint-stock company was organized in Philadelphia

  • Spanish artist Francisco Goya began his series of etchings The Disasters of War depicting the Peninsular War

  • Illinois passed the first state vaccination legislation in the U.S.

  • Goats were introduced to St. Helena Island and began the devastation that eventually caused extinction of 22 of the 33 endemic plants

  • An electrochemical telegraph was constructed in Germany

  • The French Catholic Church annulled the marriage of Napoleon I and Josephine

  • The first Irish magazine in America, The Shamrock, was published

  • The British Bullion Committee condemned the practice of governments printing too much money and causing inflation

  • King Kamehameha conquered and united all the Hawaiian Islands

  • The first billiard rooms were established in London, England

  • The sale of tobacco in France was made a government monopoly

  • The Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Kentucky was excluded from the Presbyterian Church

  • Napoleon ordered the sale of seized U.S. ships

  • Tom Cribb of Great Britain defeated American negro boxer Tom Molineaus in 40 rounds in the first interracial boxing championship

  • Simon Bolivar joined the group of patriots that seized Caracas in Venezuela and proclaimed independence from Spain

  • Australian Frederick Hasselborough discovered Macquarie Island while searching for new sealing grounds

Selected Prices

Chamber Pot $0.37 Coffee Roaster $0.50 Men's Knee Buckles $2.00 Mule $80.00 Pitchfork $0.50 Scissors 12½ cents Surgical Instruments $8.00 Toll, Horse Crossing Dan River $0.08 Wagon Whip $2.50 Watch, Gold $50.00

Letters from the South, New York, 1817:

In almost every part of the United States where I have chanced to be, except among the Dutch, the Germans, and the Quakers, people seem to build everything ex tempore and pro tempore, as if they looked forward to a speedy removal, or did not expect to want it long. Nowhere else, it seems to me, do people work more for the present, less for the future, or live so commonly up to the extent of their means. If we build houses, they are generally of wood, and hardly calculated to outlast the builder. If we plant trees, they are generally Lombardy poplars that spring up of a sudden, give no more shade than a broomstick stuck on end, and grow old with their planters. Still, however, I believe all this has a salutary and quickening influence on the character of the people, because it offers another spur to activity, stimulating it not only by the hope of gain, but the necessity to exertion to remedy past inconveniences.

Rural taste in silver, letter from William Pelham in Zanesville, Ohio, to Sidney Gardiner, Philadelphia silversmith, April 23, 1815:

In his letter to me Mr. Fletcher mentions that you will probably have many articles which I might find it advantageous to deal in. I should think you would not have many such, as your assortments will be calculated for the refined taste of an opulent city, whereas my trade must be necessarily limited to articles and necessity suitable to the first stages of civilized life.

Letter from Lucy Childress to her brother upon leaving Virginia for West Kentucky, 1807:

Dear Brothar,

I now take up my pen to bid you a dieu supposing I never shall have the pleasure of again seeing you tomorrow we shall be on our way to the Mouth of the Cumberland River, you may think it strange that Ould people take so great a Journey. Nearly all my children remove to that place and their desire for their parents to go appears very great. . . . I feal much hurt at leaving two Brothers, for evar, and not seeing eather. I wish you all the happiness that can possibly be expressed by an affectionate Sister.

Letter, former President John Adams, 1813:

Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example kindled feelings of right in the people. An insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents and courage against ranking birth, which have fallen into contempt. . . . Science is progressive, and talents and enterprise on the alert.

Cooking fish, The Old Farmer's Almanac, 1800:

Take the fish while still alive and scour and run him clean with water and salt, but do not scale him. Open him and put him with his blood and liver in a small kettle. Add a handful each of Sweet Marjoram, Thyme, and Parsley, and a sprig each of Rosemary and Savory. Bind the herbs in two or three small bundles and put them into the fish with four or five whole onions, twenty pickled oysters, and three anchovies. Pour on your fish as much Claret Wine as will cover him and season well with salt, cloves, mace, and orange and lemon rind. Cover the pot and put on a quick fire till it be sufficiently boiled. Then take out the fish and lay it with the broth in a dish. Pour upon him a quarter of a pound of fresh melted butter beaten with six spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of the herbs, shredded. Garnish with lemons and serve it up.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"Historical Snapshot 1810." Working Americans Vol. 9: From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, edited by Scott Derks, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA9_0042.
APA 7th
Historical Snapshot 1810. Working Americans Vol. 9: From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, In S. Derks (Ed.), Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA9_0042.
CMOS 17th
"Historical Snapshot 1810." Working Americans Vol. 9: From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, Edited by Scott Derks. Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA9_0042.