By adding the territory of Alaska to the landmass of the country, Seward increased the size of the United States by twenty percent. At the time of the purchase, the rest of the government couldn’t see the point in buying a large piece of empty land that was dark for six months out of the year, had inhospitable weather and was difficult to traverse. But within a few short years oil and gold were discovered in Alaska making the $7.2 million purchase price a bit of a bargain. Seward’s folly turned out to be Seward’s foresight.

William Henry Seward was born in Florida in 1801 and became a lawyer after college. Seward not only concerned himself with the Alaska purchase, he was also one of the biggest anti slavery advocates of his time. He became a politician at the tender age of 29 going from New York senator to New York governor and then spent twelve years as a United States senator.

During his senate time, he assisted with the statehood of California, promoted the abolitionist movement and even allowed his home to be used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. He ran for president in 1860 but his party chose Lincoln as their candidate that year. Seward gratefully accepted a nomination from Lincoln to be Secretary of State and served in that capacity for the rest of Lincoln’s term. Secretary of state under Lincoln proved a dramatic role as Seward suffered a knife attack the same evening that Lincoln was assassinated. This was just a setback for the determined Seward who finished his term and then served as Secretary of State under the next President Andrew Johnson.

Before Seward’s purchase in 1867, the Alaskan territory had been a bit of a Russian stronghold. Fur trappers had utilized the area for decades but by the 1850s, Russia was looking elsewhere to improve its economy. Purchasing land from China seemed more important to the Russian emperor Alexander II than retaining unprofitable land near North America. For the Russians, it had become a matter of sell to the Americans or sell to the British who wanted the land to increase the size of their territory of Canada.

The Russians had fought against the British in the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856 where both the Russian Empire and the Western European powers fought to obtain the lands now available from the break up of the Ottoman Empire. Russian had no desire to let the British take the land, no matter how fruitless they felt Alaska to be. The Russians offered the land to America out of a determination to upset the British and Seward jumped on the opportunity.

Despite a delay in negotiations caused by the interruption of the American Civil War (1861-1865), Seward pursued the Russian offer as soon as he was able. March 30 the handshakes took place but it would take until October of 1867 for all the red tape to go through and for Alaska to be officially declared a part of the United States. With the purchase, Seward not only gained for America a beautiful resource rich state, he ended Russian influence in the Americas and secured the northern borders of the nation.

Alaska officially became a state in 1959 under the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. Seward, Alaska is a thriving town to this day, named for the man who believed in the importance of the state to the country as a whole. The purchase is celebrated every last Monday in March (“Seward’s Day”) by the citizens of Alaska. The story of Seward’s folly shows that determination and an ambitious personality can get the job done and not just presidents go down in American political history.

History Store 1777 Russian Copper 5 Kopec Coins Crimean War Prussian Officer Scale Model Kit Andrea Miniatures Spain 1:32 (54mm) Grenadier Guardsman Scale Model Kit Heroic Miniatures from Hungary 1:32 (54mm) Enfield Rifle - 1860 Civil War Musketoon

Tags: Alaska, Alaska history, Alaska Purchase, Alaskan Statehood, Alaskan Territory, American Civil War, American History, American Political History, Andrew Johnson, Anti-Slavery advocate, Civil War, Crimean War, discovery of Gold in Alaska, discovery of oil in Alaska, Dwight Eisenhower, Fur Trappers in Alaska, Lincoln, New York Governor Seward, Russia, Secretary of State Seward, Seward, Seward's Day, Seward's folly, statehood of California, Tsar Alexander II, U.S. History, U.S. Senator Seward, Underground Railroad, William Henry Seward

March 10, 1913 saw the death of the one of America’s most inspiring women. A civil rights leader, a freedom fighter, a risk taker and a former slave, Harriet Tubman’s life is commemorated each year on the anniversary of her death. Not only a great woman and an African American icon, Tubman is an American inspiration.

Born into slavery in 1820, Tubman escaped a stifling existence in 1849 when she ran away from the fields to save for a life with the free man she married five years earlier. Tubman traveled night and day by foot all the way to Philadelphia where she found work and set up home.  After saving her money for a year, Tubman journeyed back to Maryland to pick up her sisters and escort them to freedom.

Tubman returned to the south again to pick up her brothers. When she returned once more to the South to get her husband, Tubman discovered he had become a bigamist, remarrying in her absence. Instead of bringing him north to start their life together, Tubman took the rejection in her stride, found other slaves in need of assistance and conducted their safe passage to Pennsylvania. Tubman would make a total of 19 recorded trips to the south to rescue approximately 300 slaves.

Wanted poster’s dotted the south, calling for Tubman’s capture. The reward reached a staggering $40,000, showing the impact of Tubman’s bravery. Others were inspired by her work and her determination and the Underground Railroad blossomed.

The Underground Railroad was one of the first national social networks and consisted of both former slaves and northern abolitionists. Tubman did not start the network but became the poster child for its success. Her work as a conductor (one who entered a plantation posing as a slave and encouraging and guiding others in their escape) led her into danger time and again, but it seemed nothing could stop her efforts.

Running for decades, the railroad conductors and their assistants led thousands of former slaves to freedom.  Conductors acted as guides taking the former slaves from house to house (safe houses were often lit with a single candle in the front window) along well established routes. Tubman conducted both friends and family as well as total strangers to the safety of large northern cities where freed slaves could hide, find work and begin new lives.

10 years passed and Tubman retired from actively conducting slaves to working as a spokeswoman and abolitionist in the north. After all her work and a truly inspiring life, Harriet Tubman became known as a “Moses of the people,” leading folks out of drudgery and imprisonment to freedom and self determination.

During the Civil war, Tubman did not rest on her laurels but worked as a nurse, a cook and a spy for the Union Army. Her work was commemorated by civil rights leaders, American presidents and even in 1990, an act of Congress that declared March 10 Harriet Tubman Day in honor of all that she did for the progression of human rights in America.

When Tubman met up with the escaped slaves who feared recapture, she would always tell them “you’ll live free or die.” Tubman’s words express what it was to be a true American during the violent and trying times of slavery. And whether black, white, former slave or modern American, the words still find resonance today.

Civil War Store Authentic African Slave Bracelets The Civil War and the Constitution 1859-1865 on CD The Civil War Omnibus 1 Histories of the Civil War American Civil War Union Artillery Scale Model Kit Italeri 1:72 (25mm)

Tags: 1820, 1849, 1913, Abolitionist, African American icon, american civil rights leader, American Civil War Union Artillery Scale Model Kit Italeri 1:72 (25mm), american freedom fighter, civil rights leader, Civil War, Civil War Store, Harriet Tubman, harriet tubman day, live free or die, March 10, Moses of the people, one of the first national social networks, runaway slaves, slave safe houses, Slavery, The Civil War and the Constitution 1859-1865 on CD, The Civil War Omnibus 1 Histories of the Civil War, Underground Railroad, wanted poster of harriet tubman

Born out of the conflict between northern ideals and southern lifestyles, the abolitionist movement was the attempt of a few brave and determined souls to make positive change in America. Although there were many members of this movement whose actions and lives are noteworthy, Frederick Douglass remains a pioneer in the movement as well as an example of true courage and personal determination.

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Douglass was born on Valentine’s Day in 1818 into the slave world of Eastern Maryland. Life was hard for Douglass, not only as a slave but within his own family. Separated from his mother when he was just a few months old, Douglass was abandoned on a plantation by his own grandparents at the age of six. By eight he was living as a houseboy in Eastern Maryland working for a white woman who taught him how to read. Educating a slave was at the time illegal and the example served Douglass the rest of his life: he would only find freedom through risk.

Words began to have a strong effect on the young Douglass who showed an interest in speech writing and narrative non fiction. His current circumstances stifled his growing aspirations and Douglass escaped from slavery at the age of twenty in 1838. Making liberal leaning Massachusetts his new home, Douglas began a family and a lifelong career in the anti slavery movement.

Speaking publicly about his slave experience, Douglass put the power of the spoken word to good use. When it came to print, Douglass published his own newspaper as well as several autobiographies utilizing his natural writing abilities to promote the abolitionist cause. At times he feared for his recapture and spent time in the relative safety of Europe proliferating his anti-slavery rhetoric.

Quickly becoming a leading figure in the abolitionist movement, Douglass stirred audiences at home and abroad with the raw truthfulness of his words and his desire to bring change through awareness of slavery’s brutal repercussions. In 1841, a speech before the Massachusetts Anti Slavery group changed everything. His eloquence and ability was immediately recognized and his place as a lecturer among abolitionists confirmed. After having to prove his former slave status to those who doubted a man of such intelligence and self refinement could ever be held against his will, Douglass was recognized as the poster child for the early civil rights movement.

A strong kinship developed between Douglass and fellow abolitionist and newspaper man, William Lloyd Garrison. That was until talk of dissolving the union between the North and the South proved to undo their ties and send them in different directions to fight slavery.

Douglass became an advisor of President Lincoln during the Civil War (1861-1865) and helped garner black recruits for the union army. After the war came to a close, Douglass expanded his pro freedom agenda to include the rights of women, both black and white.

Making speeches on civil rights and giving lectures on the state of the reconstruction movement occupied a lot of Douglass’ time. Somehow he still managed to serve as the U.S. Marshall of Washington DC as well as Counsel General to Haiti. In 1872, Douglass was nominated to run for Vice President of the country. Throughout his life, Douglass was constantly setting the bar higher for himself and creating the bedrock of an American civil rights movement.

Civil War Store Civil War Pistol - M1860 Antique Gray Civil War Photo Album 200 Famous Civil War Figures on CD The Civil War Omnibus 1 Histories of the Civil War Rare Civil War News and Documentary Film Library

On February 20, 1895, Douglass finished delivering a speech on women’s rights to the National Council of Women before sadly suffering a heart attack. The day of his death would include a standing ovation from the women’s council as even in his final moments, he managed to use words and the power of speech to make lasting impressions on the lives of others. To rise from slavery to head of the anti slavery

movement and to continue to fight for change long after the time for rest had come makes Douglass both a great American orator as well as an American hero.

Tags: 1818, 1841, 1872, 1895, Abolitionist, Abraham Lincoln, American Civil War, American Civil War Store, civil rights movement, Civil War, Civil War Photo Album 200 Famous Civil War Figures on CD, Civil War Pistol - M1860 Antique Gray, Civil War Store, Counsel General to Haiti, Federick Douglass, Lincoln, Massachusetts Anti Slavery, Rare Civil War News and Documentary Film Library, Slavery, The Civil War Omnibus 1 Histories of the Civil War, U.S. Civil War, U.S. Marshall of Washington DC, Underground Railway, United States Civil War Store, US Civil War Store, William Lloyd Garrison, William Loyd Garrison

Often taught as an aside to the settling of America’s west, the tale of the Pony Express is fraught with danger, intrigue and lightening speed. It was the 1860s and as the Civil war ravaged the east, the new immigrants and settlers along the Oregon Trail craved news of battle and word of loved ones. The difficult terrain that lay between the two sides of the country was hard to traverse, lacking proper roads, street signs, even people. Only fast strong horses could make the journey.

“No danger or difficulty must check his speed or change his route, for the world is waiting for the news he shall fetch and carry….God speed to the boy and the pony.”

Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, 1860

The enterprise began with the Central Overland and Pikes Peak Express a freight company operating out west and owned by Alexander Majors, William Russell, and William Waddell. The young entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to make some extra money by carrying domestic mail along their roughly plotted freight routes.  They advertised for young men who were strong riders and hired the lightest and the quickest to carry the mail.

“WANTED: YOUNG SKINNY
Wiry fellows not over 18.
Must be expert riders,
willing to risk death daily.
Orphans preferred.
Wages $25.00 per week.”

Among the names now associated with the Pony Express, Buffalo Bill Cody was meant to have ridden with the group that had the government contract to carry the mail in its early days but records are sketchy. The first known trip along the Pony Express trail (which crossed California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri) was undertaken by Johnny Fry and Sam Hamilton who were said to cross the continent in ten days.

It costs $5.00 per half ounce to have the express riders carry your personal mail which was stored in a leather satchel called a mochila. The mochila was handed off between riders across the length of the journey to ensure the mail never stopped even when the horses had to.

There were two types of Pony Express Station (many still standing today): the home station and the relay station. The home stations were scattered along the route every 75 to 100 miles and offered a warm fire, cooking stove and bed for weary riders. They were manned by station keepers who kept the fire hot and took in mail. The relay stations existed every 5 to 20 miles and allowed for horse exchanges as well as fresh riders to pick up the mail trail. It was this network of stations, riders and horses that stretch the U.S. mail from one side of the continent to the other for the very first time.

Old West Store Old West Range Pants Western Gambler Shirt Civil War Pistol - M1860 Antique Gray Enfield Rifle - 1860 Civil War Musketoon

The Pony Express began in April 1860 and ended in November of 1861. In all that time only one bag of mail was ever lost. After only 19 months, the Pony Express went bankrupt, replaced as it was by more convenient message sending methods like the telegraph and the train. But while it lasted, this race across the prairie stood as testament to American determination and perseverance, that special brand of Yankee know ho that figures out how to get the job done. Every year, the National Pony Express Association undertakes a re-ride of the original trail setting out either from Missouri or

California and carrying a bag of mail from one side of the county to the other. Many of the riders are direct descendents of the original owners and riders and they are all volunteers who choose to reenact a special time in America’s history. A time when new frontiers finally succumbed to American ingenuity.

Tags: 1860, 1860 Civil War Musketoon, 1861, Alexander Majors, American West, Buffalo Bill, Buffalo Bill Cody, Central Overland, Civil War, Civil War Pistol, early mail delivery, Enfield Rifle, mochila, news in the old west, Old West history, Old West Range Pants, Old West Store, Oregon Trail, Pikes Peak Express, Pony Express, Pony Express Station, Pony Express trail, telegraph impact on old west, train impact on old west, Western Gambler Shirt, William Russell, William Waddell