P.T. Barnum Circus 1854 riot
Northern showman and promoter, Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) spent decades having his famous Circus, the “Greatest Show on Earth,” zigzaggingContinue Reading
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Benjamin Hallowell, Friend and Mentor
Benjamin Hallowell (1799-1877) devoted his adult life to education; in 1824 he founded a prepatory school in Alexandria, Virginia. BeforeContinue Reading
The Duel
Prominent 19th century Virginia Quaker, Samuel McPherson Janney, had a connection with John Pleasants, the newspaper editor killed in aContinue Reading
Amos Norris on the Road to Freedom: from Loudoun County to Niagara Falls
Free black man, Amos Norris, was mentioned in a previous post on Nest of Abolitionists. His story deserves closer attentionContinue Reading
Plain Dress and the Underground Railroad
Simple clothing styles, referred to as “plain” within the Quaker community, visibly distinguished 19th century Quakers from their more fashionableContinue Reading
Slavery in the Quaker World
“Slavery in the Quaker World” is a nuanced topic addressed by historians, including Katharine Gerbner, professor of history at theContinue Reading
Goose Creek Quakers and the audacity of peace and social justice
Pausanias (AD 110- C 180) was a Greek geographer and author of travel books which included his observations about people andContinue Reading
John J. Janney, father of Elizabeth Hopkins Janney
John Jones Janney, a prominent Quaker merchant in Alexandria, Virginia, had the end of his life described in an extraordinaryContinue Reading
Nest of Abolitionists and the 1820’s Manumission and Emigration movement
The Library of Virginia, in their Out of the Box archives, has a series of articles about the anti-slavery and abolitionist societies which spreadContinue Reading
Ulysses S. Grant and Loudoun County Quakers
“During all of the trying winter of 1860-1, when the Southerners were so defiant that they would not allow withinContinue Reading
Nest of Abolitionists 