alexandria. we like to say this is george washington s hometown. this gives our visitors a great picture of what the interior of a civil war fort would have leaked like. did you know alexandria was part of the original district of columbia? welcome to alexandria, virginia, on booktv. with the help of our cable partners, for the next hour we ll take you to this town on the potomac river just a couple of miles south of washington d.c. join us as we explore its rich and varied history through the works of local authors beginning with a look at some of the city s hidden stories from the past. book is hidden history of al alexandria d.c., and the last part of that title is very important because it s not about alexandria, virginia, or it s about a period in history when the district of columbia included parts of what s now virginia. what i wanted to do was look at this 50-year time period and get a sense of why al sabd drink ya became part of the district of columbia, wh
we will ask staff take? maybe. or maybe not. just didn t hold up. or yes. even though hugh howard and i are fast friends and had more than a few beers together over the years and written many chair left side by side while skiing doesn t necessarily follow that i would staff pick his excellent new book. i did it because it is in fact an excellent book. moron that in a moment. hugh howard s book shop working in new york for various publishing houses for ten years. as an architectural historian he wrote a series of articles for the new york times which became the basis for his first book the preservationist s progress. over the ensuing years he has written a dozen books on american architecture, art and history. happily for us he and his wife betsy moved to columbia county in 1981 where he crackled their efforts remodeling an old colonial in his terrific book house dreams. since then among his other products he turned his eye to thomas jefferson and his role as an architect and
margaret was born. we think it was the mid-18 teens. the story indicates that he and his wife s confidence brought their slaves with them when they moved to the cater house. that s consistent with nancy living in alexandria and showing in the decatur house. she s thought to live there from 1836 to at least 1870. part of my research revolves around understanding why margaret would have been sold. i m just driven by trying to understand the trade and why somebody would be sold. perhaps her birth was the result of an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy. we know that gadsby was a slave trader. perhaps he arranged the sale of margaret. it was not uncommon for young female slaves to be purchased by slave traders to be used as concubines and later result to either become servants, cooks, or even work in a brothel. margaret could have been sold in virginia at an early age or until just before she gave birth to her first child in new orleans in 1840. we re now beginning to research the g
families, it was probably quite a substantial number. another indication he might have allowed dealing in his tavern is he held an enslaved man named moses for a mr. marshall who possibly duped moses into coming with him to alexandria. after his master died, moses was sold to a man from new orleans. mr. marshall managed to persuade him from the man and then traveled to new york and get his freedom, and then left him in the care of john gadsby. any records in the involvement in slave trading in 1808 end around 1880 when he leaves for baltimore. in baltimore, john gadsby continued to use enslaved labor at his indian queen hotel. however, for african-americans, the climate and slavery sorry, the climate of slavery and their conditions were somewhat better. the post-war depression inspired a switch to the less labor intensive wheat and corn as cash crops, limiting the need for enslaved people. while many owners sold the people they enslaved, many more manumitted people, so ma
know. and he goes on to be you see lots of political cartoons. he s labeled a czar, you see historians writing about him as a czar. they don t really notice the fact that that was a real dig at him. it was not a complimentary reference, so this is a way they are trying to get jews charged up to vote against lomazny by calling him a czar. they re organizing this meeting in a synagogue. and look at the bottom of the flyer. you have the english account and down here you have hebrew. i can t tell you what it says but i m guessing it says about the same thing that it says up here. so this is about, again, mobilizing russian or eastern european jews, most of the jews in the west end were from russia. mobilizing them in their own native tongue, meeting in a synagogue, voting for a jewish candidate, so you re both jewish and an active citizen at the same time, once again. this is very similar to what you saw with the irish in the 19th century, this effort to be both a citizen and