From the Desk of the Supervisor

Troy's Notes

"Hello Volunteers- Please let me echo the sentiment of Stacey's earlier posts. You have all done great service for the Park and I look forward to working with you again. It dawned on me that we could use the blog for historical interpretation training as well. I will have Stacey upload regular posts from me with historical information and a multiple choice quiz . The answers will always be at the bottom of the post.  How well will you do?

1) Who was the overall Union Army commander at the Battle of New Market?

2) Who was the overall Confederate Army commander at the Battle of New Market?

3) Who was the Union commander in New Market on May 14th?

4) Who was the local Confederate commander in charge of the Shenandoah Valley?

5) Who was in command of the V.M.I. cadets at the Battle of New Market?

6) What was the age of the youngest cadet at New Market?

7) Who patented the land that became Bushong's Farm?

8) When was the small farm house built (bathroom)?

9) When was the Bushong Farm sold?

10) Who purchased the farm in 1944?
Scroll to the end of this post to check your answers!

Slavery in the South
It is a popular misnomer that there was one monolithic south before the Civil War. Actually there were three different slaveholding areas that reacted to secession and the peculiar institution differently.

William Freehling in his book The Road to Disunion describes the triumvirate south this way. The slave states bordering on the north were called the "Border South". Geographically it covered Delaware and Maryland westward through Kentucky to Missouri.

The second slaveholding south is called the Middle South, stretching from Virginia and North Carolina, westward through Tennessee to Arkansas.

Finally the Lower South bordered on the Gulf, running from South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, westward through Alabama, Mississippi and eventually to Texas.

Peculiar Statistics
Free African-Americans
In 1850 46% of free African-Americans lived in the Border South, in contrast to only 15% in the Lower South.

Slaves
In 1850 slaves comprised about 17% of the Border South's population, in sharp contrast to 30% in the Middle South and 47% in the Lower South.

Slaveholders
History records that the average slaveholder in the Border South held 5 slaves, 8 in the Middle South and 12 in the Lower South. 22% of white families owned slaves in the Border South, 36% in the Middle South and 43% in the Lower South. In 1850 slaveholders owning over 20 slaves comprised 6% of the population in the Border South and 62% in the Lower South.




Quiz Answers:
(1.) Franz Sigel (2.) John C. Breckenridge (3.) Colonel August Moor (4.) Brig. General John Imboden (5.) Lt. Col. Scott Ship (6.) 15 (7.) Henry Bushong (8.) 1818 (9.) 1942 (10.) George Randall Collins