THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. THE FORMS OF SLAVERY THAT PREVAILED IN ANCIENT NATIONS, PARTICULARLY IN GREECE AND ROME. THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE AND THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. Compiled From Authentic Materials by W. O. Blake, published by J. H. Miller, Ohio, 1858.
A few weeks ago, a volunteer set aside this book and suggested the rest of us look it over and consider it for a Black History Month entry on this blog. We did and were equally impressed.
Anyone who needs information about the formation and continuance of the slavery system in this country will find invaluable information between the covers of this factual, well-documented 150-year-old book. On the first of 832 pages, the author states:
It is certainly a curious fact, that as far as we can trace back the
history of the human race, we discover the existence of Slavery.
Then follows the history of Mosaic institutional slavery, Sparta's Helots, Greek and Roman slaves, and slavery in Africa, England and in the New World. Two chapters, titled "Early Opponents of African Slavery in England and America" and "Movements in England to Abolish the Slave Trade," document the abolitionist efforts of Quakers and the historian Thomas Clarkson.
The book ends with sixteen pages of statistical information compiled from the 1850 census about free and slave states and a record of the United States Supreme Court's decision in the Case of Dred Scott vs. Sandford, in their December term, 1856.
Eleven images enhance the reader's understanding and interpretation of the facts reported in these 34 chapters. You can view these images at: http://people.uvawise.edu/runaways/images/blake.html
We invite you to stop by the Bullis Room and take a look at our copy.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
BULLIS FAMILY HISTORY, PART II
JOHN LAPHAM BULLIS, From Corporal to Brigadier General
After the surrender of Lee, Corporal John Lapham Bullis's unit was ordered to Texas (along the Rio Grande River, near Brownsville) for Reconstruction duty. He was mustered out of the Volunteer Army on February 6, 1866 at White's Ranch, Texas, after serving almost three and a half years in the War of the Rebellion.
He attempted a personal business of providing logs for the steamboats on the Mississippi for about a year. It was said that civilian life just did not provide as much excitement as military life provided and he entered military service again. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 41st Infantry, September 3, 1867. This duty permitted little opportunity to advance, so in November, 1869, he requested transfer to the new Twenty-fourth Infantry, composed of white officers and black enlisted men.
With the Twenty-fourth Infantry, he participated in operations against Indian raiding parties and cattle rustlers. While stationed at Fort Clark (150 miles West of San Antonio along the Rio Grande) he received command of a special troop of Black Seminole Scouts. In 1873 and 1874, Bullis and his 20 scouts played a major support role to Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie as he battled against tribes from the Texas Panhandle and Mexico. He received brevet citations for his "gallant service" in the years of 1875 through 1881 and the title of "friend of the frontier" from the state of Texas. He left the Black Seminole Scouts in 1882 for other duties in Indian Territory.
In 1888 he served as agent for the Apaches at San Carlos Reservation. He was transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1893, to act as agent for the Pueblos and Jicarillo Apaches. In 1897, he returned to Texas as Major Bullis and was appointed paymaster at Fort Sam Houston. He saw service in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. After forty years military service, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him brigadier general in 1904 and the next day he retired.
We know less of his personal and civil life than his military career. He married Alice Rodriguez of San Antonio in 1872. She died in 1887 and he married Josephine Withers of San Antonio in 1891. In 1885, during his first marriage, he became one-third owner of Shafter Silver Mines of Presidio County, Texas.
John Lapham Bullis died in San Antonio, Texas on May 26, 1911.
Places named in his honor:
1) Bullis Gap Range, a ten-mile chain of peaks near the Rio Grande
2) Camp Bullis, a military training base near San Antonio, posthumously, in 1917
3) Bullis, Texas, a Southern Pacific Railroad station founded in 1882 as a siding and nonagency station and abandoned by the railroad after 1944
NOTE: Information contained in this article is from the STATEMENT AS TO THE MILITARY RECORD IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY OF BREVET MAJOR JOHN L. BULLIS, 24TH INFANTRY, U.S. ARMY and other family papers.
After the surrender of Lee, Corporal John Lapham Bullis's unit was ordered to Texas (along the Rio Grande River, near Brownsville) for Reconstruction duty. He was mustered out of the Volunteer Army on February 6, 1866 at White's Ranch, Texas, after serving almost three and a half years in the War of the Rebellion.
He attempted a personal business of providing logs for the steamboats on the Mississippi for about a year. It was said that civilian life just did not provide as much excitement as military life provided and he entered military service again. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 41st Infantry, September 3, 1867. This duty permitted little opportunity to advance, so in November, 1869, he requested transfer to the new Twenty-fourth Infantry, composed of white officers and black enlisted men.
With the Twenty-fourth Infantry, he participated in operations against Indian raiding parties and cattle rustlers. While stationed at Fort Clark (150 miles West of San Antonio along the Rio Grande) he received command of a special troop of Black Seminole Scouts. In 1873 and 1874, Bullis and his 20 scouts played a major support role to Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie as he battled against tribes from the Texas Panhandle and Mexico. He received brevet citations for his "gallant service" in the years of 1875 through 1881 and the title of "friend of the frontier" from the state of Texas. He left the Black Seminole Scouts in 1882 for other duties in Indian Territory.
In 1888 he served as agent for the Apaches at San Carlos Reservation. He was transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1893, to act as agent for the Pueblos and Jicarillo Apaches. In 1897, he returned to Texas as Major Bullis and was appointed paymaster at Fort Sam Houston. He saw service in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. After forty years military service, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him brigadier general in 1904 and the next day he retired.
We know less of his personal and civil life than his military career. He married Alice Rodriguez of San Antonio in 1872. She died in 1887 and he married Josephine Withers of San Antonio in 1891. In 1885, during his first marriage, he became one-third owner of Shafter Silver Mines of Presidio County, Texas.
John Lapham Bullis died in San Antonio, Texas on May 26, 1911.
Places named in his honor:
1) Bullis Gap Range, a ten-mile chain of peaks near the Rio Grande
2) Camp Bullis, a military training base near San Antonio, posthumously, in 1917
3) Bullis, Texas, a Southern Pacific Railroad station founded in 1882 as a siding and nonagency station and abandoned by the railroad after 1944
NOTE: Information contained in this article is from the STATEMENT AS TO THE MILITARY RECORD IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY OF BREVET MAJOR JOHN L. BULLIS, 24TH INFANTRY, U.S. ARMY and other family papers.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
BULLIS FAMILY HISTORY, Part I
JOHN LAPHAM BULLIS:
Student, farm hand, sheep herder, trapper, business man, soldier, war hero--all of these terms describe Nettie and Charlie's Uncle John. Born in Macedon on April 17, 1841 to Dr. Abram R. and Lydia P.(Lapham) Bullis, he was the eldest of seven children.
Only limited information is available about his early years. We know he received the standard Quaker education at academies in Macedon and Lima. Notes taken during a conversation with Charlie Bullis about his Uncle John tell us:
"In his teens John Bullis went trapping in Canada to earn money.
Before going to Civil War had a horse and a flock of sheep. Always
trying to earn money and get ahead - plowing for his uncle, Stephen
Lapham, when he went to war (either at the first call or on 21st
birthday).
Went to school at Lima Seminary, at Lima, New York. At end of Civil
War, he was in civil life about a year and in business on the
Mississippi River where he bought timber and hired men to cut it up
and sold it for fuel in steamboats of Mississippi River...."
John Bullis's long and successful military career is well documented and tells of his loyal service that included many acts of bravery. He began as a corporal in the 126th New York Volunteer infantry on August 8, 1862. During the Civil War, at Harper's Ferry in September, 1862, he was wounded and captured, surrendered to Stonewall Jackson, then exchanged. At Gettysburg, on July 1-3, 1863, he was again wounded and captured at Pickett's Charge. This time he spent two or three months in Richmond, Virginia's Libby prison before again being exchanged. He was discharged from the service August 17, 1864, to accept an appointment as Captain in the 118th United States Infantry, Colored Troops, dating from August 18, 1864.
Captain Bullis and his regiment participated in a number of major combats with small forces of Confederates while being recruited near Owensboro, Kentucky as well as several combats near Fort Harrison, Virginia in the winter of 1864 and 1865. At Dutch Gap canal, in the spring of 1865, they were under fire almost continuously for about three months.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK: More of John Lapham Bullis's military service and civil life.
NOTE: Information contained in this article is from the STATEMENT AS TO THE MILITARY RECORD IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY OF BREVET MAJOR JOHN L. BULLIS, 24TH INFANTRY, U.S. ARMY and other family papers.
Student, farm hand, sheep herder, trapper, business man, soldier, war hero--all of these terms describe Nettie and Charlie's Uncle John. Born in Macedon on April 17, 1841 to Dr. Abram R. and Lydia P.(Lapham) Bullis, he was the eldest of seven children.
Only limited information is available about his early years. We know he received the standard Quaker education at academies in Macedon and Lima. Notes taken during a conversation with Charlie Bullis about his Uncle John tell us:
"In his teens John Bullis went trapping in Canada to earn money.
Before going to Civil War had a horse and a flock of sheep. Always
trying to earn money and get ahead - plowing for his uncle, Stephen
Lapham, when he went to war (either at the first call or on 21st
birthday).
Went to school at Lima Seminary, at Lima, New York. At end of Civil
War, he was in civil life about a year and in business on the
Mississippi River where he bought timber and hired men to cut it up
and sold it for fuel in steamboats of Mississippi River...."
John Bullis's long and successful military career is well documented and tells of his loyal service that included many acts of bravery. He began as a corporal in the 126th New York Volunteer infantry on August 8, 1862. During the Civil War, at Harper's Ferry in September, 1862, he was wounded and captured, surrendered to Stonewall Jackson, then exchanged. At Gettysburg, on July 1-3, 1863, he was again wounded and captured at Pickett's Charge. This time he spent two or three months in Richmond, Virginia's Libby prison before again being exchanged. He was discharged from the service August 17, 1864, to accept an appointment as Captain in the 118th United States Infantry, Colored Troops, dating from August 18, 1864.
Captain Bullis and his regiment participated in a number of major combats with small forces of Confederates while being recruited near Owensboro, Kentucky as well as several combats near Fort Harrison, Virginia in the winter of 1864 and 1865. At Dutch Gap canal, in the spring of 1865, they were under fire almost continuously for about three months.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK: More of John Lapham Bullis's military service and civil life.
NOTE: Information contained in this article is from the STATEMENT AS TO THE MILITARY RECORD IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY OF BREVET MAJOR JOHN L. BULLIS, 24TH INFANTRY, U.S. ARMY and other family papers.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
If only these books could talk ...
...they could tell us where they’ve been and who opened their covers and turned their pages throughout the many years they’ve existed. Wouldn’t we love to know? Alas, the books remain mute, but they can still tell us a great deal if we are willing to look at their contents, handwritten notations, and signatures. And using that information, we can answer some of the frequent questions asked about this unique collection.
Question: Why does the collection have books on such a wide variety of subjects and genres? Answer: The Bullis family was composed of pioneers, farmers, physicians, a mathematical genius, botanist, corporate leader, educator, business leaders, a military leader and hero, and surveyor. There are books in the collection that cover all these areas as well as history (local, county, state, national, and world), politics, engineering, general science, classical literature, poetry and fiction.
Question: How did all of these books become a part of this collection?
Answer: Some were gifts to members of the Bullis family (evidenced by handwritten notes inside the front covers), a few were purchased new, and still others were acquired at auctions and other types of sales. Some of the latter are identified by previous owners’ signatures.
Question: How did the collection grow to over 5,000 items? Answer: The Bullis home on Canandaigua Road in Macedon was completed in 1839. It is reasonable to assume that this book-loving family began to accumulate reading material at that time. By the 1970s, when Nettie and her brother Charlie occupied the same house, books filled three of those rooms.
Question: Is there anything you’d like to know about the Bullis Books or the Bullis Family? We’re looking forward to your questions.
Question: Why does the collection have books on such a wide variety of subjects and genres? Answer: The Bullis family was composed of pioneers, farmers, physicians, a mathematical genius, botanist, corporate leader, educator, business leaders, a military leader and hero, and surveyor. There are books in the collection that cover all these areas as well as history (local, county, state, national, and world), politics, engineering, general science, classical literature, poetry and fiction.
Question: How did all of these books become a part of this collection?
Answer: Some were gifts to members of the Bullis family (evidenced by handwritten notes inside the front covers), a few were purchased new, and still others were acquired at auctions and other types of sales. Some of the latter are identified by previous owners’ signatures.
Question: How did the collection grow to over 5,000 items? Answer: The Bullis home on Canandaigua Road in Macedon was completed in 1839. It is reasonable to assume that this book-loving family began to accumulate reading material at that time. By the 1970s, when Nettie and her brother Charlie occupied the same house, books filled three of those rooms.
Question: Is there anything you’d like to know about the Bullis Books or the Bullis Family? We’re looking forward to your questions.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
FROM THE FLOOR
How often do we look at the bottom shelf of books in a library? Speaking for myself, the answer is: "Not often enough." So last week I plopped myself down in front of the History section and began pulling books at random from the lower shelves. These books may be low, location-wise, but they are high in interest to those of us who love local history. Thus I was rewarded well for my time, effort and the occasional "twinge" from my lumbar region as I made the acquaintance of these books:
Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins, and Schuyler Counties, New York
Niagara and other Famous Cataracts of the World
Landmarks of Wayne County Landmarks of Monroe County
Warriors of the Genesee Political History of New York
Topographical Survey, Adirondack Region, New York
Hotchkins History of Western New York Annals and Recollections of Oneida County
Exhibit of State of New York at World's Columbia Exposition
All these books are over a hundred years old and they do show their age. A book evaluator would use words like "loose boards, warping, yellowing," or "brittle" to describe some of their conditions. In addition to natural aging, many of these books sustained additional damage from the heat and water of the 2001 library fire. Despite the toll taken by the storms of life, however, they keep on keeping on, their contents enhancing our knowledge and appreciation of the past as well as the present. Today, they sit in their assigned places, ready to serve yet another generation of readers. Let's not disappoint them.
(As the title states, this viewpoint comes from the floor...The Bullis Room floor. Hope to see you there one of these Thursdays.)
Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins, and Schuyler Counties, New York
Niagara and other Famous Cataracts of the World
Landmarks of Wayne County Landmarks of Monroe County
Warriors of the Genesee Political History of New York
Topographical Survey, Adirondack Region, New York
Hotchkins History of Western New York Annals and Recollections of Oneida County
Exhibit of State of New York at World's Columbia Exposition
All these books are over a hundred years old and they do show their age. A book evaluator would use words like "loose boards, warping, yellowing," or "brittle" to describe some of their conditions. In addition to natural aging, many of these books sustained additional damage from the heat and water of the 2001 library fire. Despite the toll taken by the storms of life, however, they keep on keeping on, their contents enhancing our knowledge and appreciation of the past as well as the present. Today, they sit in their assigned places, ready to serve yet another generation of readers. Let's not disappoint them.
(As the title states, this viewpoint comes from the floor...The Bullis Room floor. Hope to see you there one of these Thursdays.)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
MORE ON AUDELS CARPENTERS AND BUILDERS GUIDE
"By Hammer and Hand All Things Do Stand"
Last week we talked about John Ruskin's quotation found in this set of books. What other gems can we discover in these four+ volumes?
Authors Frank D. Graham and Thomas J. Emery put together "A Practical Illustrated Trade Assistant on Modern Construction For Carpenters-Joiners, Builders-Mechanics, and all Wood Workers."
Illustrations, diagrams, charts, graphs, and pictures enhance the how-to explanations "in practical, concise language" that include how to figure and calculate various jobs.
Publisher Theo. Audel Co. seemed to do well with this series as it was copyrighted in 1929, 1933, 1945 and reprinted in 1948.
Whether you are a professional or a DIYer, you can find good information and interesting facts between the covers of these little black books.
Volume 1: Tools - Steel - Square Saw Filing - Joinery - Furniture
Volume 2: Builders Mathematics - Drawing Plans - Specifications - Estimating
Volume 3: House and Roof Framing - Laying Out - Foundations
Volume 4: Doors - Windows -Stair Building - Mill Work - Painting
We invite you to stop by and give Audel's guides a look-through. You may learn something that will make your next project go a little smoother.
Authors Frank D. Graham and Thomas J. Emery put together "A Practical Illustrated Trade Assistant on Modern Construction For Carpenters-Joiners, Builders-Mechanics, and all Wood Workers."
Illustrations, diagrams, charts, graphs, and pictures enhance the how-to explanations "in practical, concise language" that include how to figure and calculate various jobs.
Publisher Theo. Audel Co. seemed to do well with this series as it was copyrighted in 1929, 1933, 1945 and reprinted in 1948.
Whether you are a professional or a DIYer, you can find good information and interesting facts between the covers of these little black books.
Volume 1: Tools - Steel - Square Saw Filing - Joinery - Furniture
Volume 2: Builders Mathematics - Drawing Plans - Specifications - Estimating
Volume 3: House and Roof Framing - Laying Out - Foundations
Volume 4: Doors - Windows -Stair Building - Mill Work - Painting
We invite you to stop by and give Audel's guides a look-through. You may learn something that will make your next project go a little smoother.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
NETTIE'S LEGACY
Last week I arrived for my regular shift in the Bullis Room with a mental "to-do" list for the morning. I soon found my focus redirected by a stacks of small black books in the middle of the round table. Stamped into the cover of each one was the title, Audels Carpenters and Builder Guide. The title did not impress me as something of personal interest but the quote on the flyleaf changed my mind:
When we build, let us think that we build forever.
Let it not be for present delight nor for present use
alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will
thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone,
that a time is to come when those stones will be held
sacred because our hands have touched them, and
that men will say, as they look upon the labor and
wrought substance of them, "See! This our father
did for us."
---John Ruskin
I can picture Nettie Bullis reading this quote, tilting her head in contemplation, then slowly nodding. And I think she would nod her head again if she could be with us today to see the results of her wise stewardship, her laying "stone on stone" to build a legacy for the rest of us to enjoy.
And so today, we say: "See! This our sister did for us."
Thank you, Nettie.
When we build, let us think that we build forever.
Let it not be for present delight nor for present use
alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will
thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone,
that a time is to come when those stones will be held
sacred because our hands have touched them, and
that men will say, as they look upon the labor and
wrought substance of them, "See! This our father
did for us."
---John Ruskin
I can picture Nettie Bullis reading this quote, tilting her head in contemplation, then slowly nodding. And I think she would nod her head again if she could be with us today to see the results of her wise stewardship, her laying "stone on stone" to build a legacy for the rest of us to enjoy.
And so today, we say: "See! This our sister did for us."
Thank you, Nettie.
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