Read Snow-Storm in August Storyline:
The riveting story of how the epic struggle over slavery first violently erupted in the seat of American government.In 1835, the City of Washington was simmering. Drawn to the District of Columbia by the prospect of employment, newly freed African Americans from the South poured in, and free blacks outnumbered slaves for the first time. Meanwhile, white residents were forced to confront new ideas of what the nation's future might look like. On the night of August 4, 1835, Arthur Bowen, an eighteen-year-old slave, stumbled home intoxicated, found an ax left in the basement stairwell, and entered the bedroom where his owner, Anna Thornton, slept. Word of Arthur's drunken deed spread rapidly, and within days, Washington's first race riot exploded. Beverly Snow, a former slave turned successful restaurateur, personified the new aspirations for freedom and became the focus of the mob's ire, lending his name to newspaper coverage of the "Snow-Storm." In the...Pages of Snow-Storm in August :
