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Thomas Downing (restaurateur)
Thomas Downing (c. 1791–1866) was an American restaurateur and abolitionist active in New York City during the Victorian era, who was nicknamed the "New York Oyster King". He was one of the wealthiest people in New York City at the time of his death. He spent his life prohibited from acquiring U.S. citizenship, until the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed, the day before he died. Early family life Thomas Downing was born on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. His parents were enslaved, and eventually freed, by Sea Captain John Downing after learning that owning slaves was not condoned by the Methodist Church. They adopted the name "Downing" as their own and began working as paid caretakers of Captain Downing's Methodist Meeting House. Eventually, they bought some property on the Island and the family began earning extra money by gathering and selling oysters, as well as other seafood, such as clams and fish. Thomas was raised alongside his wealthy neighbors and shared the same tu ...
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Thomas Downing (1799-1866) Portrait From Newspaper Clipping
Thomas Downing may be: *Thomas Downing (restaurateur) (1791–1866), American abolitionist and restaurateur *Thomas Downing (athlete) (1883–1943), Irish Olympic athlete *Thomas Downing (painter) (1928–1985), American painter *Thomas N. Downing (1919–2001), American politician {{reflist ...
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Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father John Dickens, John was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years, he returned to school before beginning his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years; wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles; lectured and performed Penny reading, readings extensively; was a tireless letter writer; and campaigned vigor ...
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Oysters
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of Seawater, salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in Marine (ocean), marine or Brackish water, brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly Calcification, calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters, are in the superfamily Ostreoidea. Some species of oyster are commonly consumed and are regarded as a delicacy in some localities. Some types of pearl oysters are harvested for the pearl produced within the Mantle (mollusc), mantle. Others, such as the translucent Windowpane oysters, are harvested for their shells. Etymology The word ''oyster'' comes from Old French , and first appeared in English during the 14th century. The French derived from the Latin , the feminine form of , which is the Latinisation (literature), latinisation of the Ancient Greek () 'oyster'. Compare () 'bone'. Types True oysters True oysters are members of the family Ostreidae. This family in ...
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Businesspeople From New York City
A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) to generate cash flow, sales, and revenue by using a combination of human, financial, intellectual, and physical capital to fuel economic development and growth. History Medieval period: Rise of the merchant class Merchants emerged as a social class in medieval Italy. Between 1300 and 1500, modern accounting, the bill of exchange, and limited liability were invented, and thus, the world saw "the first true bankers", who were certainly businesspeople. Around the same time, Europe saw the " emergence of rich merchants." This "rise of the merchant class" came as Europe "needed a middleman" for the first time, and these "burghers" or "bourgeois" were the people who played this role. Renaissance to Enlightenment: Ri ...
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American Restaurateurs
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams S ...
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Abolitionists From New York City
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. The first country to abolish and punish slavery for indigenous people was Spain with the New Laws in 1542. Under the actions of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, chattel slavery has been abolished across Japan since 1590, though other forms of forced labour were used during World War II. The first and only country to self-liberate from slavery was a former French colony, Haiti, as a result of the Revolution of 1791–1804. The British abolitionist movement began in the late 18th century, and the 1772 Somersett case established that slavery did not exist in English law. In 1807, the slave trade was made illegal throughout the British Empire, though existing slaves in British colonies were not liberated until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. In the United ...
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1866 Deaths
Events January * January 1 ** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee. ** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published. * January 6 – Ottoman troops clash with supporters of Maronite leader Youssef Bey Karam, at St. Doumit in Lebanon; the Ottomans are defeated. * January 12 ** The '' Royal Aeronautical Society'' is formed as ''The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain'' in London, the world's oldest such society. ** British auxiliary steamer sinks in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, on passage from the Thames to Australia, with the loss of 244 people, and only 19 survivors. * January 18 – Wesley College, Melbourne, is established. * January 26 – Volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera begins. February * February 7 – Battle of Abtao: A Spanish naval squadron fights a combined Peruvian-Chilean fleet, at the island of Abtao, in the Chiloé Archipelago of southern Chile. * February 13 � ...
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1790s Births
Year 179 ( CLXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Veru (or, less frequently, year 932 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 179 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman empire * The Roman fort Castra Regina ("fortress by the Regen river") is built at Regensburg, on the right bank of the Danube in Germany. * Roman legionaries of Legio II ''Adiutrix'' engrave on the rock of the Trenčín Castle (Slovakia) the name of the town ''Laugaritio'', marking the northernmost point of Roman presence in that part of Europe. * Marcus Aurelius drives the Marcomanni over the Danube and reinforces the border. To repopulate and rebuild a devastated Pannonia, Rome allows the first German colonists to enter territory controlled by the Roman Empire. Asia * ...
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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery as early as the 16th century and many of their escapes were unaided. However, a network of safe houses generally known as the Underground Railroad began to organize in the 1780s among Abolitionist Societies in the North. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.Vox, Lisa"How Did Slaves Resist Slavery?", ''African-American History'', About.com. Retrieved July 17, 2011. The escapees sought primarily to escape into free states, and potentially from there to Canada. The network, primarily the work of free and enslaved African Americans, was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. The enslaved people who risked capture and thos ...
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