The Return of the Ruined Banker The setting for this ghost story was at Sturdivant Hall, in Selma, Alabama in the 1860’s.
Sturdivant Hall had been constructed in 1852. This stately mansion had six tall white pillars in the front. There were many parlors downstairs and an abundance of spacious bedrooms upstairs.
There were large fig trees, shrubs, and scuppernong vines on either side of the home. A group of visitors had gathered to take a to tour of this beautiful mansion; then, the guide revealed something quite remarkable. (Windham and Figh, 79)
The guests were admiring the graceful proportions of the downstairs parlors and had made their way to an upstairs bedroom. The guide was describing the rope-laced trundle bed and
…show more content…
(Windham and Figh, 81) Life was good. Then, with a suddenness that shocked the entire community, John
Parker’s career ended in disgrace. The youthful bank president speculated in cotton and invested the bank’s money, only to lose it all, when the price of cotton dropped, and he could not cover the losses. Because federal money was deposited in The First National Bank, General Swayne, a commanding officer of the United States troops in the Selma district moved in quickly, closed the bank and had Parkman arrested. (Windham and Figh, 81) Parkman was taken under guard to Cahaba and confined in Castle Morgan, the prison which had only a short time before been used by the Confederate government for the incarceration of Yankee prisoners. He managed to escape from that prison; however, as he was climbing a prison wall, an alarm sounded, and some shots were fired . There were several stories surrounding Parkman’s fate. Some people speculated that he dived into the nearby river and drowned. Other people claimed his body was buried under one of the huge trees at the rear of Sturdivant Hall.
Although his death remained a mystery, students of the supernatural say that Parkman’s ghost had came back to try to clear his name about three years later, after the home had been sold. Some servants who worked for Parker were so convinced his spirit
The tale of Fisher’s Ghost is famous for not only the story, but for the trial that served as the aftermath that lead to the execution of Fisher’s killer, George Worrell. The story is important
The Myth of Robber Barons is a short, but excellent book that talks about the entrepreneurs of early America. It argues against the misconception that the successful businessmen of the 19th century, often called the “robber barons”, amassed a big fortune by robbing the general public, whereas, they became wealthy because they offered good quality products and services at low prices which in turn attracted so many Americans to do business with them.
A "robber baron" was someone who employed any means necessary to enrich themselves at the expense of their competitors. Did John D. Rockefeller fall into that category or was he one of the "captains of industry", whose shrewd and innovative leadership brought order out of industrial chaos and generated great fortunes that enriched the public welfare through the workings of various philanthropic agencies that these leaders established? In the early 1860s Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, who came to epitomize both the success and excess of corporate capitalism. His company was based in northwestern Pennsylvania.
What is a robber baron? Webster’s New Dictionary defines it as an American capitalist of the late 19th century who became wealthy through exploitation (As of natural resources, governmental influence, or low wage scales) or a person who satisfies himself by depriving another. In America we had a lot of these kind of people. For this report I am going to tell you about the ones that I found most interesting to me. I would first like to tell you about Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Many legends of hauntings in Mankato, Minnesota have been told time after time. Though many people tell these stories, it is unknown to whether or not they are true. In this research paper, I will discuss several different legends that have been told throughout time in Mankato. The legends I will further examine are: the legend of Sibley Park, the Memorial Library on campus, the Carnegie Art Center, and the Witch’s Grave. Being that I am from Mankato, Minnesota, I thought it would be very interesting to research more about these legends and the experiences had in these places. Though I, myself, have not experienced anything completely unusual in these places, many people in the town have another experience. Memorates, or accounts of first hand
I am ordered by the government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter. My aides, Col. Chestnut and Cap. Lee, are
By the outset of 1864, after three years of war, the Union had mobilized its resources for the ongoing struggle on a massive scale. The government had overseen the construction of new railroad lines and for the first time used standardized rail tracks that allowed the North to move men and materials with greater ease. The North’s economy had shifted to a wartime model. The Confederacy also mobilized, perhaps to a greater degree than the Union, its efforts to secure independence and maintain slavery. Yet the Confederacy experienced ever-greater hardships after years of war. Without the population of the North, it faced a shortage of manpower. The lack of industry, compared to the North, undercut the ability to sustain and wage war. Rampant inflation as well as food shortages in the South lowered morale.
The banking crisis of the late 2000s, often called the Great Recession, is labelled by many economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Its effect on the markets around the world can still be felt. Many countries suffered a drop in GDP, small or even negative growth, bankrupting businesses and rise in unemployment. The welfare cost that society had to paid lead to an obvious question: ‘Who’s to blame?’ The fingers are pointed to the United States of America, as it is obvious that this is where the crisis began, but who exactly is responsible? Many people believe that the banks are the only ones that are guilty, but this is just not true. The crisis was really a systematic failure, in which many problems in the
In 2003, Coleen Colombo joined the California branch of BNC, where she worked as a senior underwriter. The BNC office in which Colombo worked was part of the regional group that offered a considerable amount of loan to its customers. The performance of Colombo in her work was outstanding. This is according to a wrongful termination and harassment suit filed in California Superior Court on her behalf and on behalf of five other BNC employees. The suit states that the work environment began to become hostile for Colombo in 2005 after one of her fellow employees, a male wholesaler,
Shortly after this happened they started to hear a lot of loud heavy footsteps that seemed like someone was walking right through them. The thing that scared the workers the most and made them start quitting was when they saw his ghost. The workers claim that they would be doing their work as always and suddenly his ghost would appear. They say he would walk towards the water wheel where he was killed and he would run right at the wheel and fall to his chest lying flat. Then they said his head would fall off and roll out the building and into the water. People became so scared that they would run out and get in there vehicles and leave never to come
A huge wistaria vine covered the whole front of the house. The trunk, it was too large to call a stem, rose at the corner of the porch by the high steps, and had once climbed its pillars; but now the pillars were wrenched from their places and held rigid and helpless by the tightly wound and knotted arms. It fenced in all the upper story
Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici founded the Medici bank in 1397 after splitting from his nephew to establish a bank branch in Florence. As the new bank grew and expanded, so did the wealth and power of the Medici family. When Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici, Giovanni’s son, took over the banking business in 1434, the increasing economic power of the Medici family allowed them to establish themselves as effective rulers of Florence while keeping the republican system of government nominally intact. The bank provided the Medici family a combination of economic and political power that facilitated the stability of Medici rule. Thus, the failure of the Medici bank during the reign of Lorenzo il Magnifico was key to the collapse of the Medici
The Bank of the United States is a symbol of the long held American fear of centralization and government control. The bank was an attempt to bring some stability and control and was successful at doing this. However, both times the bank was chartered, forces within the economy ultimately destroyed it. The fear of centralization and control was ultimately detrimental to the U.S. economy.
Once one got nearer, the archway opened up until one could see the whole front of the house in a somehow eerie way. Around the windows grew ivy and creepers, twisting their way up to the roof in a claw like fashion. The windows
The tales of haunted houses is a long held genre in American Gothic literature. The haunted houses are usually described as South plantations homes. When the houses were in their prime, they were the best of the best. They represented the upper echelons of society, where only the super rich could own. The dark secret behind such plantation houses is that they were usually build and maintained by slavery. As time pasted and the Emancipation Proclamation was passed at the end of the American Civil War, slavery ended and the plantation homes fell into ruin. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892, short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” while the story does not take place in a typical haunted plantation house, it does take place in a vacation home