PRESTON BROOKS' RIDING CROP
AIRED: Season 2, Episode 6
THE DETECTIVE: Tukufu Zuberi
THE PLACE: Long Island, New York
THE CASE:
A Long Island man owns a beautiful old riding crop he claims was given to an ancestor by the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.
But this is no ordinary present.
Its owner believes it was given to Preston Brooks to congratulate him for beating anti-slavery campaigner, Charles Sumner, senseless in the Senate - a public attack many regard as a significant moment in America's move toward division and Civil War.
To find out if the story behind the crop is true, History Detectives taps into New York City, Columbus, Georgia and Sea Cliff, New York, where they unravel a startling story of politics, filibustering and mistaken identity.
More Leads
Links
Virtual San Francisco Museum
An account of William Walker's annexation of Lower California.
Read William Walker's proclamation
Diary of a Cuban Invader
Read excerpts from the diary of Colonel M.C. Taylor, who was on the Lopez invasion of Cuba in 1850.
The Charleston Mercury from 1849
Read a transcript of the editorial from the Charleston Mercury from August 16, 1849 rallying the South to the filibuster cause.
The Filibuster Movement
A site replete with links on the filibuster movement.
Book
May, Robert E. Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002
Trivia Quiz Episode 6
Think you have a case for the History Detectives? Send us your mystery here. 