People, Locations, Episodes

Harriet Jacobs, Author, and Abolitionist born

*This date celebrates the birth of Harriet Jacobs in 1813. She was an Black abolitionist and author.

Henry W. Beecher, Abolitionist born

Henry Ward Beecher was born on this date in 1813. He was a White American abolitionist, speaker and writer.

Anna Murray-Douglass, Abolitionist born

On this date, we celebrate the birth of Anna Murray Douglass, a Black abolitionist, born in 1813.

Murray Douglass was from near Denton in eastern Maryland, and was the first person in her family to be born free. At the age of 17, she came to Baltimore where she met and eventually married Frederick Douglass (then Frederick Bailey). They married after his escape from slavery in 1838.

Murray-Douglass was an activist in her own right, participating vigorously in the circle of the Massachusetts reformers in the 1840s. This group included Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison.

Samuel Burris, Abolitionist born

*The birth of Samuel Burris in 1813 is remembered on this date. He was a black abolitionist and member of the Underground Railroad.

Shadrach Minkins, Abolitionist born

*The birth of Shadrach Minkins in 1814 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black fugitive slave.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, he escaped from slavery in 1849. Minkins settled in Boston, Massachusetts (a Free State), where he became a waiter. In 1850, Congress enacted the Fugitive Slave Law, which allowed federal agents to seize escaped slaves living in Free states and return them to their owners. United States marshals arrested Minkins on February 15, 1851; but he was rescued by force by members of the anti-slavery Boston Vigilance Committee.

Sengbe Piehis (Joseph Cinque), Abolitionist born

*Sengbe Piehis’s birth is celebrated on this date, c. 1814. Also known as Joseph Cinqué, sometimes called Cinqué, he was a West African man of the Mende people who led a revolt of many Africans on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad.   Cinqué was born in what is now Sierra Leone. His exact date of birth remains unknown. He was a rice farmer […]

Mary Ellen Pleasant, Entrepreneur born

*On this date in 1814, Mary Ellen Pleasant was born. She was an African American abolitionist, businesswoman, and entrepreneur for over fifty years in the San Francisco Gold Rush heyday.

Mrytilla Miner, Educator born

*Myrtilla Miner was born on this date in 1815.  She was a white-American educator and abolitionist.  From Brookfield, New York, Miner was educated at the Clover Street Seminary in Rochester, New York (1840–44), and taught at various schools, including the Newton Female Institute (1846–47) in Whitesville, Mississippi, where she was denied permission to conduct classes for Black girls. In 1851 Miner opened the Normal School […]

Henry ‘Box’ Brown, Abolitionist born

*The birth of Henry Box Brown, in 1815, is celebrated on this date. He was a Black abolitionist and writer.

George DeBaptiste, Michigan Abolitionist born

*The birth of George DeBaptiste, in 1815, is celebrated on this date. He was a Black abolitionist and businessman.

Henry Bibb, Author, and Emigration Advocate born

This date marks the birth of Henry Bibb in 1815. He was a Black author, editor, abolitionist, and advocate of emigration from the United States.

Sarah Blake Shaw, Philanthropist born

 *Sarah Blake Shaw was born on this date in 1815.  She was a white-American abolitionist, women’s rights supporter, anti-imperialist, and philanthropist.   Sarah Blake Sturgis was the daughter of Bostonians Nathaniel Russell Sturgis and Susannah Thomsen Parkman. She was the younger sister of merchant Russell Sturgis. She married Francis George Shaw on June 9, 1835. […]

Benjamin F. Robert, Abolitionist, and Journalist born

*Benjamin F. Roberts was born on this date in 1815. He was a Black printer, writer, activist, and abolitionist. Benjamin F. Roberts was one of the 12 children of Sarah and Robert Roberts. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was named after Benjamin Franklin and came from an impressive lineage of activists and writers through both […]

Bethany Veney, Abolitionist, and Author born

The birth of Bethany Veney in 1815 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black woman author.

Leonard Grimes, Pastor, and Abolitionist born

*Leonard Grimes was born on this date in 1815.  was a Black abolitionist and pastor.   Born a mulatto child in Leesburg, Virginia, Leonard Andrew Grimes grew up a free man. Yet, he witnessed the horrors of slavery in the South and devoted his life to assisting fugitive slaves and advocating abolitionism. After moving to […]