*On this date in 1835, the Snow Race Riot occurred. This was a riot and lynching that took place in Washington, D.C. It was an attack on free blacks in the city by whites, the Snow Riot wreaked havoc on anything affiliated with free blacks for days by robbing and destroying all of their establishments. The name of the riot comes from one of […]
learn more*The Texas Revolution began on this date in 1835. This conflict was a rebellion of white and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) in armed resistance to the centralist government of Mexico. The revolution began after a decade of political and cultural clashes between the Mexican government and Texas’s increasingly large population of white-American settlers. Mexico officially abolished […]
learn more*On this date in 1836, the Mexican army began attacking the Alamo. This saga of the American story is an important piece of African American history.
Most of the men and women who moved to the Texas territory were colonizers who came in search of wealth and adventure, eager to grab up the land Mexico was handing out by the acre. In doing so, they agreed to convert to Catholicism and become Mexican citizens. Few did either. Once in Texas, they also realized there was much money to be made in Mexico’s cotton industry.
learn more*On this date in 1836, Commonwealth v. Aves, 35 Mass. 193, was decided. This case was in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on transporting slaves to free states. That year, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that slaves brought to Massachusetts “for any temporary purpose of business or pleasure” were entitled to freedom. The case was the most important legal victory for abolitionists in the 1830s and […]
learn more*New Philadelphia, Illinois, is celebrated on this date in 1836. This is one of many original Black Town sites in America. The now-vanished town of “New Philadelphia,” Illinois, is located near Barry, in Pike County. It was the first town in the United States to be platted and registered by a Black man before the American Civil War. The founder Free Frank McWorter was […]
learn more*On this date in 1837, we celebrate the Mississippi-in-Africa. This colony on the Pepper Coast (West Africa) was founded by America’s Mississippi Colonization Society and settled by American freedmen and former slaves. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded in the United States in 1816 as a joint project by proslavery and antislavery advocates to establish a […]
learn moreOn this date in 1831, during the Second Seminole War, a force of Seminole Indians defeated U.S. troops in the Battle of Okeechobee in Florida.
Chief John Horse (a Black man) shared command with Alligator Sam Jones and Wild Cat. Blacks had a reputation as “fearless” fighters in the numerous battles with U.S. troops. Blacks also served with the American troops as scouts, interpreters, and even spies. In 1849, the U.S. attorney general’s office ruled that Black Seminoles were slaves by law. The U.S. government actively promoted slavery among relocated Native American tribes.
learn more*On this date in 1838, Georgetown University sold 272 African Slaves through their administration.
These humans were loaded on ships at a active landing stage in the nation’s capital, intended for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. No one was spared: baby’s, mothers, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard.
learn more*The birth of Joseph R. Holmes is celebrated on this date in 1838. He was a Black shoemaker, farmer, and politician. Holmes published various articles critical of conservatives after the American Civil War. After being emancipated from Charlotte County, Virginia, he married Mary Clarke. They had three sons and one daughter. On October 23, 1867, Holmes and […]
learn moreOn this date in 1839, Cinque of the Mende tribe was kidnapped into slavery.
learn more*On this date in 1840, The World Anti-Slavery Convention met for the first time at Exeter Hall in London. The new society’s mission was “The universal extinction of slavery and the slave trade and the protection of the rights and interests of the enfranchised population in the British possessions and of all persons captured […]
learn more*The Ashworth Act was passed on this date in 1840. The Texas Senate passed this legislation. It made the Ashworth Family, freedmen, and formerly enslaved people in the Republic of Texas exempt from a new law stipulating that all Black Texans either leave or be enslaved. The Ashworths were Portuguese North Africans. They migrated from South Carolina, […]
learn more*The Republic of Maryland is affirmed on this date in 1841. Also known as the Independent State of Maryland, it was a country in West Africa that existed from 1834 to 1857, when it was merged into Liberia. The state of Maryland had an increasing proportion of free blacks. During the first two decades after the […]
learn more*On this date, 1841, United States v. Schooner Amistad, 40 U.S. (15 Pet.) 518 (1841), was decided. This was a United States Supreme Court case resulting from the rebellion of Africans on board the Spanish schooner La Amistad in 1839. It was an unusual freedom suit that involved international issues and parties, as well as United States law. The case was the most important court […]
learn more*On this date in 1842, Prigg v. Pennsylvania was decided. This was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the federal Fugitive Slave Act (1793) precluded a Pennsylvania state law that prohibited Blacks from being taken from the free state of Pennsylvania into slavery. The Court overturned the conviction of slavecatcher Edward Prigg as a result. Occurring under the presidency of John […]
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