People, Locations, Episodes

Fort Scott, (Kansas) is Founded

Fort Scott, Kansas, is celebrated on this date. The fort was a sensitive military post and town in the years before the Civil War.

The Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation begins

*The Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation began on this date in 1842.  It was the largest escape of enslaved Africans in the American Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Before the white-European invasion, the Cherokee practiced enslaving prisoners of war from other Indian tribes. In the late 18th century, some set up European-American-style plantations on their Cherokee Nation […]

Henry Garnett Gives His Speech “Address to the Slaves”

*On this date in 1843 Henry Highland Garnett gave his “Address to the Slaves” speech.  Garnett was 27 years old when he addressed the National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New York.  This is an abridged version of Garnet’s speech to the 1843 National Negro Convention, which is often referred to as his “Address to the […]

The Dominican Republic Gains Independence From Haiti

*The Dominican Republic gained independence from Haiti on this date in 1844. At the beginning of the 1800s, the colony of Santo Domingo, which had once been the headquarters of Spanish power in the New World, was in decline. During this time, Spain was embroiled in various wars to maintain control of the Americas. With […]

Steele v. Louisville & N. R. Co. Court Case is Decided

*On this date in 1944, Steele v. Louisville & N. R. Co. was decided by the Supreme Court.   In this case, B. W. Steele, a member of the IARE executive, argued that an agreement between the railway and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLFE) was illegal. A whites-only railroad union could not exclude Blacks and deny them better jobs […]

The First Black Law Practice in America Opens

*It was on this date in 1845, Macon B. Allen and Robert Morris Jr. contracted their law firm and became the first Blacks to practice law in America.

They opened their practice on May 3rd of that year in Massachusetts.

The Belmead Plantation is Built

*On this date in 1845, the finished construction of the Belmead plantation is celebrated. This was one of the estimated 46,200 American plantations that existed in 1860. Built with African slave labor, it is located near Powhatan, Powhatan County, Virginia, and designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis for Confederate General Philip St. George Cocke.  After […]

The Mexican American War, a story

*On this date in 1846 the Mexican American War, also known as the Mexican War began. African American Registry briefly writes about this conflict.

A Black Man Patents The Sugar Evaporator

On this date in 1846, Norbert Rillieux, a Black inventor and engineer, patented his revolutionary improvement in the cultivation and processing of sugar.

Rillieux was born into an aristocratic Creole family in New Orleans. He was the son of Vincent Rillieux, a white plantation owner, engineer and inventor, and his placée, Constance Vivant, a Free Person of Color. As a Creole, Norbert had access to education and privileges not available to lower-status blacks or slaves.

Liberia Gains its Independence From America

This date in 1847 marks Independence Day in the Republic of Liberia. Liberia owes its establishment to the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 to resettle freed American slaves in Africa.

Harriet Tubman Begins Working with The Underground Railroad

On this date in 1853, Harriet Tubman began her work with the Underground Railroad. This was a network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South.

On her first trip, Tubman brought her own sister and her sister’s two children out of slavery in Maryland. A year later she rescued her brother, and in 1857 returned to Maryland to guide her aged parents to freedom.

Over a period of ten years Tubman made an estimated 19 expeditions into the South and personally escorted about 300 slaves to the North

Roberts v. City of Boston Begins

On this date in 1849, the case of Roberts v. The City of Boston began. This lawsuit was on behalf of a Black five-year-old who was barred from school.

The suit was heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Court and was a prerequisite legal ruling in the civil rights cases of the NAACP’s assault on America’s segregated educational system. The judge presiding was Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. In 1848, five-year-old Sarah Roberts was barred from the local primary school because she was Black; her father Benjamin sued the city.

The Act For The Government and Protection of Indians is Enacted

*On this date in 1850, The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (Chapter 133, Cal. Stats.) was enacted. It was introduced by the first session of the California State Legislature and signed into law by the first Governor of California, Peter Hardeman Burnett. The legislation led to the forced servitude of many Native Americans […]

The Wheat Community African Burial Ground (Tennessee), a story

*The Wheat Community African Burial Ground is celebrated on this date in c 1850.  Wheat was a farming community in Roane County, Tennessee. The area is now in the city of Oak Ridge.  Discovered in the early 2000s, this 1850s slave cemetery is the final resting place of more than 90 unmarked graves.  The earliest settlers moved […]

The Naming Of The State of California, a story

*The creation of the name California is celebrated on this date in 1850; the official date of it’s statehood. The designation “California” is another piece of African American history.

The name is derived from a knightly romance book that was published in 1510. The story was about an island paradise near the Indies where a beautiful Black Queen Califia ruled. She was the leader a country of Black Amazons with masses of pearls and gold. Men were only allowed on Califia one day a year to help perpetuate the race.