*The abolition of slavery in Peru is celebrated on this date in 1854. Throughout the Middle Passage, approximately 95,000 slaves were brought into Peru, with the last group arriving in 1850. Often slaves were initially transported to Cuba and Hispaniola, where traders brought them to Panama and the Viceroyalty of Peru. Planters and others also purchased slaves in Cartagena, […]
learn moreThe construction of the Pico House in 1870 is celebrated on this date. This was one of the many municipalities built and maintained by Blacks as southern California emerged as a state (founded in 1850).
learn moreOn this date in 1854, fugitive slave Anthony Burns was returned to the South from Boston.
Born a slave in Virginia, Burns was 20 when he escaped to Boston. There, for a few short months, he lived and worked as a free man. But he was arrested and held without bail at the instigation of his former owner, Charles Suttle, who came north to bring back his slave. Suttle invoked the Fugitive Slave Act, a highly controversial federal law that allowed owners to reclaim escaped slaves by presenting proof of ownership. Suttle had every intention of taking his slave home.
learn moreOn this date in 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act that allowed voting residents (meaning primarily white males) in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether to allow slavery within their borders.
learn moreOn this date in 1854, James Augustine Healy was ordained in Paris, France, thus becoming the first Black priest in the Catholic Church.
Two brothers followed him and all three had to study abroad. James Healy became the first Black bishop of Portland, ME., in 1875. Alexander Sherwood was ordained for the diocese of Massachusetts. Patrick Frances obtained his PH.D (the first Black) from Louvian University, Belgium and became the first Black president of Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
learn more*On this date in 1854, Elizabeth Jennings was refused a seat on public Streetcar, setting off the first racial transportation lawsuit in America.
It happened in downtown New York City.
*On this date in 1856, we celebrate the Margaret Garner story. This account is one of the most notorious runaway slave cases in pre-Civil War America.
Ms. Garner, her husband, children and other slaves stole a carriage and fled to Covington, where they ran across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati, like thousands of other slaves. They hid overnight in the home of her cousin, a freeman. But the Garners were caught when frantic Slave catchers, armed with guns and carrying warrants, arrived and demanded their “property,” Ms. Garner, her four children and her husband.
learn more*On this date in 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott Case. It is believed by many to have been a key cause of the American Civil War, and of the ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, leading to the end of slavery and the beginning of civil rights for freed African slaves.
learn more*The birth of Matilda McCrear in c1857 is affirmed on this date. She was a Black African (Yoruba) woman who was enslaved and transported to America. Matilda McCrear was captured by slave traders in West Africa when she was two years old and taken to the USA on the Clotilda, the last ship to transport enslaved Africans to […]
learn more*The Sugg/McDonald House is celebrated on this date in 1857. Located in Sonora, Tuolumne County, CA, it was built by a former Black slave, William Sugg. Sugg, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, arrived in California, and it is not known how long he was enslaved in California. Francis Tate of Texas manumitted Sugg after […]
learn more*On this date, 1857, Quindaro Townsite, KS, was founded. Quindaro was one of several competing small ports on the Missouri River and part of the conflict of American slavery’s expansion. Quindaro was founded in the 1850s by abolitionists, settlers, Wyandots, and freedmen. Abelard Guthrie, credited as the founder who purchased land for the settlement, named it […]
learn more*On this date in 1858, The African Civilization Society is celebrated. This emigration organization was founded by several prominent members of the historic Weeksville community in New York City. The organization was intended to promote emigration to Liberia, which gained independence in 1847, and create a competing “free-labor” cotton industry with the slavery-based cotton industries of the […]
learn more*On this date in 1858, Archy Lee a Black man was granted his freedom in California. Archy Lee was a Black slave in Mississippi owned by his white-American owner, Charles Stovall. Stovall brought Lee with him to Sacramento, California on October 2, 1857. While in California, Stovall rented out Lee for his wages. In January […]
learn more*On this date, in 1858, Commodore arrived from San Francisco. Among the 400 or 500 Emigrants were 35 black men of different trades and calling, chiefly intending to settle here. They were congregants of the First A.M.E. Zion Church of San Francisco. On Monday (the following day), drinking tea at Mrs. Blinkhorn’s with my wife, […]
learn more*On this date in 1858, the Oberlin Wellington Rescue occurred. Taking place in Lorain County, Ohio, this was a key episode in the history of the abolitionist movement in the United States.
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