People, Locations, Episodes

Susan Vashon, Teacher, and Abolitionist born

*Susan Paul Vashon was born in Boston, Massachusetts on this date in 1838. She was an African American teacher and abolitionist.

Rosetta Douglass-Sprague, Educator, and Activist born

*Rosetta Douglass-Sprague was born on this date in 1839. She was a Black teacher and activist. She was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Anna Murray-Douglass and Frederick Douglass. When she was five, she moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, with her parents. She was the eldest of five children. Like her father, she was a critical thinker but struggled […]

Laura Spelman Rockefeller, Abolitionist born

*Laura Spelman Rockefeller was born on this date in 1839.  She was a white-American abolitionist, philanthropist, and schoolteacher.   Laura Celestia Spelman was born in Wadsworth, Ohio, to Puritan descendants Harvey Buell Spelman and Lucy Henry, Yankees who had moved to Ohio from Massachusetts. Her father was an abolitionist who was active in the Congregationalist Church, the Underground Railroad, and politics.  Her family eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Spelman had an elder adopted sister, Lucy […]

The First World Anti-Slavery Convention is Held

*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 […]

Cudjo Lewis, Slave Laborer, and Historian born

*The birth of Cudjo Lewis, c 1840, is celebrated on this date.  He was a Black Laborer, Historian, and one of the last known African survivors of the Middle Passage, the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States. He was born Oluale Kossola in Benin to Oluale Kossola and his second wife Fondlolu.  He […]

James M. Turner, Activist born

*This date in 1840 is celebrated as the birth date of James M. Turner, a Black Reconstruction Era politician, activist, educator, and diplomat.   James Milton Turner was born into slavery in St. Louis, Missouri. As a child, he was sold on the steps of the St. Louis US Courthouse for $50 (US$ 1,500 in […]

Frederick Douglass Jr., Abolitionist, and Editor born

*Frederick Douglass Jr. was born on this date in 1842. He was an abolitionist, essayist, newspaper editor, and official recruiter of colored soldiers for the United States Union Army during the American Civil War. He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the second son of Frederick Douglass and his first wife, Anna Murray Douglass. As a youngster while still […]

William Monroe Trotter, Publisher, and Activist born

*William Monroe Trotter was born on this date in 1872. He was an African American news publisher and activist and perhaps the most militant of the known civil rights activist of the 19th century.

Julia Bullard Nelson, Educator, and Activist born

*Julia Bullard Nelson was born on this date in 1842. She was a white-American educator and activist for inclusive education and a woman’s right to vote. Born in High Ridge, Connecticut, Bullard moved to Minnesota with her family in 1857. Around 1862, she earned a teaching degree at Hamline University and then relocated to Red […]

Hester C Jeffery, Activist, Suffagist born

*The birth of Hester C. Jeffrey is celebrated on this date in c. 1842. She was a Black activist, suffragist, and community organizer. IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, Hester C. Whitehurst was born to free black parents Robert and Martha Whitehurst. She was educated and considered an accomplished musician. In 1860, Jeffrey, her brother, and her sister […]

Josephine Ruffin, News Publisher born

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, a Black journalist and civil rights leader, was born on this date in 1842.

Ruffin was born into one of Boston’s leading black families. In 1858, at the age of 15, she became the wife of George Lewis Ruffin, the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School. During the Civil War, Ruffin was involved in various civil rights causes, charity work, and the women’s suffrage movement. In 1879, she established the Boston Kansas Relief Association, a charity organization that provided food and clothing to black Bostonians who were migrating to Kansas.

Thomas Henry Lyles, Businessman born

*The birth of Thomas Henry Lyles is celebrated on this date in 1843. He was a Black soldier, businessman, and activist. Born in Maryland, Lyles served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.  Around 1870, Lyles married  Amanda Lyles, and the couple arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1874. The 1880 Census shows Lyles […]

The Palladium of Liberty Newspaper is Published

*The Palladium of Liberty published its first issue on this date in 1843.  This was the first newspaper published by Black Ohioans to promote Black civil rights in Ohio. David Jenkins and other Black community leaders launched the Columbus-based weekly.   The Palladium of Liberty was established by the resolutions of two African American citizens’ conventions in 1843, which David […]

Helen Villard, Activist, and Suffragist born

*Helen Villard was born on this date in 1844.  She was a white-American women’s suffrage campaigner, pacifist, and racial activist.   Born in Boston, MA., Helen Frances Garrison, known to family and friends as “Fanny,” was the only surviving daughter of five sons and two daughters born to Helen Eliza Benson and William Lloyd Garrison. Her brother, William Lloyd […]

Abolitionist is Branded a ‘Slave Stealer’

On this date from 1845, we recall the Branding of a Slave Stealer, Massachusetts’s sea captain, Jonathan Walker.

Jonathan Walker, a white man born in 1790, was arrested in 1844 for trying to carry slaves who were members of his church to freedom in the Bahamas. He was apprehended off the coast of Florida. He was jailed for more than a year and branded with the letters “S.S.” for Slave Stealer.