People, Locations, Episodes

‘The Weeping Time’ Episode Occurs

*On this date in 1859, “the weeping time” of slavery occurred in African American heritage. This was the largest sale of human beings in the history in the United States.

The Africa Squadron Is Created

*On this date in 1859, The Africa Squadron was created. The Squadron Unit was an outgrowth of the 1819 treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom that was an early step in suppressing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It was further paralleled by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Although technically coordinated with a British […]

The First Novel by a Black Author is Published in America

On this date in 1859, the first novel by an African American was published in the United States.

“Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In a Two Story White House North, Showing that Slavery’s Shadow Falls Even There,” by Harriet E. Adams Wilson, was published in Boston. She was living alone at the time of the writing, having been abandoned by her husband.

The novel was lost for over 100 years until reprinted with a critical essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in 1983.

The Raid on Harpers Ferry (Virginia) Begins

On this date in 1859, abolitionist John Brown, who was white, and a group of his followers raided the Harpers Ferry Virginia arsenal.

This was a crucial turning point in the movement that led to the American Civil War and the legal end to African slavery in the United States. Brown planned that he and his men would establish a base in the Blue Ridge Mountains from which they would help runaway slaves and launch attacks on slaveholders. This plan had been described to potential funders two years earlier.

Harpers Ferry Conspirators Are Hanged

On this date in 1859, two of the five Black abolitionist in the raid on Harpers Ferry, Shields Green and John Anthony Copeland, were hanged. The conspirators were put to death for their participation in John Brown’s revolt against slavery.

Copeland was led to the gallows shouting, “I am dying for freedom. I could not die for a better cause. I would rather die than be a slave.”

Tanner’s Alley, (Harrisburg, PA.), a story

*Harrisburg, PA, was chartered on March 19, 1860.  This date is used because this city is home to Tanner’s Alley, a section of Harrisburg that played a part in the abolition movement during American slavery. Settled around 1719, the city was a stop on the Underground Railroad, where runaway slaves were fed and clothed on […]

The Rankin House (Underground Railroad Stop) a story

This date in 1787 recalls the Rankin House, a pivotal point of shelter for many Black slaves escaping bondage before emancipation.

Fort Greene, New York City, a story

*Fort Greene, NYC, is celebrated on this date in 1860.  This is a diverse neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.   As of 2010, the racial makeup of the neighborhood was 27.9% (7,289) White, 42.5% (11,081) African American, 0.3% (67) Native American, 7.3% (1,897) Asian, 0.0% (7) Pacific […]

The Slave Ship Clotilda Arrives In Alabama

*On this date in 1860, the last American slave ship (on record) docked in Mobile, Alabama. Called the Clotilda, the ship was a two-massed schooner, 86 feet (26 m) long with a beam of 23 feet. (7.0 m).  The ship arrived at Mobile Bay with 110-160 black captives from Africa to the United States.  The […]

The Confederate States of America is Formed

*On this date in 1861, The Confederate States of America was formed.  Commonly referred to as the Confederacy, they were an unrecognized republic in North America that existed from 1861 to 1865.  The Confederacy was originally formed by seven secessionist slave-holding states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas in the Lower Antebellum South region.   Their economy depended heavily on agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of Black slaves. Convinced that white […]

The Emancipation Reform of Russia is Enacted

*The Emancipation Reform of Russia was enacted on this date in 1861. also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, it was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto […]

The American Civil War Begins

On this date in 1861, the Civil War began. This war is also referred to as “The War Between the States”, “The War of Rebellion”, or “The War for Southern Independence.”

Confederate Slave Contraband, and the American Civil War, a story

*Confederate slave contraband and the American Civil War are affirmed on this date in 1861. On that date, Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend were Black field hands owned by Charles Mallory, rowed across the James River in Virginia, and claimed asylum in a Union-held citadel. Fort Monroe, Va., a fishhook-shaped spit of land near the […]

The American Civil War, a Summary

The American Civil War, waged from 1861 to 1865, is remembered on this date.

Before and during the Civil War, the North and South differed greatly on economic issues. The war was about slavery, but primarily about its economic consequences. The northern elite wanted economic expansion that would change the southern (slave-holding) way of life.

The southern states saw Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans making enormous changes to their way of life using free slave labor. Southerners believed that Abraham Lincoln, if elected, would restrict their rights to own slaves.

The First American Civil War Battle Occurs

The first encounter of the Civil War happened on this date in 1861 at the Fairfax Court House in Arlington Mills, Virginia.

The result was that all mail delivery between the US and the Confederacy stopped. The following year, 1862, on the same date, slavery was abolished in all United States possessions.