James Robinson was an enslaved African American who was lured into fighting in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom and its allies with the false promise of freedom if the wars were...
Slavery in America was one of the darkest chapters in its history, built on violence, fear, and dehumanization. Plantation owners relied on terror to maintain control over the enslaved, and fear was their most powerful weapon. Enslaved people who...
Antoine Lavalette, a French Jesuit priest and missionary, is remembered not only for his involvement in spreading Catholicism but also for his dark history of brutality. Born on October 26, 1708, Lavalette was sent to the Caribbean island of...
Jermain Wesley Loguen, born into slavery in 1813, rose to become one of the most influential abolitionists in American history. Known as the “King of the Underground Railroad,” Loguen’s fearless dedication to helping enslaved Africans escape to freedom made...
In the late 19th century, Memphis, Tennessee, was a city rife with racial tension, where economic success for African Americans was often met with hostility. At the heart of this disturbance was Peoples Grocery, a thriving Black-owned store that...
Anne Marie Becraft was an influential 19th-century American educator and one of the first African-American nuns in the Catholic Church. Born in 1805 to a free Black Catholic family in Washington, D.C., she founded the first school for Black...
Breaking on the wheel, a brutal method of execution, was widely used in Europe and its colonies during the 18th century. In this gruesome practice, the victim was tied to a large wheel, and their bones were methodically broken...
On October 11, 1878, Posey County, Indiana, near the town of Mount Vernon, became the site of the largest reported lynching in the state’s history when a white mob brutally lynched Jim Good, Jeff Hopkins, Ed Warner, William Chambers,...
In the early 19th century, a remarkable figure emerged in the fight against oppression and systemic racism in the United States. John Berry Meachum, a freed African reverend, educator, abolitionist and entrepreneur, defied the odds and built a legacy...
Ned was an enslaved African owned by Oscar J.E. Stuart, a lawyer and planter from Mississippi, known for inventing the innovative “double plow and scraper." Despite the practical importance of the invention, Ned could not patent it due to...
