In the mid-19th century, when the mere act of helping an enslaved African escape was punishable by years of brutal imprisonment, or worse, one man dared to defy the law in the name of faith and freedom. His name...
Bayume Mohamed Husen was a Black German war veteran, who was arrested in 1941 for having a romantic relationship with a white German woman, an act the Nazis deemed racial defilement. He was imprisoned without trial and died in...
Antonio Ruiz, known as Falucho, was an Afro-Argentine soldier who rose from slavery to become a national hero in Argentina’s fight for independence. Serving under General José de San Martín, he is remembered for choosing death over betrayal of...
Slavery in the Caribbean was anything but a civilizing mission, it was a system of violence, exploitation, and relentless suffering that lasted over 300 years. In Cuba, where the sugar economy thrived on the backs of enslaved Africans, generations...
On September 13, 1860, a mob in Fort Worth, Texas, lynched a Methodist pastor named Anthony Bewley. His crime? He dared to oppose slavery in a state where even the faintest whisper of abolitionism could cost a person their...
In August 1908, the city of Springfield, Illinois—often celebrated as the hometown of Abraham Lincoln—became the site of one of the most violent race riots in American history. Over the course of just a few days, white mobs rampaged...
David Drake, also known as “Dave the Potter”, was a master craftsman, poet, and one of the most remarkable enslaved Africans in 19th-century America. Born around 1800 in South Carolina, he was taught to shape clay into large, durable...
William Donnegan was an 84-year-old Black cobbler, property owner, former conductor on the Underground Railroad and longtime resident of Springfield, Illinois, whose wealth and interracial marriage made him a target of white resentment during the infamous Springfield Race Riot...
In August 1908, Springfield, Illinois, a city hailed as the home of Abraham Lincoln, erupted into a storm of racial violence that shocked the nation. Between August 14 and 16, an estimated 5,000 white Americans and European immigrants carried...
Nathan “Nearest” Green is one of the most influential, yet long-overlooked, figures in the history of American whiskey. Born into slavery in the early 19th century, Green’s extraordinary skill as a distiller became the cornerstone of what would grow...
