African-American history

Robert Charles Riots: How Provocative Policing Triggered a Race Riot That Targeted Black Americans in New Orleans in 1900

The Robert Charles riots of 1900, remain one of the most violent and racially charged events in New Orleans history. The conflict began after African-American laborer Robert Charles was confronted by police whose provocative tactics and heavy-handed enforcement led...

John Rankin House: The Hilltop Refuge That Helped Guide Over 2,000 Enslaved Africans to Freedom

The John Rankin House in Ripley, Ohio, is a historic brick home that played an important role in the Underground Railroad during the early 19th century. More than just a residence, it became one of the earliest and most...

The Ruthless Methods White Enslavers Used to Shape Enslaved Africans into the “Perfect Slave”

In his 1956 classic The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South, historian Kenneth M. Stampp shattered the myth of slavery as a gentle system. Using plantation records, letters, and slave narratives, he revealed that white enslavers deliberately sought...

Rosa Lee Ingram: The Woman Sentenced to Death with Her Sons for Standing Up to a White Farmer in 1948

Rosa Lee Ingram was a widowed African American mother of twelve children and a hardworking sharecropper who lived in the deep South during one of the harshest times for Black women in America. In the 1940s, her name became...

The Brutal Lynching of Fifteen-Year-Old Preston John Porter Jr. in 1900

On November 16, 1900, a crowd of over three hundred white men gathered near Limon, Colorado, to watch a horrifying spectacle. A 15-year-old Black boy named Preston John Porter Jr. was chained to a steel rail and burned alive....

From Slave to Genius Inventor: The Untold Story of Andrew Jackson Beard

Andrew Jackson Beard was an African American inventor whose brilliance shone despite being born into a world that denied him education. A self-taught genius, Beard created life-saving innovations in agriculture and railroad engineering, leaving behind a legacy that still...

Rev. John Rankin: The American Pastor Who Helped More Than 2,000 Enslaved Africans Escape from Slavery

In an era when many pastors stood on the fence, or worse, used the Bible to justify slavery with verses like “Slaves, obey your masters as you would Jesus”, one man chose to defy both his peers and the...

Saint Frances Academy: The School Founded in 1828 to Educate Black Children Despite Widespread Opposition

Saint Frances Academy was founded in 1828 by Mary Elizabeth Lange, later known as Mother Mary Lange, at a time when educating Black people was frowned upon. It stands today as the first and oldest continually operating Black Catholic...

Harriet Jacobs: The Woman Who Hid in an Attic for Seven Years to Escape Slavery and Sexual Abuse

Harriet Jacobs’ story is one of the most extraordinary acts of survival in American history. To escape her master’s relentless sexual abuse and also slavery, she spent seven years hiding in a tiny attic, unable to stand or move...

York: The Enslaved African American Explorer Who Was Betrayed Back Into Slavery

York was an enslaved African American whose courage and skill helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition discover the vast lands of the Louisiana Territory and reach the Pacific Coast. He hunted, built shelters, navigated rivers, and won the admiration...
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The Role Christian Ministers Played Aboard Slave Ships During the Transatlantic Slave Trade

The transatlantic slave trade was one of history’s darkest enterprises, carrying millions of Africans across the ocean in brutal...