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...
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...
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...
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...
In the brutal world of slavery, where whips tore skin and families were auctioned, and bred like cattle, the most powerful weapon wasn’t always the lash, it was the Bible. Through sermons, laws, and redacted scripture, Christianity which was...
The term “fancy girls” refers to light-skinned enslaved biracial or african girls who were sold for the purpose of sexual exploitation and concubinage during the antebellum period in the United States.
These young girls, many of them barely into their...
When we think of the transatlantic slave trade, the brutality of capture, forced transport, and unpaid labour is rightly at the forefront. But what’s often overlooked is how targeted and strategic this system was. Enslavement wasn’t random. European slavers...
The Boston Vigilance Committee, formed in 1841, was a rugged organization in the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts. Its mission was simple: to protect escaped enslaved Africans from being captured and returned to slavery in the Southern United States. Operating...
Shields Green, also known as “Emperor,” was one of the most enigmatic figures in the fight against slavery in the United States. An escaped slave from Charleston, South Carolina, Green became a close associate of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and...
