Slavery in the US

J. Marion Sims: The Surgeon Who Built the First Hospital for Black Women in the US to Exploit Their Bodies

J. Marion Sims was a 19th-century American physician who came to be celebrated as the “father of modern gynecology.” But behind his medical legacy lies a deeply disturbing truth. Sims built his reputation by experimenting on enslaved Black women...

Lewis C. Robards: The Slave Trader Who Carved Out a Business Selling Lightskin Girls into Sexual Slavery

Lewis C. Robards was a slave trader who ran a slave jail in Lexington, Kentucky, where he became notorious for trafficking what the white slave trade called “fancy girls”, light-skinned Black girls and women who were specifically sold for...

Rev. Charles Turner Torrey: The American Pastor Sentenced to Prison and Left to Die for Freeing Enslaved Africans

Charles Turner Torrey was an American pastor, journalist, and one of the most daring and politically-minded abolitionists of the 19th century. He played a major role in the fight against slavery by organizing direct actions to help enslaved Africans...

From Stono to Nat Turner: These Are the 10 Most Explosive Slave Rebellions in U.S. History

Throughout the brutal centuries of American slavery, resistance was as common as the oppression itself. Enslaved Africans did not passively accept their bondage; they rebelled, sometimes in open defiance, other times in carefully organized revolts that struck at the...

How Virginia Became the Slave-Breeding Capital of the United States in the 19th Century

When the U.S. banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, Southern plantation owners could no longer import Africans. To meet rising demand for labour, they turned inward, breeding enslaved Africans already in the country. At the heart of this...

The Untold Story of the 1842 Slave Revolt by Enslaved Africans Against the Cherokee Nation

The 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation stands as the largest revolt of enslaved Africans within Cherokee-controlled lands in what was then Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). This daring act of resistance unfolded on November 15, 1842, when 20...

Calvin Fairbank: The U.S. Pastor Who Spent 17 Years in Prison for Helping Enslaved Africans Escape

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...

Anthony Bewley: The Texas Pastor Lynched for His Anti-Slavery Views in 1860

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: The Enslaved African Who Became a Master Potter and Poet in 1800s South Carolina

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: The Black Man Who Was Lynched for Marrying a White Woman and His Success

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...
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Rev. James Thornwell: The Pastor Who Preached Slavery as God’s Will and Called Abolitionists Enemies of Christianity

Rev. James Henley Thornwell was a prominent 19th-century Presbyterian pastor who believed that slavery was morally right and fully...