Academic Historian

Midori Takagi is an associate professor of history at Fairhaven College, Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.  Her M.Phil and Ph.D. in history are from Columbia University, while her Master’s degree is from American University and her undergraduate degree is from Oberlin College.  She has authored “Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction” Slavery in Richmond, Virginia, 1782-1865 published by University Press of Virginia.  She has also contributed to a number of anthologies including Sexual Borderland: Constructing an American Sexual Past, edited by Kathleen Kennedy and Sharon Ullman, published by Ohio State University Press.

First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia (1780- )

The First Baptist Church, founded in 1780 by Joshua Morris, emerged in the aftermath of the Great Awakening religious revival movement (1730s-1770s) that spread across the South.  In contrast to the other churches in Richmond organized during the same time, the First Baptist attracted both … Read MoreFirst Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia (1780- )

Jordan Hatcher Case (1852)

Jordan Hatcher was a seventeen-year-old enslaved tobacco worker in Richmond, Virginia, who in 1852 rose from obscurity to notoriety when charged with assaulting and killing white overseer William Jackson.  According to newspaper accounts and trial records, Hatcher was working at the Walker & Harris tobacco … Read MoreJordan Hatcher Case (1852)