At the beginning of the Civil War, there were approximately two million enslaved women. An estimated 500,000 of these women fled from slavery as soon as white men left their plantations and homes to join the Confederate army. Those fleeing from slavery escaped to Union-occupied … Read MoreContraband Relief Association (1862-1865)
In the mid 1600’s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a busting port for enslaved Africans. The city was also a place where the abolition movement saw its beginnings. The first document drafted in support of giving enslaved Africans their freedom was created in 1688 by four German … Read MoreThe Founding of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (1775)
William A. Jackson briefly gained notoriety in the early years of the Civil War as an escaped slave and spy. When the Civil War started, Jackson was held in bondage in Richmond, Virginia where he worked as a messenger in the courts and also drove … Read MoreWilliam A. Jackson (1831/ 2(?)- )
Frederick Augustus Hinton, barber, abolitionist, early advocate for independent Black presses, and founding member of the Colored Conventions movement, was born enslaved in Raleigh, North Carolina, to unknown parents. Emancipated in Philadelphia in 1825 at the age of twenty-one, Hinton quickly became a member of … Read MoreFrederick Augustus Hinton (1804-1849)
The invention of the fluted or barbed harpoon, which revolutionized the whaling industry, was the brainchild of Lewis Temple, an African American blacksmith and abolitionist born in 1800 in Richmond, Virginia. Historians have not determined whether or not he started life as a slave or … Read MoreLewis Temple (1800-1854)
Milliken’s Bend was a small community in Louisiana located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about 15 miles above Vicksburg. It was near the border of Madison and Carroll Parishes (now East Carroll Parish). Cotton and corn were the primary crops, and hundreds … Read MoreThe Battle of Milliken’s Bend (1863)
In October, 1834 riots broke out in New York City spurred by a confluence of events: the fiery oratory of abolitionist Protestant ministers (many of whom were also nativist and anti-Catholics); the growing social assertiveness of former enslaved people and of free-born African-Americans in the … Read MoreThe Anti-Abolition Riots (1834)
Mary Virginia Wood is best known as the mother of poet, diarist, and abolitionist Charlotte Forten, but she was also an abolitionist in her own right. Born enslaved in Hertford, Perquimans County, North Carolina, Mary was the eldest of the four daughters of wealthy planter … Read MoreMary Virginia Wood (Forten) (1815-1840)
On August 24, 2019, African American abolitionist John Pierre Burr was honored and formally acknowledged by the Aaron Burr Family Association as the son of former Vice President Aaron Burr in an unveiling of his headstone at Eden Cemetery near Philadelphia. John Pierre Burr was … Read MoreLouisa Burr (1788-1878)
