Frederick Douglass described his early life in an address titled, “My Slave Experience in Maryland, “in a speech delivered in New York City on May 6, 1845. The speech, which was reprinted in the National Antislavery Standard on May 22, 1845, appears below. Douglass had … Read More(1845) Frederick Douglass, “My Slave Experience in Maryland”
The National Negro Convention of 1843 was held in Buffalo, New York drawing some seventy delegates a dozen states. Among the delegates were young, rising leaders in the African American community including Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Charles B. Ray and Charles L. Remond. Twenty-seven … Read More(1843) Henry Highland Garnet, “An Address to the Slaves of the United States”
The National Convention of Colored Citizens which met in Buffalo, New York from August 15 to 19, 1843 is best remembered as the venue for the speech by Rev. Henry Highland Garnet calling on the slaves to “throw off their chains.” However the chair of … Read More(1843) Samuel H. Davis, “We Must Assert Our Rightful Claims and Plead Our Own Cause”
Daniel A. Payne was born on February 24, 1811, in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of free blacks. Educated at a Charleston school established by free blacks and by a private tutor, he mastered mathematics, Greek, Latin, and French. In 1826 Payne joined the Methodist … Read More(1839) Daniel A. Payne, “Slavery Brutalizes Man”
Andrew Harris, (1810-1841), graduated from the University of Vermont in 1838. One year later in an address delivered to nearly five thousand abolitionists at New York City’s Broadway Tabernacle on May 7, 1839, young Harris argued that slavery in the South influenced racism in the … Read More(1839) Andrew Harris, “Slavery Presses Down Upon the Free People of Color”
James McCune Smith (1813-1865) was a prominent physician and abolitionist. Smith was educated in the African Free School in New York City. When failing to be admitted to any American college, he enrolled in Glasgow University in Scotland in 1832 and earned three degrees including … Read More(1838) James McCune Smith, “The Abolition Of Slavery And The Slave Trade In The French And British Colonies”
Rev. Theodore S. Wright, (1797-1847) was born to free parents in Providence, Rhode Island. By the 1830s Wright was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City and a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Wright, a dedicated abolitionist, attended the New York State … Read More(1837) Theodore S. Wright, “Prejudice Against the Colored Man”
Fourteen years after its founding the American Colonization Society remained controversial among African Americans. By 1830 many of them opposed it and more generally the idea of forced or voluntary repatriation of blacks to Africa. One of these opponents, Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., the minister … Read More(1830) Rev. Peter Williams, Jr. “This is Our Country”
In 1827 Rev. Nathaniel Paul, a minister in Albany, New York, hails the final abolition of slavery in that state. His address given on July 5, 1827 in Albany marks that occassion. The address appears below. We look forward with pleasing anticipation to that period, when … Read More(1827) Rev. Nathaniel Paul Hails The End Of Slavery In New York
In January 1809, the African American community of New York celebrated the first anniversary of the slave importation ban passed by Congress. That celebration, however, would be the last. By the following year it was clear that the law prohibiting the “foreign” slave trade was … Read More(1809) William Hamilton, “Mutual Interest, Mutual Benefit, and Mutual Relief”
