People, Locations, Episodes

The New England Anti-Slavery Society is Founded

*On this date in 1832 the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded.

Originated in Boston, its preamble stated:

Emily Goodridge Grey, Abolitionist born

*Emily Goodridge Grey’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1833. She was a Black homemaker, writer, and abolitionist sympathizer.  Born in York, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William and Emily Goodridge; she had three brothers, William, Glenavon, and Wallace, and one sister, Susan. Her father, a former slave, worked with the Underground Railroad […]

Erastus Cravath, Abolitionist born

*Erastus Cravath was born on this date in 1833. He was a White American abolitionist, educator, chaplin and administrator.

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society is Founded

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded on this date in 1833. This was an abolitionist group that also championed racial and sexual equity.

The society’s first meeting took place in Catherine McDermot’s schoolroom in Philadelphia. The constitution they adopted set forth their firm belief that slavery and prejudice were contrary to the laws of God and the Declaration of Independence. During the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, anti-slavery societies sprang up in cities across the North. Of the 42 women who became the society’s charter members, nine were Black. They were

Henry M. Turner, Minister, and Nationalist born

*Henry McNeal Turner was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black Nationalist, Repatriations advocate, and Minister.

From near Abbeville, South Carolina, born of free parents, McNeal was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1853 and became a Bishop in 1880. In 1863, he became the first Black army chaplain and he was the president of Morris Brown College for twelve years. Turner was a leading advocate of Black repatriations. In 1867, the American Colonization Society elected him as their president and he made several trips abroad on their behalf.

Anthony Burns, Preacher, and Fugitive Slave born

*Anthony Burns was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black Preacher and a fugitive slave. Anthony Burns was born enslaved in Stafford County, Virginia. His mother, also enslaved by John Suttle, died shortly after his birth. His mother was a cook for the Suttle family and had 13 children, with him as […]

Lewis Sheridan Leary, Abolitionist born

*Lewis Sheridan Leary was born on this date in 1835. He was a Black harness maker and abolitionist.  He was a free-born Black from Fayetteville, North Carolina. His paternal grandparents were an Irishman, Jeremiah O’Leary, and his wife of African, European, and Native American descent. His great-grandfather, Aaron Revels, was a cousin to Hiram Rhodes […]

The Nathan Thomas House, (Michigan) Opens

*The opening of the Nathan Thomas House is celebrated on this date in 1835.  This was the location of one of Michigan’s most active Underground Railroad stations. Dr. Nathan M. and Pamela Brown Thomas created the refuge. In 1835, he constructed a building that served as an office and residence. Five years later, he enlarged […]

Mary Patterson Langston, Abolitionist born

*Mary Patterson Leary Langston’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1835. She was a Black educator and abolitionist.   Born Mary Sampson Patterson in North Carolina, she was the daughter of a formerly enslaved man who highly valued education; for this reason, he brought his family to Oberlin, Ohio, to secure a college education […]

‘The Slave’s Friend’ Children’s Magazine is published

*The publication of The Slave’s Friend is celebrated on this date in 1836. This was an anti-slavery magazine for children produced by the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). The American Anti-Slavery Society was established in 1833 by Arthur Tappan and others. It was one of the leading abolitionist organizations in the United States during the first half of the 19th […]

Shields Green, Abolitionist born

*Shields Green’s birth is celebrated on this date, c. 1836. He was a Black escaped slave and abolitionist.  Green, who referred to himself as “‘Emperor,” was from Charleston, South Carolina. After his escape, he lived in Frederick Douglass’s house in Rochester, New York. It was there that Douglass introduced him to John Brown.    Green […]

The Milton House, Underground Railroad Station opens

*This date in 1838 celebrates the opening of the Milton House. It was a stop (station) on the Underground Railroad, a 19th-century network of people and places that aided the freedom of escaped enslaved people in America. Behind the house is the Goodrich Cabin, built in 1837 and brought to the site in 1839; it was […]

Rosetta Douglass-Sprague, Educator, and Abolitionist born

*Rosetta Douglass-Sprague was born on this date in 1839. She was a Black teacher and abolitionist. She was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Anna Murray-Douglass and Frederick Douglass. When she was five, she moved with her parents to Lynn, Massachusetts. She was the eldest of five children. Like her father, she was a critical thinker but struggled […]

Laura Spelman Rockefeller, Abolitionist born

*Laura Spelman Rockefeller was born on this date in 1839. She was a white-American abolitionist, philanthropist, and schoolteacher.   Laura Celestia Spelman was born in Wadsworth, Ohio, to Puritan descendants Harvey Buell Spelman and Lucy Henry, Yankees who had moved to Ohio from Massachusetts. Her father was an abolitionist active in the Congregationalist Church, the Underground Railroad, and politics. Her family eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Spelman had an elder adopted sister, Lucy […]

The National Anti-Slavery Standard is published

*The first issue of the National Anti-Slavery Standard was published on June 11, 1840. The Standard was a weekly newspaper published concurrently in New York City and Philadelphia. This was the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society; its editors were Lydia Maria Child and David Lee Child. It published essays, debates, speeches, events, […]