People, Locations, Episodes

The Fairvue Plantation is built

*The Fairvue Plantation is affirmed on this date in 1832. The Fairvue was a plantation house in Gallatin, Tennessee. It was built for Isaac Franklin. Franklin retired to be a planter there after a career as a partner in the South’s largest slave-trading firm before the American Civil War. After his death, his widow inherited […]

Tippu Tip, Slave Trader born

*This date marks Independence Day for the African Country of Zanzibar in 1961. We chose this date to affirm the birth of Tippu Tip, who was born around 1832. He was a Swahili Zanzibar slave owner and slave trader to European colonists.   It is believed that Tippu Tip was born in Zanzibar; his birth name […]

Charles R. Patterson, Early Automotive Inventor, and Designer born

*Charles Richard Patterson’s birth in 1833 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black slave who gained his own freedom and became an inventor and carriage company entrepreneur.

Nancy Green, The Original ‘Aunt Jemima’ born

On this date we celebrate the birth of Nancy Green in 1834. She was a Black storyteller and one of the first black corporate models in the United States.

The world knew her as “Aunt Jemima,” but her given name was Nancy Green. The famous Aunt Jemima recipe was not her recipe but she became the advertising world’s first living trademark.

A Black Man Receives a Patent for a Corn Planter

This date in 1834 marks one of the first patents filed by a Black person in America.

Henry Blair of Montgomery County, MD, received his first patent on October 14, 1834, for his invention of the corn seed planter, which allowed farmers to plant their corn much faster and with much less labor. The machine also helped with weed control. He later received another patent in 1836 for the invention of the cotton planter. The cotton planter was very similar to the seed planter in the way that it was put together.

Isaac Myers, Labor Union Administrator born

*Isaac Myers was born on this date in 1835. He was a pioneering Black trade unionist, a cooperative organizer, and a caulker. Myers was born free in Baltimore, though Maryland was a slave state. Since the state of Maryland did not offer public education for Black youth, Myers had to acquire his early education from […]

Black History And The American Labor Movement, a story

*Black history and the American labor movement are affirmed on this date in 1835. This article coincides with the Washington Navy Yard labor strike of 1835, the first strike of federal civilian employees. The strike ended on August 15, 1835. In the early nineteenth century, blacks played a dominant role in the caulking trade, and […]

Frederick Loudin, Choral Conductor, and Businessman born

*Frederick Loudin was born on this date in c.1836. He was a Black vocalist and choral director.  Frederick Jeremiah Loudin was born to free parents in Charlestown, Ohio. His family moved to rural Ohio from Burlington, VT, to be farmers. However, when they learned that, although they had made regular financial contributions to Hiram College, […]

John Conna, Soldier and Real Estate Broker born

 *The birth of John Conna is celebrated on this date in 1836. He was a Black soldier, real estate agent, and head of the first Black family in Tacoma, WA. Born in San Augustine, Texas, John Newington Conna fought in the American Civil War as part of the 1st Louisiana Native Guards. On May 4, 1865, a […]

Benjamin Bradley, Inventor born

*Benjamin Bradley’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1836. He was a Black engineer and inventor. Bradley’s correct surname was Boardley, but authors have written about him with Bradley since 1859. He was born a slave in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in March 1836. He became literate while learning from his master’s children. According […]

William John Livingston, Land Owner born

*This date in 1836 celebrates the birth of William John Livingston, a Black slave and laborer born in Northeastern Missouri and a childhood friend of Mark Twain. Joseph Daugherty of Hannibal, Missouri, bought him when he was twelve. After his master’s death, Judge Ringo bought and freed him during the American Civil War in 1863. The following year, […]

New Philadelphia, Illinois is Founded

*New Philadelphia, Illinois, is celebrated on this date in 1836.  This is one of many original Black Town sites in America.  The now-vanished town of “New Philadelphia,” Illinois, is located near Barry, in Pike County.   It was the first town in the United States to be platted and registered by a Black man before the American Civil War. The founder, Free Frank McWorter, was […]

The Colored American Weekly is Published

*On this date in 1837, The Colored American Weekly began circulation. This was a Black newspaper published in New York City from 1837 to 1842 by Samuel Cornish and Phillip Alexander Bell.   Initially published under The Weekly Advocate, New York’s Colored American was a weekly newspaper of four to six pages. It circulated in free Black communities in the Northeastern United States. The Colored American focused on […]

Weeksville, Brooklyn, New York, a story

*On this date from 1838, the Registry celebrates the Weeksville section of Brooklyn, New York. This is an African American community that was build by blacks, for blacks before emancipation.

William Purvis, Inventor born

*William B. Purvis was born on this date in 1838.  He was a Black inventor and businessman who received multiple patents in the late 1800s.   Born in Pennsylvania, Purvis was one of eight children to Joseph and Sarah Purvis. His relatives, James Forten and Robert Purvis, were involved in the abolitionist movement.  Purvis’s upbringing is credited to his uncle, who worked […]