People, Locations, Episodes

Black history and the ‘Mammy,’ a story

*Black history and the term ‘Mammy’ is affirmed on March 24, 1830. This is a historical American labeled stereotype describing Black women, usually enslaved, doing domestic work, including nursing white children of slave owners. The fictionalized mammy character is often a dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality. The origin of the mammy figure stereotype is […]

James K. Hilyard, Businessman born

*James Hilyard was born on this date in 1830.  He was a Black businessman and activist.  From Lancaster, PA, at an early age, James Kidd Hilyard worked on the steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.   Records indicate that in 1845, he resided in Philadelphia, and by 1856, he was working in St. Paul, Minnesota.   […]

Louis Southworth, Oregon Farmer born

The birth of Louis A. Southworth in 1830 is marked on this date. He was an Black blacksmith, fiddler, and farmer.

Mary Dickerson, Businesswoman, and Club Woman born

*Mary Dickerson was born on this date in 1830. She was a Black businesswoman and clubwoman. Mary H. Dickerson was born in Haddam, Connecticut, and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. Around 1865, Dickerson and her husband, Silas, moved to Newport, Rhode Island. In the early 1870s, she opened a dressmaking shop on Bellevue Avenue. […]

Edward P. Duplex, Barber born

*Edward P. Duplex was born on this date in 1831. He was a Black barber and a pioneer of California.   Edward Park Duplex, born in New Haven, Connecticut, was the oldest son of Prince Jr. and Adaline Duplex. His father died in 1832, leaving Adaline, a dressmaker, to support the three Duplex children. Edward […]

Elizabeth Bowser, Artisan born

*Elizabeth Bowser was born on this date in 1831. She was a Black seamstress, artisan, businesswoman, and philanthropist. Born Elizabeth (Lizzie) Harriet Stevens, she lived in Philadelphia’s Twelfth Ward with her husband, David Bustill Bowser, who ran a successful business. The couple manufactured memorabilia, regalia, and decorative objects for the many voluntary associations in the […]

Sarah Boone, Inventor born

*Sarah Boone was born on this date in 1832. She was a Black seamstress and inventor.   Sarah Marshall was born a slave in Craven County, North Carolina, near New Bern. On November 25, 1847, she married James Boone in New Bern; they had eight children. The Boone family left North Carolina for New Haven, Connecticut, before the outbreak of the American Civil War; they settled […]

Paul Brock, Broadcast Journalist born

*Paul Brock was born on this date in 1932.   He was a Black broadcast journalist and community activist.  An only child from Washington, D.C., Brock attended Howard University and spent eighteen years as a radio journalist before moving into television production and reporting at WBNB in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. From there, Brock became news […]

Mary Fields, Montana Stagecoach Driver born

Mary Fields was born a slave on this date in 1832. She was a Black entrepreneur and stagecoach driver.

Fields was born a slave in Tennessee; she grew up an orphan, never married, and had no children. Fields lived by her wits and her strength. She traveled north to Ohio, settled in Toledo, and worked for the Catholic convent where she formed a strong bond with Mother Amadeus. The nuns of her early life were her family. When the nuns moved to Montana and Mary learned of Mother Amadeus’ failing health, she went west to help out.

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 […]