*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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, […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 years old. After his master’s death, Judge Ringo bought and freed him during the American Civil War in 1863. The […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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.
learn more*On this date in 1838, Georgetown University sold 272 African Slaves through their administration.
These humans were loaded on ships at a active landing stage in the nation’s capital, intended for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. No one was spared: baby’s, mothers, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard.
learn more*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 […]
learn more*Robert Reed Church, Sr., was born on this date in 1839. He was a Black business leader and philanthropist.
learn more*On this date in 1839, we celebrate the birth of Nathan Toomer. He was a Black freedman and farmer. Nathan Toomer was born into slavery in Chatham County, North Carolina, and sold to Col. Henry Toomer. Before and after the American Civil War, Nathan worked for Henry Toomer as a personal valet and assistant, learning the ways […]
learn more*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, […]
learn more*On this date in 1840, a Black man received a patent for a machine for cleaning and drying feathers. Robert Benjamin Lewis received patent #1,655. “Machine for Cleaning and Drying Feathers” is described as the “arrangement and combination of feathers by steam and steam heat” and could be used for “dressing over old feathers or preparing […]
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