People, Locations, Episodes

Kentucky in Africa is Founded

*The founding of Kentucky in Africa is celebrated on this date in 1828.  This colony in present-day Montserrado County, Liberia, was settled by American freedmen, many formerly enslaved Africans. As a Kentucky state affiliate of the American Colonization Society, members raised money to transport black people from Kentucky to Africa. The Kentucky Society bought a 40-square-mile (100 […]

Shaka Zulu, Zulu Chief is Killed

*On this date in 1828, Shaka, the great Zulu King was killed. In 1815, he became the clan chief of the Zulu, the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with a population of approximately 6 million.

The Newnan Slave Cemetery, a story

*The Newnan Slave Cemetery is celebrated on this date in 1828. During the 19th century, Newnan, Georgia’s population was roughly 50 percent Black, as the booming cotton trade increased the demand for labor. An 1828 map shows the burial grounds were adjacent to property owned by slave owner Andrew Berry. Excavation work was about to […]

Lynching in the United States of America, a story

*Lynching in the United States of America is affirmed on this date in 1830. Lynching was the widespread occurrence of extrajudicial killings beginning in the pre-Civil War South until the 20th century American Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Although many of the victims of lynching in the U.S. for the first few decades of […]

The ‘Indian Removal Act’ is Signed

On this date in 1830, U. S. legislation leading to the “Trail of Tears” was enacted.

President Andrew Jackson signed into law, “The Indian Removal Act,” a bill that forced the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Seminole Indian tribes off their land in the southeastern United States. It is estimated that one-third of the members of these tribes involved in this removal and the ensuing trek to Oklahoma were of African descent.

The First National Negro Convention is held

*On this date in 1830, the first National Negro Convention was held. Taking place in Philadelphia, this was a movement to address the hostility, discrimination, exclusion, and violence against blacks by whites in northern cities. In the early months of 1830, a young, freed black man from Baltimore named Hezekiah Grice was not satisfied with […]

Nat Turner Leads An American Slave Rebellion

On this date in 1831, Nat Turner and 70 slaves began a two-day uprising in Southampton County, Virginia.

Turner, a slave preacher, believed that God had chosen him to lead Blacks to freedom. During the rebellion, Turner’s master was killed, along with about 60 other whites. As troops moved in to capture the slaves, Turner escaped and remained at large for two months. While he was a fugitive, it is estimated that around 53 blacks were arrested and tried, 20 were hanged, 21 acquitted, and 12 transported out of Virginia.

The revolt had repercussions throughout the South.

União dos Palmares is Founded

*The city of União dos Palmares was founded on this date in 1831. Located in the Brazilian state of Alagoas, it is historically important to Afro Brazilians. A Mocambo or, more recently, a Quilombo was on a nearby hill. These were centers of Black African slaves fleeing and resisting slavery. Known as the Quilombo dos Palmares, this was the largest and most organized of […]

Nat Turner Confesses to Leading a Slave Uprising

On this date in 1831, Nat Turner confessed to his leadership in the famous uprising in Virginia.

Nathaniel Turner was a Black slave who started the largest slave rebellion in the antebellum southern United States, in Southampton County, VA. The rebellion was controversial partly because of his methodical slaughter of white civilians during the uprising. In the slave uprising he orchestrated, 55 whites were killed.

Turner gave in detail the hows and whys of his actions of August 21, 1831 two months later, on this date.

Nat Turner is Hanged

On this date in 1831, Nat Turner was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner, a slave and educated minister, believed that he was chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery. On August 21, 1831, he initiated his slave uprising by slaughtering Joseph Travis, his slave owner, and Travis’ family.

With seven followers, he set off across the countryside, hoping to rally hundreds of slaves to join his insurrection. Turner’s rebellion was the largest slave revolt in U.S. history and led to a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the movement, assembly, and education of slaves.

America’s ‘Black Codes,’ a definition

*On this date in 1832, we acknowledge Black Codes in the United States. Sometimes called Black Laws, Black Codes were (are) laws governing the conduct of Black people during slavery and after emancipation. Southern states passed the best example in 1865 and 1866 after the American Civil War to restrict African Americans’ freedom and require them to work for low […]

The Treaty of Payne’s Landing is Signed

*The Treaty of Payne’s Landing was signed on this date in 1832.  This agreement was between the United States and several chiefs of the Seminole Indian tribe in the Territory of Florida before it acquired statehood. By the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, the Seminoles had relinquished all claims to land in the Florida […]

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 […]

The Baptist War Occurs

*The Baptist War began on this date in 1832. Also known as the Christmas Rebellion, it was an eleven-day rebellion that started on Christmas Day 1831 in Jamaica. The missionary-educated rebels had been following the progress of the abolitionist movement in London; they intended to call for a peaceful general strike. The relative independence of […]

The Melrose Plantation is Built

*Melrose Plantation, also known as Yucca Plantation, is celebrated on this date in 1832. The “Big House” is a plantation in the unincorporated community of Melrose in Natchitoches Parish in north central Louisiana. This is one of the largest plantations in the United States, built by and for free blacks. The plantation land was granted to Louis […]