People, Locations, Episodes

A Black Man Patents The Sugar Evaporator

On this date in 1846, Norbert Rillieux, a Black inventor and engineer, patented his revolutionary improvement in the cultivation and processing of sugar.

Rillieux was born into an aristocratic Creole family in New Orleans. He was the son of Vincent Rillieux, a white plantation owner, engineer and inventor, and his placée, Constance Vivant, a Free Person of Color. As a Creole, Norbert had access to education and privileges not available to lower-status blacks or slaves.

Liberia Gains its Independence From America

This date in 1847 marks Independence Day in the Republic of Liberia. Liberia owes its establishment to the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 to resettle freed American slaves in Africa.

Harriet Tubman Begins Working with The Underground Railroad

On this date in 1853, Harriet Tubman began her work with the Underground Railroad. This was a network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South.

On her first trip, Tubman brought her own sister and her sister’s two children out of slavery in Maryland. A year later she rescued her brother, and in 1857 returned to Maryland to guide her aged parents to freedom.

Over a period of ten years Tubman made an estimated 19 expeditions into the South and personally escorted about 300 slaves to the North

Roberts v. City of Boston Begins

On this date in 1849, the case of Roberts v. The City of Boston began. This lawsuit was on behalf of a Black five-year-old who was barred from school.

The suit was heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Court and was a prerequisite legal ruling in the civil rights cases of the NAACP’s assault on America’s segregated educational system. The judge presiding was Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. In 1848, five-year-old Sarah Roberts was barred from the local primary school because she was Black; her father Benjamin sued the city.

The Act For The Government and Protection of Indians is Enacted

*On this date in 1850, The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (Chapter 133, Cal. Stats.) was enacted. It was introduced by the first session of the California State Legislature and signed into law by the first Governor of California, Peter Hardeman Burnett. The legislation led to the forced servitude of many Native Americans […]

The Wheat Community African Burial Ground (Tennessee), a story

*The Wheat Community African Burial Ground is celebrated on this date in c 1850.  Wheat was a farming community in Roane County, Tennessee. The area is now in the city of Oak Ridge.  Discovered in the early 2000s, this 1850s slave cemetery is the final resting place of more than 90 unmarked graves.  The earliest settlers moved […]

The Naming Of The State of California, a story

*The creation of the name California is celebrated on this date in 1850; the official date of it’s statehood. The designation “California” is another piece of African American history.

The name is derived from a knightly romance book that was published in 1510. The story was about an island paradise near the Indies where a beautiful Black Queen Califia ruled. She was the leader a country of Black Amazons with masses of pearls and gold. Men were only allowed on Califia one day a year to help perpetuate the race.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is Signed

*The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on this date in 1850.   This was part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.  The law was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a “slave power conspiracy.” It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their […]

Strader v. Graham is Ruled

*On this date in 1851, we celebrate Strader v. Graham, 51 U.S. 82 court verdict.   This United States Supreme Court decision held that the status of three slaves who went from Kentucky to Indiana and Ohio depended on Kentucky law rather than Ohio law. The original plaintiff was Christopher Graham, whose three slaves had […]

Abolitionists Rescue a Slave From a Courtroom

*On this date 1851, Black abolitionists broke into a Boston courthouse and rescued Shadrach Minkins, a fugitive slave. Born in Norfolk in 1800, Minkins was affected by the Nat Turner rebellion and the death of his owners Thomas and Ann Glenn.

Afro Colombian Day is Celebrated

*This date from 1851 is celebrated as Afro Colombian Day. It is referred to in Columbia as Día de la Afrocolombianidad and is an annual celebration of the abolition of slavery in Colombia in 1851.   Afro Colombian Day was first celebrated in 2001. It hopes to show communities the importance of their Afro population and its effect on Colombia’s history. […]

Sojourner Truth Gives Her ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ Speech

*On this date in 1851, Sojourner Truth gave her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech for the first time.  Though it did not originally have a title and was delivered impromptu, it has inspired the Black feminists’ community since.   After gaining her freedom in 1827, Sojourner Truth became a well-known anti-slavery speaker. Her speech was delivered at the […]

The Christiana Riot Occurs

On this date in 1851, the Christiana Resistance occurred, a race riot that was the first recorded open resistance to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.

A group of Blacks routed a band of slave catchers attempting to re-enslave escaped slaves in Christiana, PA. This incident happened at the home of William Parker an escaped slave. One white was killed and one wounded. Afterwards, there was a great public outcry from both the North and South.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a story

Uncle Toms Cabin, an antislavery novel written in 1852 is celebrated on this date. The story was written about a faithful Black slave killed by a cruel white enslaver.

The book was popular, selling over 300,000 copies within a year; it was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. By delivering a passionate indictment of slavery, the story intensified antagonism between the North and the South in the pre-Civil War era. While meeting Stowe at the White House in 1863, President Lincoln greeted her as the “little woman who wrote the book that made this Great War.”

The Gippy Plantation is Built

*The Gippy Plantation is affirmed on this date in 1852. This is one of the estimated 46,200 American plantations that existed in 1860. This is a historic plantation house near Moncks Corner in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The main house is a 2-1/2 story Greek Revival structure with a four-column gabled pediment at the center of its main facade. A fixture […]