People, Locations, Episodes

The Black YMCA in America, a story

*On this date in 1853, the first Black Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was organized. The YMCA has long been a source for building community spirit and a sense of social responsibility among Black Christian men.

Holmes v. Ford, a story

*On this date in 1853, Holmes v. Ford was heard in the territorial court of Oregon.  This American court case in the Oregon Territory freed a slave family. The decision reaffirmed that slavery was illegal in the territory outlined in the Organic Laws of Oregon that continued once the region became a U.S. territory. In […]

The Stanton Family Cemetery (Virginia), a story

*On this date in 1853, we celebrate the Stanton Family Cemetery.

In 1853, Nancy and Daniel Stanton headed the Stanton family of Buckingham County, Virginia. They purchased 46.5 acres of land, becoming one of the few free black landholders in the region. Nancy Stanton, who purchased the original holdings on which the cemetery is located, became the first known individual interred in the Stanton Family Cemetery when she died on October 6, 1853.

The Steven Spencer Hill Ranch, a story

The Steven Spencer Hill Ranch was built on this date in 1853. Located in Tuolumne County (central CA.), it is northeast of Gold Springs, on the slopes next to the Stanislaus River Canyon. Steven Spencer Hill, a Black man, filed a claim for 160 acres of land on this date. Hill came to California during […]

Peru Abolishes Slavery

*The abolition of slavery in Peru is celebrated on this date in 1854. Throughout the Middle Passage, approximately 95,000 slaves were brought into Peru, with the last group arriving in 1850. Often, slaves were initially transported to Cuba and Hispaniola, where traders brought them to Panama and the Viceroyalty of Peru. Planters and others also purchased slaves in Cartagena, […]

A Southern Slave Returns to Freedom, a story

On this date in 1854, fugitive slave Anthony Burns was returned to the South from Boston.

Born a slave in Virginia, Burns was 20 when he escaped to Boston. There, for a few short months, he lived and worked as a free man. But he was arrested and held without bail at the instigation of his former owner, Charles Suttle, who came north to bring back his slave. Suttle invoked the Fugitive Slave Act, a highly controversial federal law that allowed owners to reclaim escaped slaves by presenting proof of ownership. Suttle had every intention of taking his slave home.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act is Passed

On this date in 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act that allowed voting residents (meaning primarily white males) in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether to allow slavery within their borders.

Black History and Bleeding Kansas, a story

*Black History and Bleeding Kansas is affirmed on this date in 1854. Bleeding Kansas, or the Border War, was five years of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory and western Missouri, a slave state since 1821. The conflict centered on whether Kansas would join the Union as a slave or free state. The question was […]

The First Black Catholic Priest is Ordained

On this date in 1854, James Augustine Healy was ordained in Paris, France, thus becoming the first Black priest in the Catholic Church.

Two brothers followed him and all three had to study abroad. James Healy became the first Black bishop of Portland, ME., in 1875. Alexander Sherwood was ordained for the diocese of Massachusetts. Patrick Frances obtained his PH.D (the first Black) from Louvian University, Belgium and became the first Black president of Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

The Jennings v. The Third Avenue Railroad Incident is Ruled

*On this date in 1854, Elizabeth Jennings was refused a seat on public Streetcar, setting off the first racial transportation lawsuit in America.
It happened in downtown New York City.

The Sacrifice of Margaret Garner

*On this date in 1856, we celebrate the Margaret Garner story. This account is one of the most notorious runaway slave cases in pre-Civil War America.

Ms. Garner, her husband, children and other slaves stole a carriage and fled to Covington, where they ran across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati, like thousands of other slaves. They hid overnight in the home of her cousin, a freeman. But the Garners were caught when frantic Slave catchers, armed with guns and carrying warrants, arrived and demanded their “property,” Ms. Garner, her four children and her husband.

The Dred Scott Case is Ruled

*On this date in 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott Case. It is believed by many to have been a key cause of the American Civil War, and of the ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, leading to the end of slavery and the beginning of civil rights for freed African slaves.

Matilda McCrear, African Slave born

*The birth of Matilda McCrear in c1857 is affirmed on this date. She was a Black African (Yoruba) woman who was enslaved and transported to America.   Matilda McCrear was captured by slave traders in West Africa when she was two years old and taken to the USA on the Clotilda, the last ship to transport enslaved Africans […]

The Sugg/McDonald House, (California) is Built

*The Sugg/McDonald House is celebrated on this date in 1857. Located in Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, it was built by a former enslaved Black man, William Sugg. Sugg, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, arrived in California, and it is not known how long he was enslaved in California. Francis Tate of Texas manumitted Sugg […]

Quindaro, Kansas is Founded

*On this date, 1857, Quindaro Townsite, KS, was founded.  Quindaro was one of several competing small ports on the Missouri River and part of the conflict of American slavery’s expansion.  Quindaro was founded in the 1850s by abolitionists, settlers, the Wyandot people, and freedmen. Abelard Guthrie, credited as the founder who purchased land for the settlement, […]