People, Locations, Episodes

The California Fugitive Labor Act is Passed

*On this date, 1852, the California Fugitive Labor Act was passed. Two years after California entered the union as a free state, this law lasted only three years.   Slavery in the territory of California had been a debated issue since Spanish conquistadors explored the region in the 18th century. The California Fugitive Labor Act was passed […]

The Perkins Escapee Case, a story

*On this date in 1852, the Perkins Escapee case was before Judge Wells of the California Supreme Court. The petition and affidavit came from the prisoners Robert, Carter Perkins, and Sandy Jones. They were seized on June 1st, 1852, without process of law. They were taken before B. D. Fry, a justice of the peace […]

Frederick Douglass His ‘The Meaning of July Fourth For The Negro’ Speech

On this date in 1852, Frederick Douglass gave the speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.”

The abolitionist was invited to address an audience in Rochester, New York, at Corinthian Hall. That day, Douglass delivered the following indictment of a nation celebrating “and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory….

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, […]

The Pico House (Whittier California) a story

The construction of the Pico House in 1870 is celebrated on this date. This was one of the many municipalities built and maintained by Blacks as southern California emerged as a state (founded in 1850).

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.