People, Locations, Episodes

Moorfield Storey, Lawyer, and Activist born

*Moorfield Storey was born on this date in 1845.   He was a white-American lawyer, anti-imperial activist, and civil rights, leader.   Moorfield Storey was born in 1845 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. His family descended from the earliest Puritan settlers in New England and had close connections with the abolitionist movement.  His father was a Boston lawyer. Young Storey went to the […]

The Peter Mott House (New Jersey), a story

*The celebration of the Peter Mott House in 1845 is featured on this date. Built before the civil war, the house was residence Mott who was also a free Black abolitionist and preacher; the Peter Mott House is the oldest known house in the city.

Henry Lowry, Lumbee Outlaw, born

*The birth of Henry Lowry is celebrated on this date, c. 1845. He was a Lumbee Native American outlaw. Henry Berry Lowry was born to Allen and Mary (Cumbo) Lowry in the Hopewell Community in Robeson County, North Carolina. His father owned a successful 350-acre mixed-use farm in the county. Henry Lowry was one of 12 multi-racial […]

Frances Anne Rollin Whipper, Teacher, and Doctor born

*On this date, in 1845, Frances Anne Rollin Whipper was born.  She was a Black activist, teacher, doctor, and author. Frances Rollin was born in 1845 in Charleston, South Carolina, into a free family of color who came from Santo Domingo (now known as the Dominican Republic). Her father was a well-to-do lumber merchant. She lived her early life as a […]

The American Missionary Association is Founded

*On this date in 1846 the American Missionary Association (AMA) was founded. The AMA trained and educated slaves, it was the first such organization to teach southern slaves in a creditable and organized manner.

Isaiah Montgomery, Political Activist born

*Isaiah Montgomery was born on this date in 1847. He was a Black politician, administrator, and civil rights activist.  Born into slavery, he was the son of Ben Montgomery, a slave whose owner, Joseph Davis, promoted him to overseer. The younger Montgomery learned to read and write due to his father’s influential position on the Davis Bend plantation. Davis wanted to […]

The North Star Newspaper is Published

*On this date in 1847, The North Star newspaper began publication.  This was a nineteenth-century anti-slavery newspaper published by abolitionist Frederick Douglass.  The North Star’s slogan was “Right is of no Sex, Truth is of no Color. God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren.”  Douglass was first inspired to publish […]

The Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter Newspaper is Published

*The Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter newspaper was published on this date in 1847. This was an abolitionist and women’s rights newspaper printed in Pittsburgh.   Jane Swisshelm was its editor, and Robert M. Riddle printed the paper. Swisshelm funded the work through money in her estate; at the time, the abolitionist newspaper in Pittsburgh had closed. Crowds were […]

Redoshi Smith, Child Laborer born

*The birth of Redoshi is celebrated on this date in c. 1848.  She was a 12-year-old Black West African girl kidnapped, enslaved, and taken to the United States.    Redoshi lived in a village in West Africa, in today’s Benin.  Her village was attacked in a raid by the Dahomey people, who killed her father.  […]

Maritcha Remond Lyons, Suffragist born

*Maritcha Remond Lyons was born on this date in 1848.  She was a Black educator, civic leader, suffragist, and public speaker in New York City and Brooklyn, New York. She taught in public schools in Brooklyn and was the second black woman to serve in their system as an assistant principal.   She was born at 144 Centre Street in New York City, […]

Albert Parsons, Labor Activist born

*On this date, in 1848, Albert Parsons was born.  He was a white-American socialist, newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist.   Albert Richard Parsons was born in Montgomery, Alabama, one of the ten children of a shoe and leather factory owner originally from Maine.  His parents died when he was a small child, leaving him to be raised by his eldest brother, who was married […]

Virginia Hewlett Douglass, Suffragist born

*Virginia Hewlett Douglass was born on this date in 1849. She was a Black suffragist. Virginia Lewis Molyneaux Hewlett was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of the first Black instructor at Harvard University, Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett, and physical education instructor, Virginia Josephine Lewis Molyneaux Hewlett. On August 4, 1869, Virginia Hewlett Douglass […]

Archibald Grimke, Journalist and Activist born

*Archibald Grimké was born on this date in 1849.  He was a Black lawyer, intellectual, journalist, and activist.   Archibald Henry Grimké was born into slavery near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1849. He was the eldest of three sons of Nancy Weston, who was also born into slavery, daughter of an enslaved black African woman […]

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

Rodolphe Desdunes, Author, and Scholar born

*Rodolphe Desdunes was born on this date in 1849. He was an African American civic leader, author and scholar.

Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes spent much of his professional life as a clerk with the U.S. Customs Service, but his contribution to history lies in his efforts to promote the achievements of his Blacks and to challenge the legality of Jim Crow laws. On September 5, 1891, he helped to organize the Comite des Citoyens, which backed Homer Plessy’s unsuccessful attempt to challenge segregation in public transportation.