People, Locations, Episodes

Frank McWorter, Abolitionist born.

*This date in 1777 is celebrated as the birth date of Free Frank McWorter. He was a Black slave, abolitionist, and businessman who bought his freedom.   Frank McWorter was born into slavery in South Carolina to Juda, a Black West African woman abducted into slavery and transported to the colony. His father was her white master, George McWhorter, a Scots-Irish planter. According to family […]

James Tallmadge, Abolitionist born

*James Tallmadge, Jr. was born on this date 1778. He was a White American politician and abolitionist.

Born in Stanford, Dutchess County, New York, he graduated from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island in 1798, and was secretary to Governor George Clinton from 1798 to 1800. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1802, after which he practiced in Poughkeepsie and in New York City. He served in the War of 1812 and commanded a company of home guards in defense of New York.

Grace Bustill Douglass, Abolitionist born

*This date in 1782 is celebrated as the birth date of Grace Bustill Douglass. She was a Black abolitionist and women’s rights advocate.   Grace Bustill was born in Burlington, New Jersey, to the Bustill family, a well-known abolitionist family. Her father was Cyrus Bustill, a strong leader in the community and promoter of abolishing […]

Charles Avery, Abolitionist born

*Charles Avery was born on this date in 1784. He was a White European merchant, businessman and abolitionist.

The New York Manumission Society is formed.

*The first meeting of the New York Manumission Society was held on this date in 1785. Their full name was ‘The New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been, or May be Liberated.’ John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Noah Webster, and many slaveholders were among its founders. […]

John F. Webber, Soldier, and Abolitionist born

*John Webber’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a white-American soldier and abolitionist. John Ferdinand Webber was born in Vermont, the son of John Webber and Hannah Morrill.  As a soldier in the War of 1812, he served as a private in Capt. S. Dickinson’s company. He was in the thirty-first […]

Quakers, and American Abolition, a story

*Quakers and American abolition are affirmed on this date in 1787. Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) were the only large religious American denomination to make it a requirement of membership to refuse to enslave people.  Quakers struggled internally for a century to come to this place.    Quakers such as John Woolman and Benjamin Lay […]

Edward Strutt Abdy, Abolitionist born

*This date in 1791 is celebrated as the birth date of Edward Strutt Abdy, a white English legal academic and abolitionist. Edward Strutt Abdy was born in the U.K., the fifth and youngest son of Thomas Abdy, of Albyns, Essex, by Mary, daughter of James Hayes, of Holliport, a bencher of the Middle Temple. He […]

James Birney, Abolitionist born.

*James G. Birney was born on this date in 1792. He was a white-American abolitionist and politician who was once a slave owner.    From Danville, Kentucky, James Gillespie Birney graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1810, where he studied law. He then moved to Alabama, where he made lots […]

The Sierra Leone Company is Founded

*The Sierra Leone Company was founded on this date in 1792.   This white-European corporate body was involved in founding the second British Colony of Sierra Leone.   Their intent was to resettle Black Loyalists who had initially settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. The Company was formed by abolitionists Granville Sharp, Thomas […]

Sarah Moore Grimke, Abolitionist born

Sarah Moore Grimke was born on this date in 1792. She was a White American abolitionist and advocate of women’s rights.

From Charleston, S.C., she came from a distinguished Southern family. On a visit to Philadelphia, Grimke joined the Society of Friends. She converted her younger sister Angelina to the Quaker faith, and the two moved to the North permanently in January 1832. Angelina became an abolitionist in 1835, and in turn converted Sarah.

Lucretia Mott, Abolitionist, and Quaker born

Lucretia Coffin Mott was born on this date in 1793. She was a White American abolitionist and educator.

She was born in the seaport town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and at the age of 13, she was sent to a coeducational Quaker school, Nine Partners, in Duchess County, New York. It was here that Lucretia met James Mott. From 1808-10, she served as an assistant teacher at Nine Partners, and during that time the Coffin family moved from Boston to Philadelphia.

John Rankin, Abolitionist born

*John Rankin was born on this date in 1793. He was a White American minister and abolitionist with the Underground Railroad.

Beriah Green, Professor, and Abolitionist born

*Beriah Green was born on this date in 1795. He was a white-American reformer, abolitionist, temperance advocate, college professor, and minister who was “consumed totally by his abolitionist views” and described as “cantankerous.”   Beriah Green Jr. was born in Preston, Connecticut, the son of Beriah Green and Elizabeth Smith. His father was a cabinet and chair maker. […]

James Barbadoes, Abolitionist born

*The birth of James Barbadoes in 1796 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black barber, abolitionist, and free man of color.