People, Locations, Episodes

William Allen, Editor, and Abolitionist born

*William Allen was born on this date in 1830.  He was a white-American classical scholar, abolitionist, and editor of the first book of American slave songs.   William Francis Allen was born in Northborough, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1851; later, he traveled and studied in Europe. A Unitarian, he considered the ministry before pursuing a literary and scholarly career. In 1856, […]

The Female Literary Association is Formed

*The Female Literary Association (FLA) was formed on this date in 1831. It was a formal space where Black women exchanged knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs and prepared for a public role in abolition and community circles. This association was started in Philadelphia, PA., by Sarah Mapps Douglas, who pushed back against political, racial, or social contexts; […]

‘An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans’ is Published

*On October 5, 1833, the 19th-century publication of An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, by white American writer Lydia Maria Child, is celebrated. This book favored the immediate emancipation of African slaves without compensation to slaveholders and was the first book in support of this policy written by a white woman.   It […]

Rufus Perry, Minister, and Journalist born

*Rufus Perry was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black educator, journalist, and Baptist minister. Rufus L. Perry was born a slave on a plantation in Smith County, Tennessee, to Lewis Perry and Maria. Archibald W. Overton owned the family. His father was a talented mechanic, carpenter, and cabinet maker and secured […]

Mark Twain, Writer, and Lecturer born

*Mark Twain was born on this date in 1835.  He was a white-American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, the sixth of seven children born to Jane Lampton, a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens, a native of Virginia.  His parents met when his father moved to Missouri; they were married in 1823. Twain […]

‘The Slave’s Friend’ Children’s Magazine is published

*The publication of The Slave’s Friend is celebrated on this date in 1836. This was an anti-slavery magazine for children produced by the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). The American Anti-Slavery Society was established in 1833 by Arthur Tappan and others. It was one of the leading abolitionist organizations in the United States during the first half of the 19th […]

Henry Clay Bruce, Writer born

*Henry Clay Bruce was born on this date in 1836. He was a Black writer.

Born a slave in Virginia, his mother told him he was born the year that Martin Van Buren was elected President of the United States. This was because (as slaves were forbidden to read), in order to gage the birth of a child, Africans usually associated it with the occurrence of some important event. His owner Lemuel Bruce sold the Bruce family eight years later to Jack Perkinson, who lived in Keytesville, Missouri.

Rosetta Douglass-Sprague, Educator, and Activist born

*Rosetta Douglass-Sprague was born on this date in 1839. She was a Black teacher and activist. She was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Anna Murray-Douglass and Frederick Douglass. When she was five, she moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, with her parents. She was the eldest of five children. Like her father, she was a critical thinker but struggled […]

The A.M.E. Church Review is Published

*On this date 1841, the A.M.E. Church Review was published.  This is the journal of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and arguably the earliest published American Black Journal. It publishes articles on religion, politics, history, and world events. Originally named The A.M.E. Church Magazine, the church’s general book steward, Rev. George Hogarth of Brooklyn, New York, first published it. It was intended to […]

The ‘Anti-Slavery Bugle’ Newspaper is published

 *On this date in 1845, The Anti-Slavery Bugle started publication.  This abolitionist newspaper was first published in New Lisbon (later renamed Lisbon), Ohio, and moved shortly after five issues to Salem, Ohio. Salem was home to many Quaker families and an active station of the Underground Railroad, providing the paper with more subscribers. James Barnaby was the publisher and received support from the Anti-Slavery Society, such as Abby […]

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 […]

Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves, Poet born

*On this date in 1847, Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves was born. He was an Afro Brazilian poet and playwright. Castro Alves was born in the town of Curralinho, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, to Antônio José Alves, a doctor, and Clélia Brasília da Silva Castro, one of the daughters of José Antônio da Silva […]

Susan King Taylor, Writer born

*Susan King Taylor was born on this date in 1848. She was a Black writer.

Joel Chandler Harris, Writer born

On this date in 1848, Joel Chandler Harris was born. He was a White American writer, the creator of the “Uncle Remus” tales.

Born in Eatonton, GA, Harris worked from 1862 to 1866 on The Countryman, a paper published by a Southern plantation owner. For the next ten years, Harris worked on various newspapers in Georgia and Louisiana; in 1876 he began working at the Atlanta Constitution, where he stayed until 1900. Over time Harris became familiar with the legends and dialects of local Blacks.

Henrietta Ray, Poet and Biographer born

The birth of Henrietta Ray in 1849 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black poet, teacher, and activist.

Henrietta Cordelia Ray was born in New York City, one of seven children of Charlotte Augusta Burrough and Charles B. Ray, a blacksmith, a Congregational minister, and a leading abolitionist. Young Ray was named after her father’s first wife, Henrietta Green Regulus Ray, co-founder of the African Dorcas Association, a support group for the Free African Schools, and first president of the New York Female Literary Society (also known as the Colored Ladies Literary Society).