People, Locations, Episodes

Anna Kingsley, Abolitionist, and Plantation owner born

This date in 1793 celebrates the birth of Anna Kingsley. She was a African plantation owner, abolitionist, and former slave in America.

The Cotton Gin is Patented

*On this date in 1794, Eli Whitney patented the Cotton Gin which he invented; (or did he?).

African slaves, because they were not citizens, could not register any invention with the patent office. Their owners could not register a slave’s invention either, since the law required that the patent be issued to the actual inventor. Consequently, any free person wanting to patent something could not acknowledge any contribution from a slave. Thus it was easy to steal a slave’s ideas and patent them.

Daniel Blue, Church Administrator born

*Daniel Blue was born on this date in 1796. He was a Black pioneer, former slave, and church administrator. Mason Doherty owned Blue from Monroe County, Kentucky. Blue traveled by wagon train to California with John Doherty, brother of his former owner. He arrived in Sacramento on September 2, 1849. According to the California Census […]

Joseph Vann, Cherokee Enslaver born

*Joseph Vann was born on this date in 1798. He was a Native American Cherokee leader, businessman, slave owner, and planter. Joseph H. Vann was born in Spring Place, Georgia. He and his sister Mary were children of James Vann and Nannie Brown, both Cherokee of mixed blood with white-European ancestry. James Vann was a powerful chief […]

Stephen Bonga, Fur Trader, Clerk, and Interpreter born

*The birth of Stephen Bonga is celebrated on this date in 1799. He was a Black Ojibwe fur trader, clerk, and interpreter. Stephen Bonga was born at Park Point, opposite Wisconsin Point in Canal Park, Duluth, Minnesota. He was the son of Pierre Bonga and his Ojibwe wife and the grandson of Jean and Jeannie Bonga, who […]

Jim Thompson, Trapper, and Translator born

*This date in 1799 is celebrated as the birth date of Jim Thompson. He was a Black laborer, translator, and trapper in the Minnesota territories.   James Thompson was born a slave in Virginia. His first trip into Minnesota territory came in 1827 with his owner, sutler John Culbertson, while he sold slave-produced merchandise to the […]

Lewis Temple, Inventor born

This date marks the birth of Lewis Temple, a Black inventor, in 1800.

He was the creator of a whaling harpoon, known as “Temple’s Toggle” and “Temple’s Iron” that became the standard harpoon of the whaling industry in the middle of the 19th century. Lewis Temple was a skilled blacksmith, not a whaler. He was born a slave in Richmond, VA, and went to New Bedford, MA, in 1829. By 1836, Temple was one of the 315,000 free black people in the United States and a successful businessman who operated a whale craft shop on the New Bedford waterfront.

Wilson Ruffin Abbott, Businessman born

*This date celebrates the birth of Wilson Ruffin Abbott, a Black Canadian businessman, who was born in 1801.  From Richmond, VA, he was the son of a Scotch-Irish father and a free Black mother.  Abbott was apprenticed as a carpenter as a teenager but left home at 15 to work as a steward on a […]

Robert Benjamin Lewis, Author and Inventor born

*Robert Benjamin Lewis’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1802. He was an African and Native American author, ethnologist, and inventor. He was born in the portion of Pittston, Maine, which later became the city of Gardiner. He was the eldest son of Matthias Lewis and Lucy (Stockbridge) Lewis. Matthias Lewis was either a Mohegan from […]

Wyndham Robertson, Slave Owner, and Politician born

*Wyndham Robertson was born on this date in 1803. He was a white-American politician, slave owner, and businessman. He was born near Manchester, Chesterfield County, Virginia, across the James River from Richmond. His parents were William Robertson and his wife Elizabeth Bolling, descended from Pocahontas and John Rolfe. His paternal grandfather Archibald Robertson emigrated from […]

Sir James Douglass, Statesman, and Businessman born

*Sir James Douglas was born on this date in 1803.  He was a Black Canadian Statesman.  Born in Demerara, British Guiana, he was the son of John Douglas and Miss Ritchie, a “Creole” woman from Barbados.  The couple had three children: Alexander, James, and Cecilia Eliza. John Douglas’ second family was with Jane Hamilton Douglas, and they had […]

William Lloyd Garrison, Abolitionist born

William Lloyd Garrison was born this date in 1805. He was a White American abolitionist and newspaper publisher.

The son of a seaman from Newburyport, MA., Garrison was indentured at the age of 14 to the owner of the Newburyport Herald where he became an expert printer. The struggles of all oppressed peoples for freedom built his kind character as a youth. He expressed this in articles he wrote anonymously or under the pseudonym Airsides, in the Herald and other newspapers. He tried to awaken Northerners from their apathy over the question of slavery in America.

William Goodridge, Businessman, and Abolitionist born

*The birth of William Goodridge is celebrated on this date in 1805. He was a Black businessman and abolitionist.

Lewis Woodson, Minister, and Abolitionist born

*This date in 1806 is celebrated as the birth date of Lewis Woodson, a Black minister and abolitionist.  Born free in Greenbrier County, Va. (now West Virginia). Woodson was the oldest of eleven children born to Thomas and Jemima Woodson, both mulatto slaves who had gained their freedom. Woodson family oral history, dating to the […]

Norbert Rillieux, Engineer, and Inventor born

*This date marks the birth of Norbert Rillieux in 1806. He was an African American inventor and engineer whose patented inventions revolutionized the sugar refining industry.