*Édouard de Laboulaye was born on this date in 1811. He was a white-French jurist, poet, author, and anti-slavery activist. Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye was born in Paris, France to a wealthy family. Laboulaye was received at the bar in 1842 and was chosen professor of comparative law at the Collège de France in 1849. A careful observer of […]
learn more*Beverly Page Yates’ birth 1811 is celebrated on this date. He was a Liberian politician, businessman and soldier.
Born free in Norfolk, Virginia, Yates was eighteen when he left Virginia for Monrovia in 1829. Like many of Liberia’s early colonists, Yates turned to commercial trade for his livelihood and was soon counted among the colony’s principal merchants. Operating from a single warehouse in 1838, the trading partnership of Yates rapidly expanded its business, and by 1844 owned four warehouses as well as its own ship.
learn more*Henry Wilson was born on February 16, 1812. He was a White American political leader and abolitionist.
From Farmington, N.H., his birth name was Jeremiah Jones Colbath, and was legally changed in 1833. As a young man he operated a shoe factory at Natick, Mass., and attended the Strafford, Wolfsboro, and Concord Academies and taught school in Natick, Mass. He was elected to the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature in 1840. Wilson was an opponent of slavery, which caused him to leave the WHIG party.
learn more*Black History and Gerrymandering voting districts are affirmed on this date in 1812. The word appeared for the first time on this date in the Boston Gazette newspaper. Gerrymandering and its focus on voter suppression began with the passage of the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution. The return of Blacks to Congress after Reconstruction and their expansion in the fourth […]
learn more*Black history and the War of 1812 are celebrated on this date in 1812. This was a conflict between England and the United States. Blacks fought on both sides though many fought for the same reason: freedom from chattel slavery. In the Revolutionary War, black and white patriots fought together, which helped convince many Northern states […]
learn more*The birth of Harry Island is celebrated on this date c 1812. He was a Black Creek Native American interpreter. From Muskogee, OK, little is known about his childhood; later in life, he was the husband of Maggie Cow Tom. He served as one of the official U.S. Interpreters with the Muskogee Creek Nation. He […]
learn more*William Tappan Thompson was born on this date in 1812. He was a white-American segregationist, journalist, and writer who promoted the Confederacy’s second national flag as “The White Man’s Flag.” Originally from Ohio, Thompson moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he co-founded the Daily Morning News and became an editor. Thompson left the paper in 1867 to travel to Europe. In 1868, […]
learn more*John Fremont was born on this date in 1813. He was a White American soldier, politician and abolitionist.
From Savannah, Georgia, educated at Charleston College, he taught mathematics before joining the Army Topographical Engineers Corps in 1838. Among other field services, in 1842 Fremont mapped most of the Oregon Trail and climbed the second highest peak in the Wind River Mountains, afterwards known as Fremont Peak. Fremont made many expeditions; in 1845 he explored the Great Basin and the Pacific coast.
learn more*The birth of Caesar Bruner is celebrated on this date in 1813. He was a Black Seminole Chief and interpreter. Born in Indian Territory as a free man, he was the son of William and Effie Bruner, both former slaves of Tom Bruner, who had manumitted them. He was born shortly after the arrival of […]
learn more*The Negro Fort is celebrated on November 13, 1814. Also known as Fort Gadsden and the Prospect Bluff Historic Site, it is located in Franklin County, Florida. It was constructed on the Apalachicola River, 6 miles SW of Sumatra, Florida. The British built the site during the War of 1812. After the British evacuated Florida […]
learn more*Edwin McMasters Stanton was born on this date in 1814. He was a white-American lawyer and politician. The first of David and Lucy Stanton’s four children, Edwin McMasters, was born to them in Steubenville, Ohio. Edwin’s early formal education consisted of a private school and a seminary behind Stanton’s residence called “Old Academy.” He […]
learn more*The White House of the Confederacy was built on this date in 1815. It is a historic house in the Court End neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. It was built as the main executive residence of the sole President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, from August 1861 until April 1865. It was considered the Confederate States’ counterpart to the White House in […]
learn more*Edward J. Roye was born on this date in 1815. He was a Black businessman and politician.
Born in a little house on what is now Mount Vernon Road in Newark, Ohio, he was educated in Newark schools, but nothing much is known of his early years. In 1822, his father sold his Newark property and went to Illinois, leaving Edward and his mother behind. In 1829, his father left all his property acquired in Illinois to his son Edward. Young Roye became a barber and in 1832 he was enrolled in Ohio University in Athens.
learn more*Nathaniel Banks was born on this date in 1816. He was a white-American politician and a military officer. Nathaniel Prentice Banks was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, and was the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks, Sr., and Rebecca Greenwood Banks. His father worked in the textile mill of the Boston Manufacturing Company, eventually becoming […]
learn moreThe birth of Stephen Allen Benson in 1816 is celebrated on this date. He was Black businessman and politician.
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