People, Locations, Episodes

Eliza Bryant, Nursing Home Administrator born

The birth of Eliza Bryant in 1827 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black abolitionist and businesswoman.

She grew up on a plantation in Wayne County North Carolina her parents were Polly Simmons, a slave, and her master. In 1848 her mother was freed and her family moved north, purchasing a home in Cleveland, Ohio with funds from her master. Young Bryant’s education is unknown but she was a pioneer in the movement to welcome and assist Blacks to the Cleveland area, particularly those moving from the southern states through the Great Migration after emancipation.

Nat Turner is Hanged

On this date in 1831, Nat Turner was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner, a slave and educated minister, believed that he was chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery. On August 21, 1831, he initiated his slave uprising by slaughtering Joseph Travis, his slave owner, and Travis’ family.

With seven followers, he set off across the countryside, hoping to rally hundreds of slaves to join his insurrection. Turner’s rebellion was the largest slave revolt in U.S. history and led to a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the movement, assembly, and education of slaves.

The New England Anti-Slavery Society is Founded

*On this date in 1832 the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded.

Originated in Boston, its preamble stated:

Emily Goodridge Grey, Abolitionist born

*Emily Goodridge Grey’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1833. She was a Black homemaker, writer, and abolitionist sympathizer.  Born in York, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William and Emily Goodridge; she had three brothers, William, Glenavon, and Wallace, and one sister, Susan. Her father, a former slave, worked with the Underground Railroad […]

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society is Founded

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded on this date in 1833. This was an abolitionist group that also championed racial and sexual equity.

The society’s first meeting took place in Catherine McDermot’s schoolroom in Philadelphia. The constitution they adopted set forth their firm belief that slavery and prejudice were contrary to the laws of God and the Declaration of Independence. During the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, anti-slavery societies sprang up in cities across the North. Of the 42 women who became the society’s charter members, nine were Black. They were

Henry M. Turner, Minister, and Nationalist born

*Henry McNeal Turner was born on this date in 1834. He was a Black Nationalist, Repatriations advocate, and Minister.

From near Abbeville, South Carolina, born of free parents, McNeal was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1853 and became a Bishop in 1880. In 1863, he became the first Black army chaplain and he was the president of Morris Brown College for twelve years. Turner was a leading advocate of Black repatriations. In 1867, the American Colonization Society elected him as their president and he made several trips abroad on their behalf.

Lewis Sheridan Leary, Abolitionist born

*Lewis Sheridan Leary was born on this date in 1835. He was a Black harness maker and abolitionist.  He was a free-born Black from Fayetteville, North Carolina. His paternal grandparents were an Irishman, Jeremiah O’Leary, and his wife of African, European, and Native American descent. His great-grandfather, Aaron Revels, was a cousin to Hiram Rhodes […]

The Nathan Thomas House, (Michigan) Opens

*The opening of the Nathan Thomas House is celebrated on this date in 1835.  This was the location of one of Michigan’s most active Underground Railroad stations. Dr. Nathan M. and Pamela Brown Thomas created the refuge. In 1835, he constructed a building that served as an office and residence. Five years later, he enlarged […]

‘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 […]

Shields Green, Abolitionist born

*Shields Green’s birth is celebrated on this date, c. 1836. He was a Black escaped slave and abolitionist.  Green, who referred to himself as “‘Emperor,” was from Charleston, South Carolina. After his escape, he lived in Frederick Douglass’s house in Rochester, New York. It was there that Douglass introduced him to John Brown.    Green […]

Laura Spelman Rockefeller, Abolitionist born

*Laura Spelman Rockefeller was born on this date in 1839. She was a white-American abolitionist, philanthropist, and schoolteacher.   Laura Celestia Spelman was born in Wadsworth, Ohio, to Puritan descendants Harvey Buell Spelman and Lucy Henry, Yankees who had moved to Ohio from Massachusetts. Her father was an abolitionist active in the Congregationalist Church, the Underground Railroad, and politics. Her family eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Spelman had an elder adopted sister, Lucy […]

Frederick Douglass Jr., Abolitionist, and Editor born

*Frederick Douglass Jr. was born on this date in 1842. He was an abolitionist, essayist, newspaper editor, and official recruiter of colored soldiers for the United States Union Army during the American Civil War. He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and was the second son of Frederick Douglass and his first wife, Anna Murray Douglass. As a youngster […]

Sara Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter born.

*Sara Forbes Bonetta’s birth is celebrated on this date in c. 1843. She was Queen Victoria’s Black African goddaughter. Originally named Aina (or Ina), she was born in a Yoruba village in West Africa Nigeria, after its collapse to the Kingdom of Dahomey. In 1848, Oke-Odan was invaded and captured by the army of Dahomey. […]

Abolitionist is Branded as a ‘Slave Stealer’

On this date from 1845, we recall the Branding of a Slave Stealer, Massachusetts’s sea captain, Jonathan Walker.

Jonathan Walker, a white man born in 1790, was arrested in 1844 for trying to carry slaves who were members of his church to freedom in the Bahamas. He was apprehended off the coast of Florida. He was jailed for more than a year and branded with the letters “S.S.” for Slave Stealer.

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.