People, Locations, Episodes

William Leidesdorff, Explorer, and Businessman born

*On this date we celebrate the birth of William Alexander Leidesdorff, in 1810. He was a Black businessman and explorer.

The ‘Shotgun House’, Black Architecture and Heritage

The “shotgun house,” a residential house design, is celebrated on this date in 1810. It is a Black cultural architectural form that originated in the American South and was used extensively throughout the region.

Pierce Mease Butler, Slave Owner, born

*The birth of Pierce Mease Butler is affirmed on this date in 1810. He was a white-American plantation and slave owner and farmer. Born in Philadelphia, PA., he was the grandson of Pierce Butler and changed his birth name Pierce Butler Mease to his surname Butler. During the Antebellum South, he inherited half of his grandfather’s […]

Reuben Shipley, Oregon Farmer born

*The birth of Reuben Shipley is celebrated on this date in 1811. He was a Black farmer. He was born a slave in Kentucky to a white man named Robert Shipley. His owner moved to Missouri and brought him along. Reuben Shipley married in Missouri; his wife and sons were slaves 30 miles away on […]

James Mink, Businessman born

*James Mink was born on this date in 1811.  He was a Black Canadian businessman.  From Toronto, Ontario, he was the son of Johan Herkimer’s slave Mink and was a slave himself for some years. He was an extremely successful businessman from Toronto, owning multiple businesses in the 1840s. He owned the Mansion Inn and […]

Manuel Lopes, Pioneer Businessman born.

*The birth of Manuel Lopes is celebrated on this date in 1812. He was a Black barber, businessman, and sailor. Lopes was born in the Cape Verde Islands of Africa. He was enslaved, kidnapped, and brought to America. He worked as a sailor in New England, first in Maine and then in the New Bedford area of […]

Timothy Meaher, Slave Trader born

*Timothy Meaher’s birth is remembered on this date in 1812. He was a white-American 19th-century slaver, businessman, and landowner.  From Whitfield, Maine, he was the son of James and Susannah Millay Meaher. James & Susannah were both born in Ireland. He came to Mobile, Alabama, around 1836 and owned a slave ship, the Clotilda. He was responsible […]

Benjamin F. Robert, Abolitionist, and Journalist born

*Benjamin F. Roberts was born on this date in 1815. He was a Black printer, writer, activist, and abolitionist. Benjamin F. Roberts was one of the 12 children of Sarah and Robert Roberts. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was named after Benjamin Franklin and came from an impressive lineage of activists and writers through both […]

Jane Swisshelm, News Publisher and Abolitionist born.

Jane Cannon Swisshelm was born in on this date in 1815. She was a White American educator, publisher, and abolitionist.

She was born in Pittsburgh, PA.,and when she was eight, her father died. She helped her mother support the family by lace making and, at the age of 14, as a schoolteacher. In 1836, she married James Swisshelm and moved to Louisville, Kentucky. It was here that she became involved in the campaign against slavery and became a member of the Underground Railroad. In 1848, Swisshelm established her own anti-slavery newspaper, the Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter.

Henry Wagoner, Abolitionist born

*Henry Wagoner was born on this date in 1816. He was a Black abolitionist and civil rights activist. Henry O. Wagoner was born in Hagerstown, Maryland. As a child, Wagoner was taught to read by his paternal grandmother but was rarely able to attend school, achieving less than a year’s schooling while working on a farm. Starting […]

Edmund Edward Wysinger, Mining Pioneer born

*The birth of Edmond Edward Wysinger is celebrated on this date in 1816.  He was a Black Native American pioneer.   He was born in South Carolina, the son of a Cherokee woman and an African slave. In the early part of 1849, at the age of 32, Wysinger and his German owner made the […]

Hector Davis, Slave Trader, born.

*Hector Davis was born on this date in 1816. He was a white-American slave trader. He was the son of John S. Davis and Jane W. Matthews Davis, the second of his three wives. They resided in Goochland County; in the 1840s, Davis moved to Richmond, where city directories and newspaper advertisements most often identified […]

William Lambert, Abolitionist born

*This date in 1817 is celebrated as the birth date of William Lambert, a Black abolitionist and businessman.   William Lambert was born free in Trenton, New Jersey. At least one of his parents was free at his birth. Crucial to his later success, Lambert was taken under the wing of a Quaker schoolmaster. This […]

Adelicia Hayes Franklin, White Slave Trader born.

*Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham was born on this date in 1817. She was a white-American planter and slave trader. Adelicia Hayes was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her parents were Northerners: her father was Oliver Bliss Hayes, a lawyer and later Presbyterian minister from South Hadley, Massachusetts. Her mother was Sarah Clements (Hightower) Hayes. They […]

George Washington, Farmer, and Businessman

On this date we recall the birth of George Washington in 1817. He was a Black farmer, businessman and the founder of the town of Centralia, Washington.