*The birth of Jeremiah Hamilton is celebrated on this date in 1806. He was a 19th-century Black stockbroker, forger, and financier. Sometimes called Jerry Hamilton, Jeremiah G. Hamilton was born in Haiti. His death certificate stated he was born in the West Indies and listed Port-au-Prince as the birthplace of his parents. Hamilton first became […]
learn more*Henry Blair’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1807. He was a Black farmer and inventor. Blair was born in Glen Ross, Maryland, and little is known about his childhood. In the patent records, Blair is listed as a “colored man,” making this identification the only one of its kind in early patent records. […]
learn more*Silas Omohundro Jr. was born on this date in 1807. He was a white-American slave trader. Born in Albemarle, Virginia, his father was Richard Omohundro Sr., and his mother was Edith Seay. Omohundro ran a slave trade business from what is now 15th Street in Richmond, VA. As a chattel slave trader, he engaged in the direct […]
learn more*Philip Alexander Bell was born on this date in 1808. He was a Black journalist and abolitionist.
learn more*The Prospect Hill Plantation is affirmed on this date in 1808. This was a former 5,000-acre plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. In the early 19th century, the plantation was owned by planter Isaac Ross of South Carolina, who enslaved African people to farm cotton as a cash crop. In 1830, Ross and other major planters […]
learn more*Anne Hampton was born on this date in 1808. She was a free Black domestic and chef. She was raised in Hudson Falls, New York, and was of African, Indigenous, and European ancestry. In 1829, she married Solomon Northup, and she gave birth to their children Elizabeth in 1831, Margaret in 1833, and Alonzo Northup […]
learn more*This date celebrates the birth of Jules Lion, a pioneering Black photographer, circa 1809. Lion was born in France with mixed heritage and is listed as a free man of color (F M C) in the New Orleans City Directory. He introduced the daguerreotype photographic technique to New Orleans and established himself as an outstanding […]
learn more*William Gladstone was born on this date in 1809. He was a white British statesman, slave owner, and politician. Born in Liverpool, William Ewart Gladstone was of Scottish ancestry. He was the fourth son of the wealthy enslaver John Gladstone and his second wife, Anne MacKenzie Robertson. In 1814, young “Willy” visited Scotland for the […]
learn more*On this date we celebrate the birth of William Alexander Leidesdorff, in 1810. He was a Black businessman and explorer.
learn moreThe “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.
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 several years. He was an extremely successful businessman from Toronto, owning multiple businesses in the 1840s. He owned the Mansion Inn and […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
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