Description
The Senate “Committee of Thirteen” Try To Save the Union
One month after the election of Abraham Lincoln, political leaders across Washington search frantically for a compromise to his promised ban on slavery in the west which threatens to drive the South out of the Union. In the Senate, where Democrats still control 38 of the 66 seats, Kentucky’s Lazarus Powell calls for a “Committee […]
The origins of rice in America, the Gullah people and William Aiken Jr.
Before William Aiken Jr. enters the picture it’s necessary to tell how the Gullah people introduced rice to America. When captive west coast Africans land in Charleston around 1650 they arrive with a host of different local traditions and speaking a variety of different tongues. Then, in order to survive their enslavement, they gradually form […]
Prince Hall Black Masonic Lodges
Prince Hall’s founding of a Freemason Lodge for Africans in the city of Boston is an early milestone in the uphill battle of Blacks to achieve social respect and acceptance. Facts about the early life of Prince Hall are sketchy, but he is thought to have been born in Barbados in 1748 and to have […]
Reverend James Henley Thornwell Slavery A Positive Good
With slavery established in all 13 colonies by 1700, debates about its morality begin to surface, especially among the clergy. At the time, the fundamentalist ministers who dominate America’s early churches preach that the literal words of the Bible are both correct and unerring. They cite the Old Testament book of Genesis and the “curse […]
John Sutter and the Gold Rush
January 24, 1848: Gold Is Discovered At Sutter’s Mill In California You are there: on this day a carpenter named James Marshall discovers gold nuggets in a run-off stream at Johan Sutter’s sawmill northeast of Sacramento. A debt-ridden Johan Sutter flees Germany in 1834 to start a new life in America. He learns the fur […]
Liberty Party Political Abolitionists
The Background The beginnings of The Liberty Party liberal abolitionists go back to 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison publishes his Liberator newspaper in Boston and assumes leadership over the abolitionist movement in America. He rejects the U.S. Constitution and the federal government as instruments perpetrating slavery, and argues that only “moral suasion,” the power of […]
The Ostend Manifesto Embarrasses President Pierce
The Ostend Manifesto, also known as the Ostend Circular, origins go back to 1853 when President Pierce begins his term. By that time Northern resistance to expanding slavery into the west is on the rise. This leads Southerners to explore options outside of the U.S., with Cuba as a prime candidate. Interest in acquiring Cuba […]
Who was the first President photographed?
In 1849 pioneer cameraman Mathew Brady captures the first photograph of a sitting president, James Knox Polk, in his studio in lower Manhattan. But his image is preceded by that of two former presidents shot later in their lives. One is John Quincy Adams, President from 1825-29, then defeated for re-election by Andrew Jackson. Instead […]
Webster Hayne Debate on the Value of the Union
From January 19-30, 1830, two U.S. Senators engage in a series of debates that culminate in what historians often consider the most moving oratory ever delivered in the halls of Congress, the Webster Hayne Debate on the Value of the Union. On one side is Robert Hayne of South Carolina, 39 years old, owner of […]
Blind Tom Wiggins Piano Prodigy
The nation’s early professional pianists serve primarily as background support for various burlesque routines. Only a few attract enough followers to become headliners. One of them is “Blind Tom” who grows up in Georgia as a slave belonging to James Bethune. While sightless from birth and considered “retarded,” Tom discovers the household piano and begins […]