Posted in Slavery

South Carolina “A White Man Named Taylor, Who Had Made Negroes His Only Companions…”

In spite of all the nonsense Lost Cause writers once spun about whites and slaves being friends in the Old South, those whites who formed…

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Posted in Slavery

When Free Blacks Had to Wear Badges to Show Their Racial Status in South Carolina August 1860

While there were “free Blacks” living in South Carolina before the Civil War, their position was precarious and their freedoms were circumscribed. This article in…

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Posted in Slavery

How the Descendants of Slaves Are Impacting Plantation Museums

The Washington Post has an article on how the descendants of slaves are impacting how plantation museums tell their stories. From the article:  Robert Bellinger…

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Posted in Slavery

Sale of Free Negroes in the South Before the Civil War

Freedom was a precarious state for Blacks before the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. Free Blacks were sold at auction if they fell behind…

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Posted in Emancipation Proclamation Memory of Reconstruction Monuments Slavery

Richmond Unveils Monument to Emancipation at the End of Civil War

This week Richmond, Virginia erects a new monument marking the liberation of the city by Union troops in April 1865 and the end of slavery…

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Posted in Civil War Slavery USCT

New Marker Tells Story of USCT from Rippavilla Plantation Near Franklin, Tenn.

The Battle of Franklin Trust unveiled a new historical marker last week at Rippavilla near Franklin, Tenn. The panel recounts the story of local enslaved…

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Posted in Slavery Uncategorized

Col. Fremont Not A Roman Catholic-The Religious Divide in the 1856 Election

John C. Fremont was a national hero in the 1840s after he led exploratory expeditions in the West. Dubbed “The Pathfinder of the West,” he…

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Posted in Abolitionists Education Slavery

New Short Film on the Lives of Enslaved Couple’s Gender Change to Flee to Freedom

Ellen and William Craft ran away from slavery in plain sight. Ellen, who was light skinned, disguised herself as a sickly white man. Her husband…

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Posted in Slavery

Leon Litwack, Historian of the Reconstruction and Jim Crow Eras, Dies

Leon Litwack, history professor at the University Of California, Berkley, died last week at the age of 91. His book Been in the Storm So…

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Posted in Slavery

The Second Amendment & The Right to Kill Black People in Slavery and Reconstruction

Slate’s legal writer Dahlia Lithwick recently interviewed historian Carol Anderson, professor and chair of African American studies at Emory University, on her new book The…

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