Learn about enslavement, resistance, abolition and the struggle for freedom through biographies and historical records.
8,921 matching cards · 24 cards per page
Born 1811
William J. Anderson (June 2, 1811 – ?) was an American who wrote a narrative describing his life as a slave.
Loading image…1870–1922
William Joseph Seymour (May 2, 1870 – September 28, 1922) was an American Holiness Pentecostal preacher. Seymour was the second of eight children born in an African-American family to emancipated slaves. He was a student of the early Pentecostal minister…
Loading image…1849–1890
William J. Simmons (June 29, 1849 – October 30, 1890) was an American Baptist pastor, educator, author, and activist. He was a former enslaved person who became the second president of Simmons College of Kentucky (1880–1890), for whom the school was later…
Biography
William J. Watkins Sr. (c. 1803–1858) was an African-American abolitionist, educator, and minister from Baltimore, Maryland.
Loading image…1818–1900
William Jackson (August 16, 1818 – May 19, 1900) was an American abolitionist, Underground Railroad agent, Baptist minister, and Union army chaplain. In 1859, Jackson founded the Salem Baptist Church, an African American congregation in New Bedford,…
1834–1907
William James Whipper (January 23, 1834 – July 29, 1907) was an American abolitionist, trial lawyer, municipal judge, and state legislator in South Carolina. An African American, he volunteered for the United States Army during the American Civil War,…
Loading image…Biography
William T. Johnson (c. 1809 – June 17, 1851) was a free African American barber of biracial parentage, who lived in Natchez, Mississippi. He was born into slavery but his owner, also named William Johnson and thought to be his father, emancipated him in 1820.
Loading image…Biography
William Lee (c. 1750 – 1810) was an enslaved American man and personal assistant of George Washington. He was the only one of Washington's slaves who was freed immediately by Washington's will.
1927–2019
William Loren Katz (June 2, 1927 – October 25, 2019) was an American teacher, historian and author of 40 books on African-American history, including a number of titles for young adult readers. He was particularly noted for his research and writing on the…
1810–1866
William P. Newman (1810/15–1866) was a fugitive slave who escaped from Virginia, moved north and obtained an education at Oberlin College. Becoming an ordained Baptist minister, he pastored for a few years at the Union Baptist Church of Cincinnati, Ohio.…
1821–1891
William Parker (1821 – April 14, 1891) was an American former slave who escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where he became an abolitionist and anti-slavery activist in Christiana. He was a farmer and led a black self-defense organization. He was…
Loading image…1881–1954
William Pickens (January 15, 1881 – April 6, 1954) was an American orator, educator, journalist, and essayist. He wrote multiple articles and speeches, and two autobiographies, The Heir of Slaves (1911) and Bursting Bonds (1923). In the latter book he…
Loading image…1839–1910
William Q. Atwood (January 1, 1839 – December 21, 1910) was a lumber baron in Saginaw, Michigan. Born a slave in Alabama, he was freed in 1853 in the will of his white master and father, and moved to the free state of Ohio. He became active in the…
Biography
William R. Gamble (c. 1850 – April 16, 1910) was a civil rights activist and barber in Lincoln, Nebraska and Omaha, Nebraska. Gamble was born a slave in Mobile, Alabama in about 1850.
Loading image…1852–1926
William Sanders Scarborough (February 16, 1852 – September 9, 1926) was an American classical scholar and academic administrator. He is generally thought to be the first African American classical scholar. Born into slavery, Scarborough later served as…
1821–1902
Still chaired Philadelphia’s Vigilance Committee, personally aided hundreds of freedom seekers, and preserved their stories in his landmark 1872 book The Underground Railroad.
Loading image…1843–1909
William Thornton Montgomery (February 1843 – July 3, 1909) was an American freedman, businessman, farmer, and community leader, best known for his contributions to agriculture and his advocacy for African American empowerment. The Montgomery family,…
c. 1814–1884
After escaping slavery, Brown became a prolific abolitionist lecturer and writer, publishing Clotel in 1853 alongside plays and historical works.
Loading image…1804–1876
William Whipper (February 22, 1804 – March 9, 1876) was a businessman and abolitionist in the United States. Whipper, an African American, advocated nonviolence and co-founded the American Moral Reform Society, an early African-American abolitionist…
Biography
Willie Parker is an American physician, and sits on the board of institutions working in reproductive justice, including as previous member of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Reproductive Health. He "travels to Mississippi every month to the last…
Loading image…1815–1890
Willis Augustus Hodges (February 12, 1815 – September 24, 1890) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, and political organizer who became prominent in Brooklyn, New York. Born to free parents in Virginia, Hodges became an outspoken advocate for…
1852–1902
Willis McGlascoe Carter (September 3, 1852 – March 23, 1902) was an African-American educator, newspaper editor, and civil rights activist in Virginia. Born into slavery in Albemarle County, he became principal of the West End School in Staunton, edited…
1930
FROM THE SOURCE CATALOGA window card for the film A Daughter of the Congo. This poster depicts a woman standing on the right side margin. She is dressed in beads, a skirt, and a top covering her mid-section and leaving her shoulders exposed. Her hands are up in a defensive…
18th-19th century
FROM THE SOURCE CATALOGA nineteenth century iron window hook. The fastener has a round screw hole on one side and with a curved, hooked lock. On the other side is a C-shaped latch. The back of the latch is wide and flat. A white painted rectangle with black, hand painted text on…
Biographies, museum objects and archive records are distinct card types. Every card links to its historical source.
