Learn about enslavement, resistance, abolition and the struggle for freedom through biographies and historical records.
8,921 matching cards · 24 cards per page
Loading image…1852–1929
Jeremiah Daniel Baltimore (April 15, 1852 – July 29, 1929) was an engineer and educator in Washington, D.C. For many years, he was an engineer in the service of the United States Navy and served as chief engineer at the Freedmen's Hospital. He was also a…
Loading image…Born 1846
Jeremiah Haralson (April 1, 1846 – disappeared 25 March 1895) was a politician from Alabama who served as a state legislator and was among the first ten African-American United States congressmen. Born into slavery in Columbus, Georgia, Haralson became…
1838–1905
Jeremiah J. Hamilton (July 1, 1838 – 1905) was a school founder, carpenter, political organizer, and legislator in Texas. He was born a slave July 1, 1838 in Tennessee then taken to Texas in 1847. He served as the secretary of the Texas State Central…
Loading image…1989–
Jeremy O. Harris (born June 2, 1989) is an American playwright, actor, and screenwriter. Harris gained prominence for his 2018 Slave Play, which received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play. Harris is also known for his work in film and television.
Loading image…1813–1872
Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen (February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872), born Jarm Logue, in slavery, was an American abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and an author of a slave narrative. After escaping slavery in…
1837–1860
Jesse Ewing Glasgow Jr. (c. 1823 – 20 December 1860) was an African-American intellectual from Philadelphia, who studied at the University of Edinburgh from 1858 to 1860. He authored the radical pamphlet on John Brown's Harper's Ferry Raid in 1859.
Loading image…Biography
Jessica Marie Johnson is an American historian and Black studies scholar specializing in the history of the Atlantic slave trade. She is an associate professor in the department of history at the Johns Hopkins University Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and…
1952–
Jill Nelson (born June 14, 1952) is an American journalist and novelist. She has written several books, including the autobiographical Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience, which won an American Book Award. She was Professor of Journalism at…
1871–1962
James Spurgeon Jordan ( JUR-dən; June 3, 1871 – January 28, 1962) was an American conjure doctor and businessman. Born to former slaves in eastern North Carolina, he learned folk healing practices from his family. His faith healing practice, using methods…
Biography
Jim Williams (c. 1830 – March 6, 1871) was an American soldier and militia leader in the 1860s and 1870s in York County, South Carolina. He escaped slavery during the US Civil War and joined the Union Army. After the war, Williams led a black militia…
Dates not recorded
Joel W. Lewis was a prominent African-American businessman and abolitionist. He was among the best known and respected reformers in antebellum Boston. He was the son of Job Lewis (?–1797), a former slave who served in the Continental Army. He was a brother…
1866–1933
John Albert Williams (February 28, 1866 – February 4, 1933) was a minister, journalist, and political activist in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born to an escaped slave and spoke from the pulpit and the newspapers on issues of civil rights, equality, and racial…
1846–1931
John B. Esnard (1846 – June 2, 1931) was an American politician. Born a slave, he served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1868 to 1870.
Loading image…1832–
John Boston (ca. 1832 – after 1880) was an American politician. He was enslaved before becoming a representative from Darlington County in the South Carolina House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. He helped establish the Lamar Colored…
1940
FROM THE SOURCE CATALOGA color linocut in green and black depicting the face of abolitionist John Brown appearing above the images of four other figures. Brown appears at top center, with two standing male figures appearing directly below. One holds an object in his proper right…
Biography
John Brown (c. 1810 – 1876), also known by his slave name, "Fed," was born into slavery on a plantation in Southampton County, Virginia. He is known for his memoir published in London, England in 1855, Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life,…
Loading image…1858–1917
John Brown Bell (December 1858 – November 4, 1917), also known as J. B. Bell, was an American businessman, real estate investor, civil servant, and civic leader in Houston, Texas. In his early life he was enslaved, and eventually owned a grocery store,…
Loading image…1799–1851
John Brown Russwurm (October 1, 1799 – June 9, 1851) was a Jamaican-born American abolitionist, newspaper publisher, and colonist of Liberia, where he moved from the United States. He was born in Jamaica to an English father and enslaved mother. As a child…
Biography
John Caesar (c. 1770s – January 17, 1837) was a Black Seminole lieutenant and interpreter to Ee-mat-la, hereditary chief of the St. Johns River Seminoles in Florida. In Joshua Giddings' history of the wars against the Seminole, Caesar was described as "an…
Born 1774
John Carruthers Stanly (1774–1845) was one of the largest slave owners in North Carolina and the wealthiest free black resident.
Biography
John Cary (August 1729 (unattested date) - 2 June 1843) was the African-American enslaved body servant of American Revolutionary War General George Washington. Cary said that he was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in August 1729; he died in…
1855–1918
John W. Cheatham (1855–1918) was an American firefighter in Minneapolis. Born as an enslaved person in St. Louis, Missouri, Cheatham was freed at the age of eight by the Emancipation Proclamation, and then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his family…
Loading image…1876–1911
Rev. John Clay (J.C.) Coleman was an American–Canadian minister, theologian, and black rights activist. Born to freed slaves in Durant, Holmes Co., Mississippi.
Loading image…1844–1944
John Elijah Proctor (January 14, 1844 – December 14, 1944) was an American politician in the state of Florida. A former slave, he served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1873 to 1875, and 1879 to 1881, and in the Florida Senate from 1883 to…
Biographies, museum objects and archive records are distinct card types. Every card links to its historical source.
