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…Biography
Reverend John Robert Scott Sr. (1840-41 – February 18, 1929) was a religious and political leader in Florida as well as a college president. He was born into slavery in Virginia.
1827–1890
John Randolph Jr. (October 18, 1827 – November 22, 1890) was an American politician. Born enslaved near Washington, North Carolina, he was freed upon the arrival of federal troops in New Bern during the American Civil War.
Loading image…1965–
John Ridley IV (born October 1, 1964) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the…
Loading image…1825–1866
John Stewart Rock (October 13, 1825 – December 3, 1866) was an African American teacher, doctor, dentist, lawyer and abolitionist, historically associated with the concept that "black is beautiful", which was thought to have originated from a speech he…
Biography
John Swanson Jacobs (1815 or 1817 – December 19, 1873) was a Black author and abolitionist. After escaping from slavery in North Carolina, he became prominent in abolitionist circles of the northeastern United States. He was closely connected with the…
Loading image…?–1876
Rev. John Frederick Augustus Sykes Fayette (c. 1810 – February 27, 1876) was an American and Canadian college-educated Presbyterian minister. Fayette attended Western Reserve College, present day Case Western Reserve University, beginning in 1832 and…
Loading image…1801–1864
John Telemachus Hilton (April 1801 – March 5, 1864) was an African-American abolitionist, writer, and businessman, who established barber, furniture dealer, and employment agency businesses. He was a Prince Hall Mason and established the Prince Hall…
1940–2000
John Wesley Blassingame (March 23, 1940 – February 13, 2000) was an American historian and pioneer in the study of slavery in the United States. He was the former chairman of the African-American studies program at Yale University. He edited the papers of…
Biography
John William Boyd (1841, or ca. 1852 - March 10, 1932) was an African-American ex-slave who became a lawyer. He served as a magistrate in Tipton County, Tennessee and served two terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1881 to 1884.
Loading image…1855–1933
John Wesley Edward Bowen Sr. (December 3, 1855 – July 20, 1933) was born into American slavery and became a Methodist clergyman, denominational official, college and university educator. He was one of the first African Americans to earn a Ph.D. degree in…
Loading image…1847–1899
John William Edinburgh Thomas (May 1, 1847 – December 18, 1899) was an American businessman, educator, and Illinois politician. Born into slavery in Alabama, he moved to Chicago after the Civil War, where he became a prominent community leader. In 1876 he…
Biography
John William Pollard (c. 1846 – 1932), born in Virginia into a family of free black farmers while the slave trade was still thriving in the South, was among the first group of African Americans to join the Union Army in 1862, serving in a colored unit…
?–1874
John Wiggins was an African-American politician. At birth, Wiggins was a slave. He was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives from De Soto Parish on December 4, 1872, and served as a Republican until his death on January 2, 1874.
Loading image…Biography
John Ystumllyn (c. 1738–1786), also colloquially known as Jac Du or Jack Black, was an 18th-century gardener and the first well-recorded person of African descent in North Wales. John was of uncertain origin, possibly a victim of the Atlantic slave trade,…
1865–68
FROM THE SOURCE CATALOGCataloged as “Johnson – Tattnall”.
Loading image…Biography
Joice Heth (c. 1756 – February 19, 1836) was an enslaved African-American woman who was exhibited in the United States during the final months of her life. In 1835, showman P. T. Barnum promoted her with the false claim that she was the 161-year-old former…
ca. 1874
FROM THE SOURCE CATALOGThese are the surviving elements of the Jones-Hall-Sims House, a two-story log cabin built by formerly enslaved members of the Jones family. The body of the house is composed of heavy timbers fit together with saddle notches. The side gable roof is lightly…
Loading image…1825–1907
Jordan Anderson or Jourdon Anderson (December 1825 – April 15, 1905) was an African-American former slave noted for an 1865 letter he dictated, later titled by publishers as "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master". It was addressed to his former master,…
Loading image…1848–1918
Jordan Carlisle Jackson Jr. (February 28, 1848 – October 7, 1918), also known as J. C. Jackson, was an American lawyer, funeral director, newspaper editor, and Black community leader. He was married to abolitionist Eliza "Belle" Mitchell Jackson.
Biography
Jordan Lang (c. 1813 - March 9, 1893) was a state legislator in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. He had been a slave owned by the Lang family.
d. 1812
Aponte, a free Black artist and militia veteran, organized a major 1812 conspiracy against slavery and Spanish colonial rule.
Loading image…1859–1926
Rev. Joseph Albert Booker (1859–1926), was an American newspaper editor, academic administrator, educator, minister, activist, and Black community leader. He was born into slavery and orphaned at a young age; Booker went on to serve as the president of…
Loading image…Biography
Joseph Antonio Emidy (c. 1775 – 23 April 1835) was a Guinean-born British musician who was enslaved by Portuguese traders in his early life. He was later freed and resided in Portugal before being impressed into the Royal Navy.
Loading image…1833–1911
Joseph Carter Corbin (March 26, 1833 – January 9, 1911) was an American journalist and educator. Before the abolition of slavery, he was a journalist, teacher, and conductor on the Underground Railroad in Ohio and Kentucky. After the American Civil War, he…
Biographies, museum objects and archive records are distinct card types. Every card links to its historical source.
