by YeeShirley | Oct 2, 2017 | African American History, People
John Mercer Langston, the youngest of four children, was born a free black in Louisa County, Virginia, on December 14, 1829. Langston gained distinction as an abolitionist, politician, and attorney. Despite the prominence of his slaveowner father, Ralph Quarles,...
by ChoNancy | Jun 29, 2008 | African American History, People
South Carolina Congressman George Washington Murray was born near Rembert, Sumter County, South Carolina, on September 22, 1853 to enslaved parents. He attended public schools, the University of South Carolina, and the State Normal Institute at Columbia, where he...
by JohnsonTeklaAli | Jan 11, 2008 | African American History, People
Born into slavery in Henderson, North Carolina, Henry Cheatham was the child of an enslaved domestic worker about who little is known. An adolescent after the American Civil War, Cheatham benefited from country’s short lived commitment to provide educational...
by WinterElizabeth | Dec 15, 2007 | African American History, People
Robert Smalls was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839 and worked as a house slave until the age of 12. At that point his owner, John K. McKee, sent him to Charleston to work as a waiter, ship rigger, and sailor, with all earnings going to McKee. This...
by IronsStasia | May 23, 2007 | African American History, People
North Carolina congressman James O’Hara was born a free person in New York City to an Irish merchant and West Indian mother. While growing up he worked as a deckhand on ships that sailed between New York and the West Indies. When he was eighteen O’Hara settled...
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