by RoyLisa | Mar 15, 2012 | African American History, Speeches
Long Island-born Jupiter Hammon is believed to be the first published male African American poet and essayist. His “Evening Thought, Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries,” was published in 1760. His first essay, “Winter Piece,” appeared in 1782. The speech...
by RoyLisa | Jan 22, 2007 | African American History, Speeches
In 1797 Abraham Johnstone, a former slave born in Delaware was convicted in Glocester County, New Jersey of murdering Thomas Read, another free African American and sentenced to be hanged. When the court asked for a statement from Johnstone after it announced his...
by RoyLisa | Jan 22, 2007 | African American History, Speeches
Five years after his presentation at Charles Town, Prince Hall again addresses his fellow Masons. In an address delivered to the African Lodge at West Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 24, 1797, Hall challenges those Masons to work for the elimination of slavery and...
by RoyLisa | Jan 22, 2007 | African American History, Speeches
Barbadian-born Prince Hall spent the first thirty-five years of his life enslaved. Twenty-one of those years he was owned by William Hall who brought him to Boston in 1765. Prince Hall was finally manumitted in 1770. He quickly became a leader of the small African...
by RoyLisa | Jan 22, 2007 | African American History, Speeches
We don’t know the name of one of the earliest orators against slavery. He was a West Indian who apparently was a former slave fortunate enough to be educated. He was also intimately familiar with slavery and the slave trade in that region. The themes and arguments...
Recent Comments