African American History Blog

  These three amendments are based on helping African Americans advance in the United States and not be discriminated against for their race.  The 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6th, 1865. The amendment abolished slavery. This greatly changed America for the better, giving African Americans the freedom they deserved. The first battle of the first Manasses cause people to rethink the negative aspects of slavery and how this law created so much conflict. Lincoln equipped the Emancipation Proclamation, which eventually declared slaves to be free forever.  The 14th Amendment was ratified on July 9th, 1868. The amendment was created to secure the rights of former slaves. Created on "Equality for all in America," One of the three changes to the constitution during and after the Civil War era was the Reconstruction Amendments. Today, this Amendment was evolved into freedom and equal civil and legal rights to freedom and qual and legal rights to African Americans.  ...

     Dred Scott was born a slave in 1795 and was married in 1836. Dred Scott was an African American slave who sued for his freedom unsuccessfully. His original owner was Peter Blow, but he couldn't afford him. So he sold Scott to a surgeon in the army, Dr. John Emerson. Dred had a wife named Harriet and two daughters, named Eliza and Lizzy.       Dread was famously known as a historical figure who started the idea of ending slavery. The famous court case in history, "Scott V. Sandford," led to "The Dred Scott Decision," and it aroused United States citizens into starting a Civil War.        While Dred and his wife Harriet were slaves of Emerson, he moved to Ilinois and the Wisconsin Territory, where Dr. Emerson was stationed. According to state laws and the Northwest Ordinance of 1887, in Illinois and the Wisconsin territory, slavery was illegal. Later, John Emerson died, and the Dred family was still owned by Irene Emerson, J...

        John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800. He was raised in a town where there was a lot of antislavery movement. His family really emphasized religion, so his faith was a big part of his life. He didn't go to school because he worked with his father as a tanner. His father was also an abolitionist, and he worked on the Underground Railroad. So from early on, Brown was learning how bad slavery was. But his hatred toward slavery really increased when he saw a boy his age being beat for punishment. Later on, Brown went to college to be a priest.       After he finished school, he made a tannery of his own in Ohio. In total, he had 20 children between two wives. In 1826 he moved to Pennsylvania but didn't stay because his business was doing well back in Ohio. After a few years, Brown started working with abolitionist to get rid of slavery. He helped runaway slaves get through the Underground Railroad.  In 1837 Elijah P...

       William Lloyd Garrison was born December 10, 1805, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was the son of a merchant sailing master. Due to the Embargo Act, which Congress had passed in 1807, the Garrisons' family fell on hard times while William was still young. Garrison began as an anti-slavery advocate and was strongly against native American removal. He joined the abolition movement when he was 25.          After finishing his apprenticeship at The Newburyport Herald, he borrowed money from a former employee and started up the Newburyport Essex Courant. He changed the name to the Newburyport Free Press. He used it as a political instrument to express the sentiments of the old Federalist party. Unfortunately, the Newburyport Free Press lacked similar staying power. Within six months, the Free Press went under due to subscribers' objections to its staunch Federalist viewpoints. When the Free Press folded in 1828, Garrison moved to Bos...

     Nat Turner was born on October 2nd in 1800, into slavery. His mother was Nancy Turner; his father is unknown. He worked in Southamptomton county Virginia under the plantation owner Benjamin Turner. Benjamin Turner allowed Nat to be instructed in reading, writing, and religion. Nat had appeared to have a special talent at an early age because he could narrate events from his birth in great detail.         Nat Turner was an enslaved African-American who lived in Virginia. Unlike most of the enslaved, Nat Turner was "naturally intelligent." In fact, some say he taught himself to read and write.      Turner often experienced visions in which he comprehended messages from God. Some historians suggest that he was actually schizophrenic. The early talent led Nat to become a preacher who claimed he had been chosen by God to lead slaves from bondage and stood against white oppression. Turner was deeply religious and devoted his time to ...

     Harriet Tubman was born in 1820 to a family of 11 children. Her maiden name is Araminta Ross, but she was nicknamed Minty as a teenager. She would later adopt the name "Harriet after her mother: Harriet Ross.      Her father was Benjamin Ross, who was a free man. Her mother was Harriet Greene Ross, a slave on the Joseph Brodess plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore. After Joseph died, Edward Brodess took over in 1824. To generate more income, he sold most of his slaves off, especially women in their childbearing years, causing Harriet's two sisters to be sold off.       As soon as she was old enough to work, she was hired out to local farmers. She was extremely defiant. Therefore she was abused and treated poorly; after being overworked, she was often exhausted, ill, and beaten.       The worse abuse she received was from a woman who would whip her to stay awake all night rocking an infant so they would not cry....