Category: History

  • When Joseph Nathaniel Beckles registered for the draft in the 1942, he rejected the racial categories presented to him and persuaded the registrar to cross out the check mark she had placed next to Negro and substitute “Ethiopian Hebrew.” “God did not make us Negroes,” declared religious leaders in black communities of the early twentieth-century…

  • Not many private relationships in history have received as much press attention in recent years as that between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. First alleged in 1802 by the journalist James Callender, who based his account on stories that had been current in Virginia for some years, the affair has since then been…

  • A president’s past yields a modern parable The Berkshire Eagle Pittsfield, Massachusetts 2017-01-24 Jenn Smith A tree is planted and dedicated to the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings, at Monticello’s Mulberry Row. Mulberry Row was the center of activity of Jefferson’s 5,000-acre agricultural enterprise. According to the Monticello website, it was…

  • Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family Random House December 2002 160 pages Hardcover ISBN: 978-0195031720 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-375-82168-4 Shannon Lanier and Jane Feldman Personal testimonies from descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings pose important questions about equality, freedom, and family. On October 31, 1998, the Associated Press broke the news that…

  • @X: Making America White 200 Years Ago Public Books 2017-02-17 Brandon R. Byrd, Assistant Professor of History Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee In the latest edition of our anniversaries series, Brandon Byrd examines resistance to the American Colonization Society’s attempts to remove free blacks from the US. In January 1817, more than three thousand African Americans…

  • The True Story of Pocahontas: Historical Myths Versus Sad Reality Indian Country Media Network 2017-02-16 Vincent Schilling AP Images A portrait of Pocahontas saving the life of John Smith with Father Wahunsenaca. Oral history from the descendants of Pocahontas dictate such a thing could never have happened. Pocahontas had a Native Husband and Native Child;…

  • Black Indians Heritage Feature – Hot Ticket Cox 11 Hampton Roads Local Television Channel 2014-02-20 This special feature in honor of Black History Month provides insight into the high percentage of local African Americans that also have Native American heritage.

  • Thank you for choosing to bring your students to the Wilma’s production of An Octoroon, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. I applaud your willingness to take a risk on this one. While on some level we all understand that the most extraordinary learning opportunities emerge when we venture outside our comfort zone, most of us still gravitate…

  • The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts by Amber D. Moulton (review) The Journal of the Civil War Era Volume 6, Number 4, December 2016 pages 594-596 DOI: 10.1353/cwe.2016.0075 Tamika Y. Nunley, Assistant Professor of History Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts. By Amber D. Moulton.…

  • Lt. Stephen Atkins Swails Kingstree News Kingstree, South Carolina 2017-02-07 Cassandra Williams Rush, Special to The News Lt. Stephen Atkins Swails Photo by Ronald Walton Lt. Stephen Atkins Swails, an attorney, a member of the Electoral College, a member of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, was the Mayor of Kingstree. He was born February 23, 1832…