How much do you know about Black History Month?
Do you know that this remembrance was founded as “Negro History Week” in 1926 by African-American historian, author and journalist Carter Godwin Woodson (b. 12/19/1875-d.4/3/1950) is known as the Father of Black History.
The son of James and Anna Eliza Riddle Woodson, who were slaves that found freedom, Carter became an activist that put him at the very core of a devoted group of black intellectual and activist.
At the age of 25 (1900), Woodson became principal of Douglass High School prior to working in the Philippines as a school supervisor. In 1908 he attended the University of Chicago, receiving his M.A. In 1912, Carter Godwin Woodson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University
Dr. Woodson founded “Negro History Week,” devoting his career to authoring books, journals, articles and publishing newspapers, in part, to insure that the role of the African-American was neither ignored nor misrepresented by scholars and people.
Dr. Woodson is not only the founder of what is now Black History Month, he is also one of the reasons we should take pause and consider the stories of some of this countries most remarkable citizens.
One historian walking in Dr. Woodson’s footpath is Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Ph.D., Associate professor of History, Norfolk State University.
In 2003, Dr. Newby-Alexander began work on Waterways to Freedom: The Underground Railway in Virginia. Part of that project included working with the City of Norfolk, Virginia to develop an interactive map that tells the story of the Underground Railway in Norfolk.
A conversation with Dr. Newby-Alexander was very enlightening as I learned:
> The State of Virginia had more Slaves than any other state.
> That while issues of property were “State” governed, the ownership of Slaves was Federally protected under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
> That William Still (b.1821) was one of Black History’s ameuteur historian recording the stories of escaped Slaves who came through the Philadelphia Underground Railroad, one such interview revealing that the escaping individual was his lost brother, left behind in bondage when his mother escaped.
“The story of the escaping Slave is interesting for many reasons, “ said Dr. Newby-Alexander from her Norfolk University office. “But at the heart of that story is a person willing to risk everything to run to freedom.”
Visit the Waterways to Freedom [below] and explore twelve areas of importance to the Underground Railroad.
An 1873 map reflects a very different Norfolk, Virginia than the one that is there today. Click on the twelve different points and learn about the men and women, and places that played an important part in the Underground Railroad.
“Slaves escaping from Norfolk left primarily by water,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “In a rural area contiguous with a border to a northern state, it would have been difficult to make the journey undetected."
“They escaped Norfolk by ship, usually paying a white captain for their escape.”
Many of those ships left out of Higgins Wharf (Clickable #1), located at the far end of Widewater Street, near New Castle Street. Click and learn that the wharf’s owner, John A. Higgins, was the former owner of Shadrick Minkins.
Mr. Minkins place in history is recorded as he was being hunted under the Slave Fugitive Act. Abolitionists helped him to evade trial in Boston, MA and escape to Canada.
Lewis Hayden (b.1811-d.1889) led the Vigilance Committee group that abetted Mr. Minkins escape.
Mr. Lewis was an ex-Slave that, once finding his freedom, became a representative from Boston to the State Legislature in 1873.
Mr. Minkins escaped from the ownership of John DeBree, a prosperous landowner and former navy man (see #4).
Visit the Wharf where in 1855, Captain Alfred Fountain sailed to Philadelphia with 21 fugitive Slaves. Just before leaving dock with fugitive brothers, Thomas and Frederick Nixon, owned by merchant B.T. Bockover, Norfolk Mayor William Lamb and a group of men boarded the ship to search for escaping Slaves.
The Captain most surely received payment for his services but, if caught, would have been tried under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Though slavery’s origins tentacle back as far as the 1560, it was from 1654 until 1865 that slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the United States.
Until the 18th Century, however, slave labor was often ruled by a form of bonded labor, or indentured servitude, in which whites and blacks alike would work to pay the cost of their transportation to the American colonies.
everything to run to freedom.”
Visit the Waterways to Freedom [below] and explore twelve areas of importance to the Underground Railroad.
An 1873 map reflects a very different Norfolk, Virginia than the one that is there today. Click on the twelve different points and learn about the men and women, and places that played an important part in the Underground Railroad.
“Slaves escaping from Norfolk left primarily by water,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “In a rural area contiguous with a border to a northern state, it would have been difficult to make the journey undetected."
“They escaped Norfolk by ship, usually paying a white captain for their escape.”
Many of those ships left out of Higgins Wharf (Clickable #1), located at the far end of Widewater Street, near New Castle Street. Click and learn that the wharf’s owner, John A. Higgins, was the former owner of Shadrick Minkins.
Mr. Minkins place in history is recorded as he was being hunted under the Slave Fugitive Act. Abolitionists helped him to evade trial in Boston, MA and escape to Canada.
Lewis Hayden (b.1811-d.1889) led the Vigilance Committee group that abetted Mr. Minkins escape.
Mr. Lewis was an ex-Slave that, once finding his freedom, became a representative from Boston to the State Legislature in 1873.
Mr. Minkins escaped from the ownership of John DeBree, a prosperous landowner and former navy man (see #4).
Visit the Wharf where in 1855, Captain Alfred Fountain sailed to Philadelphia with 21 fugitive Slaves. Just before leaving dock with fugitive brothers, Thomas and Frederick Nixon, owned by merchant B.T. Bockover, Norfolk Mayor William Lamb and a group of men boarded the ship to search for escaping Slaves.
The Captain most surely received payment for his services but, if caught, would have been tried under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Though slavery’s origins tentacle back as far as the 1560, it was from 1654 until 1865 that slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the United States.
Until the 18th Century, however, slave labor was often ruled by a form of bonded labor, or indentured servitude, in which whites and blacks alike would work to pay the cost of their transportation to the American colonies.
In the 18th century, Federal Court rulings allowed a racial bias to grow, establishing the right to “own” Black Africans as property, forcing them to unpaid, and usually harsh labor, particularly in the Southern plantations where tobacco and cotton were particularly labor intensive, big cash crops.
At the heart of this movement was the need for cheap, expendable labor that ensured the success of large plantations.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, twelve million Africans were shipped to the Americas, with the majority being sent to South America, mostly to Brazil. However, during that period approximately 650,000 persons were sold into slavery from the transporters, however by 1860, the Slave population in the United States had grown to four millions persons.
“The story of the Underground Railroad is not the story of just Black people,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “It is the story of those people, black and white, that worked together against something that they saw as oppressive and wrong.”
“Ship Captains may have been paid in coin, but they still transported people at great risk. All along the Underground Railroad are stories of white and black abolitionists who worked together, helping people to escape to freedom. To evade those that would recapture them.“
Visit Waterways to Freedom and explore Norfolk’s role in the Underground Railroad.
Do you know that this remembrance was founded as “Negro History Week” in 1926 by African-American historian, author and journalist Carter Godwin Woodson (b. 12/19/1875-d.4/3/1950) is known as the Father of Black History.
The son of James and Anna Eliza Riddle Woodson, who were slaves that found freedom, Carter became an activist that put him at the very core of a devoted group of black intellectual and activist.
At the age of 25 (1900), Woodson became principal of Douglass High School prior to working in the Philippines as a school supervisor. In 1908 he attended the University of Chicago, receiving his M.A. In 1912, Carter Godwin Woodson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University
Dr. Woodson founded “Negro History Week,” devoting his career to authoring books, journals, articles and publishing newspapers, in part, to insure that the role of the African-American was neither ignored nor misrepresented by scholars and people.
Dr. Woodson is not only the founder of what is now Black History Month, he is also one of the reasons we should take pause and consider the stories of some of this countries most remarkable citizens.
One historian walking in Dr. Woodson’s footpath is Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Ph.D., Associate professor of History, Norfolk State University.
In 2003, Dr. Newby-Alexander began work on Waterways to Freedom: The Underground Railway in Virginia. Part of that project included working with the City of Norfolk, Virginia to develop an interactive map that tells the story of the Underground Railway in Norfolk.
A conversation with Dr. Newby-Alexander was very enlightening as I learned:
> The State of Virginia had more Slaves than any other state.
> That while issues of property were “State” governed, the ownership of Slaves was Federally protected under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
> That William Still (b.1821) was one of Black History’s ameuteur historian recording the stories of escaped Slaves who came through the Philadelphia Underground Railroad, one such interview revealing that the escaping individual was his lost brother, left behind in bondage when his mother escaped.
“The story of the escaping Slave is interesting for many reasons, “ said Dr. Newby-Alexander from her Norfolk University office. “But at the heart of that story is a person willing to risk everything to run to freedom.”
Visit the Waterways to Freedom [below] and explore twelve areas of importance to the Underground Railroad.
An 1873 map reflects a very different Norfolk, Virginia than the one that is there today. Click on the twelve different points and learn about the men and women, and places that played an important part in the Underground Railroad.
“Slaves escaping from Norfolk left primarily by water,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “In a rural area contiguous with a border to a northern state, it would have been difficult to make the journey undetected."
“They escaped Norfolk by ship, usually paying a white captain for their escape.”
Many of those ships left out of Higgins Wharf (Clickable #1), located at the far end of Widewater Street, near New Castle Street. Click and learn that the wharf’s owner, John A. Higgins, was the former owner of Shadrick Minkins.
Mr. Minkins place in history is recorded as he was being hunted under the Slave Fugitive Act. Abolitionists helped him to evade trial in Boston, MA and escape to Canada.
Lewis Hayden (b.1811-d.1889) led the Vigilance Committee group that abetted Mr. Minkins escape.
Mr. Lewis was an ex-Slave that, once finding his freedom, became a representative from Boston to the State Legislature in 1873.
Mr. Minkins escaped from the ownership of John DeBree, a prosperous landowner and former navy man (see #4).
Visit the Wharf where in 1855, Captain Alfred Fountain sailed to Philadelphia with 21 fugitive Slaves. Just before leaving dock with fugitive brothers, Thomas and Frederick Nixon, owned by merchant B.T. Bockover, Norfolk Mayor William Lamb and a group of men boarded the ship to search for escaping Slaves.
The Captain most surely received payment for his services but, if caught, would have been tried under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Though slavery’s origins tentacle back as far as the 1560, it was from 1654 until 1865 that slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the United States.
Until the 18th Century, however, slave labor was often ruled by a form of bonded labor, or indentured servitude, in which whites and blacks alike would work to pay the cost of their transportation to the American colonies.
everything to run to freedom.”
Visit the Waterways to Freedom [below] and explore twelve areas of importance to the Underground Railroad.
An 1873 map reflects a very different Norfolk, Virginia than the one that is there today. Click on the twelve different points and learn about the men and women, and places that played an important part in the Underground Railroad.
“Slaves escaping from Norfolk left primarily by water,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “In a rural area contiguous with a border to a northern state, it would have been difficult to make the journey undetected."
“They escaped Norfolk by ship, usually paying a white captain for their escape.”
Many of those ships left out of Higgins Wharf (Clickable #1), located at the far end of Widewater Street, near New Castle Street. Click and learn that the wharf’s owner, John A. Higgins, was the former owner of Shadrick Minkins.
Mr. Minkins place in history is recorded as he was being hunted under the Slave Fugitive Act. Abolitionists helped him to evade trial in Boston, MA and escape to Canada.
Lewis Hayden (b.1811-d.1889) led the Vigilance Committee group that abetted Mr. Minkins escape.
Mr. Lewis was an ex-Slave that, once finding his freedom, became a representative from Boston to the State Legislature in 1873.
Mr. Minkins escaped from the ownership of John DeBree, a prosperous landowner and former navy man (see #4).
Visit the Wharf where in 1855, Captain Alfred Fountain sailed to Philadelphia with 21 fugitive Slaves. Just before leaving dock with fugitive brothers, Thomas and Frederick Nixon, owned by merchant B.T. Bockover, Norfolk Mayor William Lamb and a group of men boarded the ship to search for escaping Slaves.
The Captain most surely received payment for his services but, if caught, would have been tried under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Though slavery’s origins tentacle back as far as the 1560, it was from 1654 until 1865 that slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the United States.
Until the 18th Century, however, slave labor was often ruled by a form of bonded labor, or indentured servitude, in which whites and blacks alike would work to pay the cost of their transportation to the American colonies.
In the 18th century, Federal Court rulings allowed a racial bias to grow, establishing the right to “own” Black Africans as property, forcing them to unpaid, and usually harsh labor, particularly in the Southern plantations where tobacco and cotton were particularly labor intensive, big cash crops.
At the heart of this movement was the need for cheap, expendable labor that ensured the success of large plantations.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, twelve million Africans were shipped to the Americas, with the majority being sent to South America, mostly to Brazil. However, during that period approximately 650,000 persons were sold into slavery from the transporters, however by 1860, the Slave population in the United States had grown to four millions persons.
“The story of the Underground Railroad is not the story of just Black people,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “It is the story of those people, black and white, that worked together against something that they saw as oppressive and wrong.”
“Ship Captains may have been paid in coin, but they still transported people at great risk. All along the Underground Railroad are stories of white and black abolitionists who worked together, helping people to escape to freedom. To evade those that would recapture them.“
Visit Waterways to Freedom and explore Norfolk’s role in the Underground Railroad.
Waterways to Freedom
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