Download
1 / 53
530 likes | 641 Views
16 th Century Dreams of Settlement.
E N D
Wars among the European nations, which often extended to North America, brought major changes in the 18th century. In 1762 France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain, and in 1763 it lost Canada and the rest of Louisiana to Great Britain. France retained only some small islands off Newfoundland. Spain began settling California in 1769. The United States won its independence from Britain in 1775–83, acquiring all British-held mainland territory south of Canada.
President James Polk 1844 As a Democrat committed to geographic expansion (or “Manifest Destiny“), he overrode Whig objections and was responsible for the second-largest expansion of the nation’s territory. Polk secured the Oregon Territory (including Washington, Oregon and Idaho), amounting to about 285,000 square miles (738,000 km²) then purchased 525,000 square miles (1,360,000 km²) through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War.”
1845 by a newspaper reporter named John O'Sullivan who wrote:".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self government entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth." The politician Ignatius Donnelly would later put it this way: "Nothing less than a continent can suffice as the basis and foundation for that nation in whose destiny is involved in the destiny of mankind." Popular Sentiment during the Century
In 1846 Polk signed a treaty with Great Britain giving England the territory which today is western Canada. The U.S. took what is now Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana. Then President Polk went to war against Mexico . The war lasted for two years . When it ended, the US took half of Mexico and the border between Texas and Mexico was set at the Rio Grande.
Underground Railroad Its importance is not measured by the number of attempted or successful escapes from American slavery, but by the manner in which it consistently exposed the grim realities of slavery and refuted the claim that African Americans could not act or organize on their own.
1850 Fugitive Slave Act Granted to the South for CA entering as a free state. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 African Americans appeared before federal commissioners. Of those 343 people, 332 were sent to slavery in the South. The commissioners allowed only eleven people to remain free in the North. Thousands of African Americans fled to Canada. Some people who had been free for their entire lives left the country. Abolitionists challenged the Fugitive Slave Law's legality in court, but the United States Supreme Court upheld the law's constitutionality in 1859.
“Black Moses’ Family 1887 New York” Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery, learning she was going to be separated from her family and sold, she planned her escape, made her way to Philadelphia, describing freedom as "heaven." She helped 300 slaves gain freedom risking her life 19 times.
Henry “Box” Brown With help of Northern Vigilance Committee mailed himself to freedom in 2.5 foot square crate from VA to PA to black abolitionist: William Johnson
Ross to Tubman to “Black Moses” • When Harriet Tubman fled to freedom 1849 and was determined to return to Maryland to bring away her family. It would take her over 10 years, and she would not be entirely successful. Linah, Soph and Mariah Ritty had been sold to the Deep South some years before, her niece Kessiah would be the first relative Tubman would help escape from slavery. Then, she assisted her brother Moses, followed by her three remaining brothers, Ben, Henry and Robert. When Robert, Ben, and Henry sat down with William Still, in Philadelphia, four days after they fled their enslaver in Maryland, they chose new identities. Shedding their “Ross” surname, and selecting “Stewart.”.
William Still The writing, publication and distribution of his book were a product of his own effort. His stated purpose was to "encourage the race in efforts of self elevation" He believed that the most eloquent advocates of Negroes were Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, and other self-emancipated champions. It was his mission as a Negro to record their heroic deeds and he hoped the book would serve as additional testimony to the intellectual capacity of his race. "We very much need works on various topics from the pens of colored men to represent the race intellectually.'
WILLIAM (1821-1902), abolitionist, writer, and businessman. Still was born near Medford, N.J. His father, Levin Steel, was a former slave who had purchased his own freedom and changed his name to Still to protect his wife Sidney, who had escaped from slavery in Maryland. In 1844 he went to PA, In 1847 he married Letitia George and found employment in the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. He was in a position to provide board and room for many of the fugitives who rested in Philadelphia before resuming their journey to Canada. One of those former slaves turned out to be his own brother, Peter Still, left in bondage by his mother when she had escaped forty years earlier. William Still later reported that finding his brother led him to preserve the careful records concerning former slaves which provided valuable source material for his book The Underground Railroad (1872) William and Peter Still
Dramatic, organized Protest The Underground Railroad was the most dramatic protest action against slavery in United States history. Networks began in the 1500s, and were later connected with organized abolitionist activity of the 1800s. Neither an "underground" nor a "railroad," this informal, loosely constructed network of escape routes originated in the South, intertwined throughout the North, and eventually ended in Canada. Escape routes extended into western territories, Mexico, and the Caribbean. From 1830 to 1865, the Underground Railroad reached its peak as abolitionists and sympathizers who condemned human bondage aided large numbers of bondsmen to freedom.
Josiah Henson." (1789-1883) Henson escaped as a fugitive slave from Maryland in 1830, to Canada on the Underground Railroad. By 1841, Reverend Henson revealed his skills as an abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, and businessman, with others he purchased 400 acres of land near Dresden, Ontario. This became the Dawn Settlement where the British American Institute for fugitive slaves was located, the first vocational training school for blacks in North America. Henson's work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad brought at least 118 enslaved to freedom.
Underground Railroad consisted of a series of safe houses known as “stations” and individuals known as “conductors” who assisted those escaping from slavery in the United States. Many fugitive slaves who managed to reach Canada settled in Drummondville, and many went on to achieve a great deal of success. Burr Plato who was born into slavery in 1833 in Logan County, Virginia, escaped and settled here in 1856. He went on to become a prominent business man, respected citizen and elected council member. Oliver Parnell escaped slavery in 1855. Through thrift and hard work, he was able to purchase a substantial amount of land in Drummondville including seven lots on the south side of Peer Street. His own house at 6071 Stanley Avenue is still standing today. Oliver Parnell worked for John A. Orchard and his nephew Joseph Cadham at their home on Culp Street. In the picture Margaret Cadham is wearing overalls that were specially made for her so she could look like her friend Oliver, “ a soft-spoken, wonderfully kind man”.
This house, built in the early 1850s, was the home of Rush R. Sloane (1828-1908), a Sandusky, Ohio, lawyer, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad participant. One of Sloane's more well-known antislavery protests occured in 1852 when seven runaway slaves arrived in Sandusky on the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad. The slaves were later captured aboard a steamer by three men from Kentucky claiming to be their owners. On behalf of the fugitive slaves, Sloane petitioned the mayor to investigate the evidence and questioned if the runaways were properly arrested and legally detained. Finding no legal authority for the arrest, local officials ordered that the slaves be released immediately. Shortly afterwards, one of the Kentucky men displayed legal papers of ownership and filed charges against Sloane under the Fugitive Slave Act. He was tried in the U.S. District Court in Columbus and fined $3,000 plus $1,330.30 in court and attorney fees. The local African American community, in appreciation of Sloane's efforts, presented him with a silver-headed cane that today is on display at the Follett House Museum at 404 Wayne Street in Sandusky.
The reflective garden at Lorain's Station 100 of the Underground Railroad is a 2007 nominee. The monument and garden were presented in celebration of the legacy and courage of abolitionists and escaping slaves. Prior to the Civil War, Ohio was a leading state for enslaved Americans of African decent traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. For these fugitives, their final stop in Ohio was a Lake Erie port community in the north. One such port was at the mouth of the Black River in Lorain that came to be identified as Lorain Station 100, named because it was thought to be one of the last stops or stations before the fugitive slaves reached freedom in Canada. Many arrived here in a wagon driven by Robbins Burrell who owned a farm five miles up the Black River. Concealed by vegetables, grains, or hay, the slaves were smuggled into schooners, some of which belonged to Burrell's cousin Captain Aaron Root. From Lorain Station 100, the determined travelers were transported across Lake Erie, completing the final leg of their long journey to freedom.
John and Jean Rankin of Ohio John Rankin was born in Tennessee in 1793, son of a blacksmith- a deeply religious man at the age of twenty began studying religion. He married Jean Lowry, granddaughter of his college’s dean in 1814.- abolitionist views led the couple to cross the Ohio River to Ripley in the free state of Ohio -his house became a stopping point on the Underground Railroad.
Escape to Canada Thousands of enslaved and many free African-Americans made their way to Mexico and Canada where they could live as free citizens. In Canada, the refugees arrived at points as far east as Nova Scotia and as far west as British Columbia, but the majority crossed over into what is now southwestern Ontario. They formed communities, cleared the forests and pioneered new farmland. The network of sympathetic black and white abolitionists that assisted in them along their secret routes became known as the Underground Railroad.
BME church, is one of the oldest buildings in Drummondville. It is said to have been built in 1836, at the corner of Murray Street and Allendale Avenue. It was moved to its present location on land given by Oliver Parnell and his wife Matilda both of whom had escaped from slavery in the United States. For many who followed the Underground Railroad to Canada and settled in Niagara Falls, the British Methodist Episcopal Church, was the spiritual, social and educational centre of their community. The Church is a simple Gothic Revival style structure, characterized by the pointed lancet windows. The current windows with coloured glass panes were installed early
Free at Last This group of fugitive slaves escaped to freedom in Canada on the Underground Railroad and took up residence in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Their names are listed from left to right as, Mrs. Hunt, Mansfield Smith, Mrs. Seymour; front row: Stevenson, Johnson. The image was collected by Ohio State professor Wilbur Siebert (1866-1961). He began researching the Underground Railroad in the 1890s to interest his students in history.
Artist: David Bustill Bowser, banner with moto: WE WILL PROVE OURSELVES TO BE MEN 127th REGIMENT. US COLORED TROOPS (ca. 1860s) courtesy of Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-23097].
Painting of Soldier in the 127 USCT Maternal Great, Great, Grandfather: George Winston a.k.a. George Munford – escaped from Richmond VA area as teen, went to Canada, enlisted Aug.1864 at age 23 in Concord N.H., into the 127th Regiment U.S. Colored Infantry.
Official Emblem of the USCT • ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRYUSCTCommanding OfficerCOLONEL Benjamin F. Tracy • This regiment was the last to leave Camp William Penn. It was ordered to City Point, Va., in September, 1864, and there attached to the Tenth Corps. Its movements and engagements were identical with those of the left wing of the ”45th” Regiment, including the transfer after Lee’s surrender to further duty in Texas. It was mustered out upon the Rio Grande river October 20th, 1865.
