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July 4th History

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men  who signed the Declaration of Independence?  Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,  and tortured before they died.  Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.  Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;  another had two sons captured.  Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or  hardships of the Revolutionary War.  They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,  and their sacred honor.  What kind of men were they?  Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.  Eleven were merchants,  nine were farmers and large plantation owners;  men of means, well educated,  but they signed the Declaration of Independence  knowing full well that the penalty would be death if  they were captured.  Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and  trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the  Bri...

Shadrach Minkins

(1814? - December 13, 1875) He was an African-American  fugitive slave  from Virginia who escaped in 1850 and reached Boston. He is known for being freed from a courtroom in Boston after being captured by United States marshals under the  Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 . White and black members of the  Boston Vigilance Committee  freed and hid him, helping him get to Canada via the  Underground Railroad . Minkins settled in  Montreal  where he raised a family. Two men were prosecuted in Boston for helping free him, but they were acquitted by the jury. Minkins was born into slavery about 1814 in  Norfolk, Virginia .  He escaped from slavery as a young man in 1850 and reached  Boston, Massachusetts , where he became a waiter.   Later that year, Congress enacted the   Fugitive Slave Law , which allowed federal agents to seize escaped slaves living in   free states   and return them to their owners. It required la...

Nat Turner

WITH EACH NEW SHIPMENT OF SLAVES, THERE WOULD HAVE TO BE CAUTION. WHY? BECAUSE THE NEW SLAVES WOULD BE LESS LIKELY TO ACCEPT SERVITUDE. THEREFORE, A CONSTANT DUMBING DOWN WOULD HAVE TO BE IN PLACE. OR ELSE, YOU COULD END UP WITH WHAT THEY HAD IN HAITI, WHERE THEY REALIZED IT WAS THE NEW SLAVES THAT WERE THE MOST THREAT FOR REVOLT AFTER SEVERAL REVOLTS ENSUED WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF NEWLY CAPTURED SLAVES. The most oppressive limits on slave education were a reaction to Nat Tu rner's Revolt in Southampton County, Virginia during the summer of 1831. This event not only caused shock waves across the slave holding South, but it had a particularly far-reaching impact on education over the next three decades. The fears of slave insurrections and the spread of abolitionist materials and ideology led to radical restrictions on gatherings, travel, and—of course—literacy. The ignorance of the slaves was considered necessary to the security of the slaveholders (Albanese 1976). Not only...

Barbary Pirates

The problem of slavery received a new meaning when white American sailors were enslaved by the so-called Barbary pirates of North Africa. In 1785, the American schooner Maria, sailing off the coast of Portugal, was boarded by Algerian pirates. Its captain and five crew members were taken prisoner. Then a second American ship, the brig Dauphin, was captured, and its 15-member crew was taken to Algiers and enslaved. Several Americans were put to work as domestic servants; another was forced to care for the Dey of Algiers's lion. Much of the time the hostages were kept in leg irons, chained to pillars, or locked in a rat-infested prison. Six American captives died of bubonic plague. One went insane. During the late eighteenth century, three small North African states--Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis--preyed on merchant ships sailing in the Mediterranean, seizing their crews and cargoes and holding both for ransom. Many European countries paid tribute to the Barbary States to ensure...