As a young student, Maritcha Lyons (b. 1848), testified before the Rhode Island State Legislature for her right to attend school - as an adult she fought for racial justice & gender equality as an educator & founder of the Woman’s Loyal Union of New York.

Human bondage was big business in the antebellum US, and men weren't the only ones cashing in.

American slavery wasn't just a white man's business − white women profited, too

Human bondage was big business in the antebellum US, and men weren't the only ones cashing in.

bit.ly

As I wrote in American Founders: Americans are the descendants of slaves & slave owners both literally & figuratively. Our families trees are intertwined (see Jeffersons, Washingtons, Madisons.) People of African descent contributed to the development of the US in every possibly way.

KEW@kidadaewilliams.com · 3d ago

'Slaves and slave owners': Pope Leo XIV speaks on his genealogy in new interview www.blackcatholicmessenger.org/slaves-and-s...

This portrait from around 1922 depicts Rosa and Moses Demps with their children in front of their home in St. Augustine. Black families lived in St. Augustine since before the English arrived in Jamestown - parish registers recorded the birth of a Black child in St. Augustine in 1606.

The Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida c. 1966. From the archival collection of The Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida.

As a fellow native of Miami Dade, I love the work of Melissa Gutierrez. AKA West of Chester, her online shop is open now for 24 hours. I couldn’t resist getting a 2nd print of this because I love the ubiquitous Spanish expression ojalá (derived from Arabic) that means LET'S HOPE! westofchester.com

As Miami-Dade County government officials, we know how important Haitian TPS-holders are to our economy and community. | opinion

Scott and Moody’s last chance to protect Haiti TPS — and South Florida’s economy | Opinion

As Miami-Dade County government officials, we know how important Haitian TPS-holders are to our economy and community. | opinion

bit.ly

When Charlayne Hunter-Gault arrived at University of GA in 1961, some white students responded with violence; she was suspended “for her safety” but returned with a court order & earned a journalism degree. Portrait by Jospeh Schwarz, a professor who organized a faculty resolution to reinstate her.

Dr. Caroline Still Anderson (born in Philadelphia in 1848) was a physician & educator. Her parents, William & Letitia Still, were leaders in the Underground Railroad who helped scores of Americans to free themselves from slavery. Her grandparents were themselves self-liberated, formerly enslaved.

After buying her freedom, Elizabeth Keckley established a clothing business in Washington DC in 1860 favored by the elite. During the Civil War she established an organization to assist formerly enslaved Americans. After Lincoln’s assassination she published a memoir to raise funds for his widow.

“Saunders & 180 other known Black or Indigenous soldiers were stationed at the Redding Encampment — sometimes referred to as ‘Connecticut’s Valley Forge.’ From June to September 1778, personnel documents describe Saunders as tending the sick at the actual Valley Forge in Pennsylvania.”

KEW@kidadaewilliams.com · 4w ago

Follow Doctor Cuff Saunders, one of Connecticut’s 500 Black Revolutionary War soldiers, who went from an enslaved man to soldier, to free man ctmirror.org/2026/07/03/c... #Americaat250 #Blackmilitaryservice #Blackrevolutionaries

Dr. Edward Bouchet (born in New Haven, CT in 1852) was among the first Americans in U.S. history to earn a Ph.D. in physics. The son of a formerly enslaved father, Dr. Bouchet earned his doctorate from Yale in 1876.

“This is a modern city that doesn’t understand its origin 5,000 years ago. So many people in Miami are really interested. We should be creating those opportunities to create that sense of place. This all didn’t just spring out of the ground.” Read more at: www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...

Miami’s forgotten ancient past is hiding beneath a Joe & the Juice. Yes, really

Under Whole Foods, under a stadium, under Brickell condos — Miami’s Tequesta past keeps surfacing, then gets buried by development.

miamiherald.com

Miami Herald@miamiherald.com · 4w ago

Under Whole Foods, under a stadium, under Brickell condos — Miami’s Tequesta past keeps surfacing, then gets buried by development.

James Forten heard the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776; he participated in the American Revolution & fought for its ideals long after the war. A skilled entrepreneur & ardent abolitionist, his wife & daughters founded the 1st interracial antislavery society for women.

Gertrude Mossell (here in a portrait with her daughters c. 1890) was a journalist & educator. Her great grandfather, Cyrus Bustill, served with Washington’s troops during the American Revolution & helped found Philadelphia’s Free African Society. Her sister was Paul Robeson’s mother.

During the American Revolution, Cuffee Saunders (born in Guyana) was an enslaved medical assistant who served with the Patriots. He treated the wounded & purchased his freedom with his enlistment bounty. His son, Prince Saunders (pictured), a Dartmouth grad, was Haiti's attorney general.

Austin Curtis an enslaved jockey whom E. Hotaling calls the US’s “1st truly great professional athlete” was granted freedom after hiding horses from the British during the American Revolution. NC legislature added his former owner's surname in his emancipation record hence "Austin Jones" in his obit

Lemuel Haynes was a Revolutionary War veteran & the 1st Black (mixed-race) man to be ordained as a minister in the US. He argued for universal rights in his 1776 antislavery tract, Liberty Further Extended, challenging the pretense of a nation fighting for its own freedom while denying it to others.

In 1770 Crispus Attucks was the 1st martyr of the American Revolution. Son of an African father & Native American mother, he'd liberated himself from slavery & joined the multiracial ranks of northeastern mariners b4 sacrificing his life, as G.W. Williams put it, “on the altar of a people’s rights.”

John Trumbull painted this portrait of George Washington & William Lee from memory around 1780, roughly 5 years after Trumbull had served as an aide-de-camp. William Lee was a mixed-race equestrian & valet who accompanied & assisted Washington throughout the American Revolutionary War.

Black soldiers sought freedom through various means during the American Revolution. Hundreds, many of whom were self-liberated, joined the Hessian armies. About 70 of these Black American soldiers settled in Germany after the war, transforming themselves “from slaves to subjects.”

In the wake of the American Revolution, Virginia passed manumission acts which acknowledged that enslaved veterans of the Patriot army “contributed toward the establishment of American liberty and independence.” AMERICAN FOUNDERS: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World

"Enslaved women’s desire for freedom did not originate with the American Revolution. However, the Revolution amplified their quest for freedom" www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...

"The labor of enslaved women helped sustain the households, farms, and local economies that made the American Revolution possible, even as those women were denied the liberty the revolution promised," the lecture 'Bearing the Nation' explains riverheadlocal.com/2026/06/24/e... #americaat250

Enslaved women, labor and the creation of the United States: an America 250 lecture

An America 250 lecture about the enslaved women whose labor helped sustain the Long Island economy in the years before the revolution will be presented Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Suffolk County…

riverheadlocal.com

"When we think of the man who drafted the Declaration, we need also to picture Robert Hemmings, Jefferson’s literate, teenage, enslaved valet who fetched the paper & mixed the ink... he too was a founder who worked to make the Declaration’s promises tangible & true." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/m...

The Many Founders of the United States

nytimes.com

Isaac 65, son Charles 40, daughter Nelly 38. Henny 13, Cecilia 8, Ruth 6. Patrick 35, his wife Letty 30, Cornelius 13, Francis 12, Susan 10, Gabriel 8, Peter 5, Jackson 3, Elizabeth 1, James 28, Delia 22, Susan 3, George 1, Isaac 26, his wife Kitty 28, Austin 6, Isaac 4, Elias 1. & 248 more people.

King Algamemnon@adamrothman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I find Juneteenth is a complicated day because while the holiday celebrates emancipation, this day is also the anniversary of the sale of the Maryland Jesuit enslaved community (the GU272) on June 19, 1838. 1/3 #slaveryarchive slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/1

José Andrade, born in Uruguay in 1901 (his father had freed himself from enslavement in Brazil) brought Uruguay’s national soccer team to prominence in the 1920s & "put football on the map of international sports" according to one historian. He won 2 Olympic gold medals & the 1st FIFA World Cup.

Good #America250 story. You can read James Lafayette's petition for freedom here. www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/...

Christina Proenza-Coles@proenzacoles.bsky.social · 2mo ago

During the American Revolution, James Armistead La Fayette gathered intelligence from British troops that enabled the Patriot victory at Yorktown. Having risked his life - among thousands of Black Patriots - for the establishment of the United States, he petitioned for his freedom which was granted.

During the American Revolution, James Armistead La Fayette gathered intelligence from British troops that enabled the Patriot victory at Yorktown. Having risked his life - among thousands of Black Patriots - for the establishment of the United States, he petitioned for his freedom which was granted.