Free slave hunts old masters-1: Why Isaiah Cole returned to Georgia with vengeance to hunt down slave owners who killed his Mama

Free slave hunts old masters-1: Why Isaiah Cole returned to Georgia with vengeance to hunt down slave owners who killed his Mama

Isaiah walked with the measured pace of a man conserving strength for a longer journey. Each step stirred dust that settled on his worn boots. Union issued, like the coat, three miles to the Bowmont plantation. Three miles closer to the first name on his list. The land around him bore the marks of war and neglect.

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Smile that hides sorrows: Woman who proved even the most powerless can strike back, became a warning to every slave owner in America

Smile that hides sorrows: Woman who proved even the most powerless can strike back, became a warning to every slave owner in America

I approached a small farm on the outskirts of Woodville, Mississippi, I had chosen it carefully during my years of accompanying Mistress Evelyn to town. small, poor looking, owned by a man I’d seen wearing the grey coat and broad-brimmed hat favoured by Quakers. Quakers opposed slavery. Not all of them would help a runaway, but some would.

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Smile hides sorrow-2: Savage revenge against Master Cardwell who burned loyal slave to death for a sin he did not commit

I volunteered to take lunch to Marcus and Peter at the cotton warehouse, something I’d done many times before. While they ate, I explored the warehouse thoroughly, noting the placement of oil lamps, the narrow gaps between cotton stacks, the broken window board in the northwest corner that created a draft.

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Smile that hides sorrow-1: When her innocent husband was burnt to death by his slave Master Cardwell, she planned revenge…

Smile that hides sorrow-1: When her innocent husband was burnt to death by his slave Master Cardwell, she planned revenge…

They accused him of stealing a silver pocket watch, a watch that Master Cordwell’s own son had lost in a drunken stupor down by the river. Samuel never touched it. He couldn’t have. He was with me that entire evening mending the fence behind the quarters.

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How the 1849 scandal of Sisterhood of Marcy laid bare dark secrets of Virginia’s high society

How the 1849 scandal of Sisterhood of Marcy laid bare dark secrets of Virginia’s high society

Behind doors decorated with imported French wallpaper and carved mahogany frames. Inside the homes of Richmond’s most respected families. Eight women lived in those houses.
Eight names that carried weight in every drawing room in Virginia.

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Horrors of slavery-2: How slavery contained within it seeds of its own destruction and reminder that the past lives in systems we inherit

Horrors of slavery-2: How slavery contained within it seeds of its own destruction and reminder that the past lives in systems we inherit

Continued… James Brenner was a lawyer and his law office on March 28, 1847, was busy. He understood discretion. He understood that some problems couldn’t be solved through legal channels or public confrontation. So he did what men in his position did. He reached out to other husbands quietly, carefully,...

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Horrors of slavery-2: Abducted into slavery with his mother and sister, Tobias vowed to revenge and did it by impregnating Whites

Tobias left that meeting and went to his quarters. He sat on his bed in the darkness and he smiled for the first time in 15 years. Because Edward Harlow had just handed him the weapon he needed, not the breeding itself. Harlow expected Tobias to stay within the enslaved population. That was the plan. That was what made it profitable.

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Horrors of slavery: His job was to impregnate slave women, then impregnated his owner’s wife and daughter

Horrors of slavery: His job was to impregnate slave women, then impregnated his owner’s wife and daughter

When Sheriff Thomas McKinley drew his pistol, Margaret Harlow, the plantation owner’s wife, stepped forward, her belly opened, her child lying dead at her feet, and she raised her bloodied hands in front of Tobias.

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Before slave trade was abolished in USA, slaves on plantation farms in Texas would receive 150 lashes for offence of dancing without a permit

Before slave trade was abolished in USA, slaves on plantation farms in Texas would receive 150 lashes for offence of dancing without a permit

Hall kept a white overseer and a Black driver beneath him. The driver was an enslaved man given authority to push other enslaved people harder, a position that sat at one of the cruellest intersections slavery could produce.

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Solid gold-2: How slavery created a system of whips, forced labour, destruction of families, denial of parenthood and love as a secret to hide, code and deny

Solid gold-2: How slavery created a system of whips, forced labour, destruction of families, denial of parenthood and love as a secret to hide, code and deny

Samuel continued his work as a blacksmith. He was essential to the plantation now. His skills had expanded beyond horseshoes and hinges. He repaired the cotton gin when it broke down. He built a new irrigation system for the rice fields. He designed tools that made the work more efficient.
Elellanena paid him nothing for this. Of course, slaves could not be paid, but she found ways to improve his conditions: better food, a larger cabin, medical care when he was injured.

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