Rev. Thomas L. Johnson, a former slave, begins his biography “Twenty Eight Years a Slave” with the words: “According to information I received from my mother, I was born August 7th, 1836, at a place called Rock-Rayman, in the State of Virginia; but I do not know the place, as I was REMOVED when a…
Simon B. Malone was born into slavery on December 18, 1842 in Tippah County, Mississippi. During the war, he fled to freedom when the 5th Ohio Cavalry came through his home county. According to oral history and family tradition, Malone followed the 5th Ohio, making himself useful by caring for soldiers’ horses, fetching water and…
Following a meeting of Richmond-area black citizens at the First African Baptist Church of Richmond on June 10, five representatives from that meeting visit with U.S. President Andrew Johnson this day to voice their complaints of how Richmond’s white citizens are yet denying freedoms to blacks. Making matters worse, Federal military authorities were collaborating in…