Against a pre-Civil War backdrop of violence and antagonism, three courageous women, in different parts of the country, undertook to teach black children. Prudence Crandall, Margaret Douglass, and Myrtilla Miner lived, respectively, in Connecticut, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.: they each found that racial prejudice is not limited by geography and that people will go to great lengths to prevent the teaching of blacks. Of the three schools they established, only one--in the nation's capitol--proved more or less permanent, but all three had a significant impact on American life. Because...
Against a pre-Civil War backdrop of violence and antagonism, three courageous women, in different parts of the country, undertook to teach black ch...
In the spring of 1848 seventy-six slaves from the nation's capital hid aboard a schooner called the Pearl in an attempt to sail down the Potomac River and up the Chesapeake Bay to freedom in Pennsylvania. When inclement weather forced them to anchor for the night, the fugitive slaves and the ship's crew were captured and returned to Washington. Many of the slaves were sold to the Lower South, and two men sailing the Pearl were tried and sentenced to prison.
Recounting this harrowing tale from the preparations for escape through the participants' trial, Josephine...
In the spring of 1848 seventy-six slaves from the nation's capital hid aboard a schooner called the Pearl in an attempt to sail down the Potoma...
