US History

After the Revolution some 3,000 former slaves had been transported from New York to Nova Scotia, where they became known as Black Loyalists

Equiano was appointed to an expedition to resettle London's Black Poor in Freetown, a new British colony founded on the west coast of Africa, at present-day Sierra Leone. The blacks from London were joined by more than 1,200 Black Loyalists who chose to leave Nova Scotia.

He was one of the leading members of the Sons of Africa, a small abolitionist group composed of free Africans in London

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797),[3] known in his lifetime as Gustavus Vassa (/ˈvæsə/),[4] was a prominent African in London, a freed slave who supported the British movement to end the slave trade.

His last master was Robert King, an American Quaker merchant who allowed Equiano to trade on his own account and purchase his freedom in 1766.

Equiano settled in England in 1767 and worked and traveled for another 20 years as a seafarer, merchant, and explorer in the Caribbean, the Arctic, the American colonies, South and Central America, and the United Kingdom.

in 1792 Equiano married an English woman named Susannah Cullen and they had two daughters.

In Virginia, Equiano was bought in 1754 by Michael Pascal,

He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the West Indies.

He and a few other slaves were sent on to the British colony of Virginia.

Pascal took Equiano with him when he returned to England, and had him accompany him as a valet during the Seven Years' War with France. Also trained in seamanship, Equiano was expected to assist the ship's crew in times of battle; his duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. Pascal favoured Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain, so that the youth could attend school and learn to read and write.

At this time, Equiano converted to Christianity

Pascal sold Equiano to Captain James Doran of the Charming Sally at Gravesend, from where he was transported back to the Caribbean, to Montserrat, in the Leeward Islands. There he was sold to Robert King, an American Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean.[1

King set Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores. In 1765, when Equiano was about 20 years old, King promised that for his purchase price of 40 pounds, the slave could buy his freedom.[14] King taught him to read and write more fluently, guided him along the path of religion, and allowed Equiano to engage in profitable trading for his own account, as well as on his master's behalf

The merchant urged Equiano to stay on as a business partner, but the African found it dangerous and limiting to remain in the British colonies as a freedman. While loading a ship in Georgia, he was almost kidnapped back into slavery.

By about 1767, Equiano had gained his freedom and went to England. He continued to work at sea, travelling sometimes as a deckhand based in England. In 1773 on the British Royal Navy ship Racehorse, he travelled to the Arctic in an expedition to find a northern route to India.[15] On that voyage he worked with Dr. Charles Irving, who had developed a process to distill seawater and later made a fortune from it. Two years later, Irving recruited Vassa for a project on the Mosquito Coast in South America, where he was to use his African background and Igbo language to help select slaves and manage them as labourers on sugar cane plantations. I

Equiano expanded his activities in London, learning the French horn and joining debating societies, including the London Corresponding Society. He continued his travels, visiting Philadelphia and New York in 1785 and 1786, respectively.

n the 1780s he became involved in the abolitionist movement.

Equiano was befriended and supported by abolitionists, many of whom encouraged him to write and publish his life story. He was supported financially in this effort by philanthropic abolitionists and religious benefactors.

As part of settling in Britain, Equiano/Vassa decided to marry and have a family. On 7 April 1792, he married Susannah Cullen, a local girl

The couple settled in the area and had two mixed-race daughters, Anna Maria (1793–1797) and Joanna (1795–1857).

Did You Know? Howard University, a historically all-black school in Washington, D.C., was established in 1867 and named for Oliver Howard, one of its founders and the head of the Freedmen’s Bureau. He served as the university's president from 1869 to 1874.

There was no tradition of government responsibility for a huge refugee population and no bureaucracy to administer a large welfare, employment and land reform program

4 million newly freed blacks

When Congress introduced a bill in February 1866 to extend the bureau’s tenure and give it new legal powers, Johnson vetoed the proposed legislation on the grounds that it interfered with states’ rights, gave preference to one group of citizens over another and would impose a huge financial burden on the federal government, among other issues.

as well as removing bureau employees he thought were too sympathetic to blacks

Johnson’s actions, which included pardoning many former Confederates and restoring their land,

there was disagreement over what type of assistance the government should provide and for how long.

covering the 11 former rebel states, the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Each district was headed by an assistant commissioner.

achievements varied

the bureau was underfunded and understaffed,

Bureau agents, who acted essentially as social workers

were subjected to ridicule and violence

Ku Klux Klan) who viewed the agents as interfering in local affairs by trying to assist blacks

fed millions of people,

medical aid,

settled labor disputes.

locate lost relatives

building thousands of schools for blacks

found such colleges as Howard University in Washington, D.C

Fisk University in Nashville

Hampton University

most of the confiscated or abandoned Confederate land was eventually restored to the original owners

dismantled the Freedmen’s Bureau

summer of 1872,

the bureau’s efforts did signal the introduction of the federal government into issues of social welfare and labor relations

In Marion, a city of fewer than 3,600 people, the toll of the slow-growing bacteria, commonly referred to as TB, has been staggering. Since January 2014, active tuberculosis has been diagnosed in 20 people, nearly all of them black; three have died. (Six people who live in other cities in Alabama have also received diagnoses of active tuberculosis and have been linked to the outbreak here.)

Others suggested that the history of medicine in Alabama, including the notorious medical experimentation in Tuskegee, was hampering efforts to contain tuberculosis.

n 1932, the United States Public Health Service began a study of untreated syphilis that involved 600 black men in Macon County, Ala., which includes Tuskegee.