UGR3DAY

08/04/2025

It's Mural Monday!
I don't know who needs to hear this, but you are loved.

showed me some love when we visited Collingswood, NJ. They have fresh, gluten-free food and desserts, one of which I was gifted on my visit. Thank you!

08/04/2025

Ever wondered just what freedom seekers carried on the Underground Railroad? The truth is, it varied depending on location and circumstance. But for self emanicipators who received assistance by secret agent, Alexander Ross, we have a supply list found in the records of this bold advocate who hid his true purpose, under the guise of his birdwatching.

Alexander Ross snuck into the deep south to places like Vicksburg, Mississippi and Selma, Alabama, amd while collecting his ornithological specimens, he organized meetings with a "few trusted, intelligent" enslaved men who were asked to recruit interested freedom seekers.

He shared routes, names of helpers, and equipped them with a bag of goodies, a pocket compass, knife, pistol, and as much cold meat, and bread as each could carry with ease.

08/01/2025

Recorded insight into one enslaved Delaware woman's daily responsibilities:

Elizabeth Ann’s job responsibilities:

Field labor:

*Ploughing

*Fencing

*Driving a team

*Grubbing

*Cutting wood

Household duties (especially during meal times):

*Assisting in the kitchen and around the house

*Often worked harder than the men due to combined responsibilities

Hired out for washing:

Expected to rise early to complete the following before sunrise:

*Milk the cows

*Prepare breakfast

*Feed the hogs

*Report for a full day of washing work after morning chores.

08/01/2025

Be Faire Coffee ☕️ café is a unique gem on what was once the Underground Railroad. Their IG tag, reminds us of PERRY CLEXTON, a man who traveled from GEORGETOWN, D.C., 1858 to Pennsylvania where he found freedom. Timing if his departure?

"Perry thought that it was hardly fair that Mr. Williams should live by the sweat of his brow instead of his own."

-PERIOD!

Perry, being quick-thinking, felt it was unfair that his captor, Mr. Williams profited from his labor rather than doing his own work—especially since, in Perry’s eyes, Williams was a big, capable man who could support himself. For a long time, Perry considered escaping to Canada, but the thought of leaving behind his wife and child weighed heavily on him. Eventually, the pressure became overwhelming, and he decided he had to escape no matter the cost, even if it meant leaving his family and enduring great risk. He was around 25 years old, dark-skinned, of average build, and determined. His wife's name was Amelia; it remains uncertain whether she ever heard from him again.

08/01/2025

William and Ellen Craft's narrative really speaks to the emotional trauma of traveling on the Underground Railroad. Due to the enormous amount of stress, putting on a 3 day disguise to escape from slavery, when they arrived to Philadelphia, Ellen collapsed in her husbands arms. She literally lost the ability to walk, and had to be carried to the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee office, where they were assisted by William Still. We can't begin to imagine what went through their psyche, hiding in plain sight, right under the noses of oppressors. Their ability to stay composed and not give up, speaks to the amazing inner strength and emotional regulation they had. In his book, William acknowledged his faith in God to see them through.

This image of Ellen Craft, originally published as a frontispiece to the memoir "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom," captures one of the boldest acts of sartorial resistance in American history. To escape slavery, Ellen, a fair-skinned black woman, disguised herself as a white Southern gentleman, donning a top hat, cravat, tailored jacket, and a sling to conceal her inability to write. Her husband William posed as her enslaved valet. Together, they performed a radical inversion of the racial and gendered hierarchies of the antebellum South. Their journey from Macon, Georgia to Philadelphia in 1848, and later into exile in England following the Fugitive Slave Act, was not only an act of courage, but a foundational moment in the history of black dandyism. For that reason, this image and their story figure prominently in "Superfine" at the Met's Costume Institute.

08/01/2025

This is a big weekend for Canadian Black History. There are celebrations all over Ontario! Hope you will take the opportunity to learn about this rich history and to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation of 1833/34 which freed Blacks throughout the British Empire.
Did you know that there was slavery in Canada? If in the Niagara area any time, I would love to take you on the tour!

07/31/2025

Tucked along the New York/New Jersey state line, just a mile south of Palisades, once stood a thriving free Black community known as Skunk Hollow.

Long before slavery was abolished in New Jersey, formerly enslaved people and their descendants began building a life rooted in freedom, resilience, and land ownership. On January 1, 1806, Jack Earnest—a formerly enslaved man—purchased 5 acres and 30 square rods for $87.50. By 1822, he had expanded his land with an additional six acres.

07/30/2025

In 19th-century Charleston, enslaved people who were permitted to hire out their labor were required by law to wear numbered badges like this one. Issued by the city, these tags identified the type of work—here "Fisher"—but never the person’s name. Instead, they reduced the wearer to a number, facilitating surveillance, regulation, and control. Enslaved individuals found without a badge could be arrested or fined, revealing how the city commodified black labor while denying personhood. You can see this object in my exhibition "Almost Unknown, The Afric-American Picture Gallery," where it serves as a representation of a "Slave Catcher," or "Picture XII."

07/30/2025

Man escapes from Delaware slavery WHILE CARRYING HIS OWN INTESTINES! His name was Theophilus Collins, and these are his words:

"I was in servitude under a man named Houston, near Lewes, Delaware; he was a very mean man, he didn't allow you enough to eat, nor enough clothes to wear. He never allowed a drop of tea, or coffee, or sugar, and if you didn't eat your breakfast before day he wouldn't allow you any, but would drive you out without any. He had a wife; she was mean, too, meaner than he was. Four years ago last Fall my master cut my entrails out for going to meeting at Daniel Wesley's church one Sabbath night. Before day, Monday morning, he called me up to whip me; called me into his dining-room, locked the doors, then ordered me to pull off my shirt. I told him no, sir, I wouldn't; right away he went and got the cowhide, and gave me about twenty over my head with the butt. He tore my shirt off, after I would not pull it off; he ordered me to cross my hands. I didn't do that. After I wouldn't do that he went and got his gun. and broke the breech of that over my head. He then seized up the fire-tongs and struck me over the head ever so often. The next thing he took was the parlor shovel and he beat on me with that till he broke the handle; then he took the blade and stove it at my head with all his might. I told him that I was bound to come out of that room. He run up to the door and drawed his knife and told me if I ventured to the door he would stab me. I never made it any better or worse, but aimed straight for the door; but before I reached it he stabbed me, drawing the knife (a common pocket knife) as hard as he could rip across my stomach; right away he began stabbing me about my head," (marks were plainly to be seen). After a desperate struggle, Theophilus succeeded in getting out of the building. "I started," said he, "at once for Georgetown, carrying a part of my entrails in my hands for the whole journey, sixteen miles. I went to my young masters, and they took me to an old colored woman, called Judah Smith, and for five days and nights.......me. I was not expected to live for a long time, but the Doctors cured me at last."