Religion – African Studies 1109 – Black Women's Lives as the History of Africana Studies: 18th and 19th Century

Phillis Wheatley is Born

January 1, 1753

Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa (current day Senegal or the Gambia). Wheatley’s birthday is unknown, however, it is believed that she was born in 1753.

Phillis Wheatley Publishes “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”

September 1, 1773

Click “Present” to read more about the role religion played in Phillis Wheatley’s writing and life.

Phillis Wheatley is Empanicated

October 1, 1773

Shortly after Wheatley’s first book was published in England, titled “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” Wheatley was emancipated. The date of her emancipation is unknown but it is believed to be in 1773.

American Revolutionary War Begins

April 19, 1775

Britain’s thirteen colonies in North America declare independence from the empire, sparking a seven-year war.

American Revolutionary War Ends

September 3, 1783

The American Colonists defeat the British, ending the American Revolutionary War, and solidifying the existence of the United States of America.

Phillis Wheatley Dies

December 5, 1784

Post emancipation, Wheatley met John Peters and started a family. However, during her liberated years, she faced immense hardship after the arrest of her husband and the decline of her poems sales. In 1784, Wheatley became pregnant and later died due to complications from childbirth. Subsequently, Phillis Wheatley was buried beside her stillborn child in an unmarked grave.

Isabella Baumfree is Born

January 1, 1797

Though the exact date remains unknown, historians agree that Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth) was born in 1797 in Rifton, New York.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Is Born

September 24, 1825

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born free in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825.

Isabella Baumfree Becomes Sojourner Truth

June 1, 1843

In 1843, Isabella Baumfree officially changed her name to Sojourner Truth and began her journey to becoming a symbol in history.

Frances E. W. Harper Publishes Forest Leaves

January 1, 1846

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper publishes her first collection of poetry, Forest Leaves, around 1846.

Anna Julia Cooper Is Born

August 10, 1858

Anna Julia Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1858 to an enslaved mother and her white slaveholder.

Civil War Begins

April 12, 1861

The Southern Confederate States seceded from the Union in order to preserve various states’ rights, including the right to maintain the institution of slavery.

Ida B. Wells is Born

July 16, 1862

Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi during the Civil War and roughly 6 months before the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery and initiating the Reconstruction Era in the United States.

Reconstruction Era Begins

January 1, 1863

The Reconstruction Era is characterized as the period in which the United States addressed the physical destruction caused by the Civil War, the systemic inequalities that affected newly freed African Americans, and the readmission of the Confederates States to the Union.

Civil War Ends

April 9, 1865

Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to the Union, marking the end of an intense four-year war.

Reconstruction Era Ends

March 31, 1877

Newly inaugurated Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes recognized Democratic control of the Southern states and withdrew federal troops from the south who were responsible for protecting newly freed African Americans.