On April 8, 1873, black residents in Baltimore gathered to pay homage to Johns Hopkins, a man with just months of life remaining who planned to create an orphanage for black children and a hospital open to whites and blacks alike.
One speaker at the rally praised the businessman for distributing his fortune “for the relief of the colored man.” Another said Hopkins was guided by “the highest expression of the spirit of the age.” A third added, “Wherever the colored man may be, there will his name be known.”
A Johns Hopkins University investigation that labeled its own founder a slave owner has come under criticism.
Upstate’s forgotten abolitionists: Myrtilla Miner bravely taught Washington D.C.’s Black daughters
Updated Feb 23, 2021;
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Upstate New York was a hotbed in the 19th century for the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad. Names like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith are familiar. But there were also valiant figures from the region, white and Black, who fought for the end of slavery whose names have faded into history.
During this Black History Month, after searching through old newspapers and websites, we take a look back at some of Upstate New York’s forgotten abolitionists.
The story of abolitionist Myrtilla Miner, born in 1815 near the town of Brookfield in Madison County, is an incredible American tale.