Tag Archives: celebration

Celebrating Independence

Today all Americans celebrate Independence Day (July 4th) as a federal holiday commemorating the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776. This event marked this country’s freedom from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). But did you know that August 1 (Emancipation Day) was celebrated as a day of independence and liberation for thousands of enslaved and formerly enslaved people in this country and others for years after slavery was abolished in the West Indies on this day...

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Black Abolitionist Archive , , , , , , , Updated: June 30, 2014

Independence Day

In a New Haven, Connecticut church on July 5, 1832, black abolitionist Peter Osborne spoke of independence.  In those early days of the movement towards freedom from slavery, each July 4th holiday offered a way for abolitionists to remind the country of those who had never known freedom here.  This one day out of each year had come to symbolize what had become the hallmark foundation of the United States, and yet was denied to so many who lived here. ...

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Black Abolitionist Archive , , , , , , , , , Updated: July 3, 2014

British Emancipation Day – August 1

Included in the festivities for the celebration of Emancipation Day each year, were speeches delivered by prominent abolitionists. One champion of the cause of abolition to speak in 1861 was William Howard Day, whose speeches and editorials can be found in the Black Abolitionist Archive among our digital collections. Day, formally educated (rare for a man of color during this time), spoke eloquently and passionately for the cause of freedom, for a reasoned approach to ending slavery. ...

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Black Abolitionist Archive , , , , , , , Updated: June 30, 2014

Independence Day!

The July 4 holiday celebrates our national freedom and commemorates the hard won independence from England that Americans value. Yet for 300 years there were people living in this country without inclusion, without citizenship, without a national identity, and without freedom. Each year on the fourth of July, they watched the celebrations, the fireworks, and the merrymaking without feeling a connection to place or national pride. For so long, this celebration of freedom only served to remind a portion of...

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Black Abolitionist Archive , , , Updated: June 21, 2013

Forever Free

History was made 100 years ago in the cause of human freedom. On the first of January 1863, Abraham Lincoln (16th president of the United States) signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the end of slavery in the Confederate states. Part of this document states: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof...

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Black Abolitionist Archive , , , , , , , , , Updated: June 3, 2013

Dyngus Day on April Fool’s Day! No Joke!

On Monday, April 1, something very strange occurred: Dyngus Day (a traditional Polish-American holiday celebrated on the first Monday after Easter) and April Fool’s Day (traditionally celebrated each year on April 1) fell on the same day. According to Professor James T. Callow, who’s Folklore Collection is among the more interesting offerings in our digital archives, this is a rare event. It’s quite unusual for these two celebrations of mischief to fall on the same day....

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James T. Callow Folklore Archive , , , Updated: July 19, 2013
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