Social Welfare History Project Slavery

Precarious Learners: Race, Status and the Making of Virgin Islands Education from 1917-1970

When the United States purchased the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) from Denmark in 1917, the change in the islands’ political status profoundly impacted the educational options afforded to those residing in the territory. Being new subjects of a U.S. empire primarily concerned with preventing enemy expansion in the Caribbean basin both improved and complicated Virgin Islanders’ access to comprehensive education. For those residing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, American citizenship both exposed and exacerbated the precarious conditions of learning and belonging in a U.S. territory. Warped by a history of racialized domination and economic deprivation, education for Black Virgin Islanders has long been fraught by the conditions of precarious citizenship.

John J. Smallwood and the Temperance, Industrial and Collegiate Institute

John Jefferson Smallwood (September 19, 1863–September 29, 1912) was founder and president of the Temperance, Industrial and Collegiate Institute in Claremont, Va. Smallwood determinedly pursued his own education and his vision of educating others, eventually founding a school “For the Moral, Religious, Educational and Industrial Welfare of the Negro Youth.” Between 1892 and 1928, more than 2,000 students attended the Institute.

Negro in Virginia (1940)

Compiled by Workers of the Writers Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Virginia. Sponsored by the Hampton Institute.

Garrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (December 10, 1805 – May 24, 1879) – Abolitionist and Editor of The Liberator By Catherine A. Paul “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation.… I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not…

Healy, Bishop James Augustine (1830-1900)

James Augustine Healy: The First African American To Be Ordained a Roman Catholic Priest

Brown, William Wells (1814-1884)

William Wells Brown – Anti-Slavery Lecturer, Groundbreaking Novelist, Playwright and Historian Introduction: William Wells Brown was an African American anti-slavery lecturer, groundbreaking novelist, playwright and historian. He is widely considered to have been the first African American to publish works in several major literary genres. Known for his continuous political activism especially in his involvement with the anti-slavery…

Gage, Matilda (nee, Joslyn) (1826- 1898)

One of the most radical, far-sighted and articulate early feminists, Matilda Joslyn Gage was deliberately written out of history after her death in 1898 by an increasingly conservative suffrage movement. Equal in importance to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gage is all but unknown today. (Source: Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation)

William Lloyd Garrison, “On the Death of John Brown” (1859)

On December 2, 1859, John Brown was executed by Virginia authorities in Charles Town for his ill-fated raid on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry. Soon after word of his death reached Boston, William Lloyd Garrison, the leading abolitionist in the United States at the time, gave this stirring tribute to Brown.

Kelley, Abby

Abigail (Abby) Kelley was an influential Quaker anti-slavery reformer and a women rights activist who provided inspiration and courage to the women who organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention. Her activism in Seneca Falls led to the formation of the Wesleyan Methodist Congregation with their public anti-slavery stance and free speech commitment.

Brown, John

John Brown was a controversial figure who played a major role in leading the United States to civil war. He was a devout Christian and lifelong abolitionist who tried to eradicate slavery from the United States through increasingly radical means. Unlike most abolitionists, Brown was not a pacifist and he came to believe that violence was necessary to dislodge slavery. He engaged in violent battles with pro-slavery citizens in Kansas and Missouri, and led a raid on the federal munitions depot at Harper’s Ferry.