Michael Harriot

@michaelharriot.bsky.social

98949 Followers 31 Following

Journalist, writer, former member of the Six Heartbeats. Championship-level spades player. ContrabandCamp.com founder. Author of NY Times bestseller: Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America.

Another member of the chat, William Bejerano — who tried to start a pro-life group at Miami Dade College — was the primary user of the n-word in the group. At one point, he posted a block of text calling for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, who he referred to using the n-word, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting people. Bejerano hung up the phone when reached by the Herald.
The issue of slavery was also a fierce topic of debate at Lane Seminary. In 1834, students hosted a series of debates on the issue of abolition vs. colonization. Abolition argued for the end of slavery and the incorporation of African Americans into the broader American society, while colonization argued that free or emancipated African Americans should be sent by boat back to the African continent. Colonization was particularly popular among slave owners in Kentucky who feared that the freed Black population would stir up rebellion on their plantations. Lyman Beecher, who was known for combining theology with activism, encouraged his students to apply Christianity to the social issues of the time and supported the debates. Harriet, who lived with Catherine in downtown Cincinnati at the girls’ school, made the trip back to Walnut Hills to crowd into the small parlor of Lane Seminary and watch the students debate. The debates raged for nine evenings, and by its conclusion, it was made abundantly clear that the student body overwhelmingly believed not only that colonization was un-Christian but that the immediate (rather than gradual) end of slavery was the only ethical approach. The students even collaborated with the free Black population in Cincinnati, doing social work, holding religious services, and organizing night schools. The Board of Lane Seminary was unnerved by the students’ fiery radicalism and tried to censor all anti-slavery speech and activity. In response, nearly 40 students left Lane, causing a serious dip in enrollment that the school would never fully recover from.
News of John Price’s kidnapping spread quickly in downtown Oberlin as townspeople, students, and professors rallied together in response. “They have carried off one of our men in broad daylight, and are an hour on their way already!” shouted one outraged citizen. White and black Oberlinians hurried the eight miles to Wellington in wagons, buggies, carriages, and some even on foot to rescue Price from slavery. When John H. Scott went to his neighbor, Mrs. Oliver P. Ryder, to borrow a horse she told him, “If necessary, spare not the life of my beast, but rescue the boy.” John Watson, a black store owner in Oberlin, arrived in Wellington first. Soon between 200 and 500 men crowded the streets around the Wadsworth Hotel where the slavecatchers held Price. The crowd began to shout back and forth with the captors, disputing the legality of the capture and demanding to hear from Price himself. Many in the crowd were determined to free Price, whatever the law or consequences. Charles Langston, a black school teacher, moved through the crowd trying to calm the armed protesters. When the southbound train arrived, the situation grew urgent and the crowd began to force their way into the hotel. In the confusion that followed, Price escaped with the help of men who had been trying to negotiate with the captors. Energized by the success of the rescue, Oberlin residents paraded back from Wellington, “shouting, singing, rejoicing in the glad results.”
Alabama Fever was the land rush that occurred after 1817 as settlers and speculators moved in to establish land claims in the territory and U.S. State of Alabama as Native American tribes ceded territory. It came to be characterized as a movement of farmers and their slaves ever further west to new slave states and territories in the pursuit of fertile land for growing cotton. It was one of the first great American land booms until superseded by the California Gold Rush in 1848.