Is Harriet Tubman A Fictional Character? (Dane Calloway and the Underground Railroad)

Is Harriet Tubman A Fictional Character? (Dane Calloway and the Underground Railroad)

In this edition of, “Say What?!!” we evaluate Dane Calloway’s claim that Harriet Tubman is a fictional character and that the underground railroad has no correlation with the network of safe houses used to assist fugitive slaves as historians have claimed. Dane makes the extraordinary claim that the Underground Railroad is an actual underground transit system that had been in existence for centuries.

The African Roots of Black Music

The African Roots of Black Music

In this episode we look at how African music transcended the Atlantic slave trade and how elements of the African roots of music became infused into the antebellum slave plantations through Black Spirituals, Gospels, slave work songs, and blues becoming the foundation of Black music in America today.

Black California, The Fugitive Slave, and the Compromise of 1850

Black California, The Fugitive Slave, and the Compromise of 1850

The history of slavery and sectional debate impacted the formation of California in a variety of ways. California’s admission into the Union and the Compromise of 1850 intensified the sectional conflict over slavery bringing the United States one step closer to Civil War. The hidden history of the slavery debate in the mid-19th century becomes visible in the very placement of California’s eastern border. Additionally, California becomes a central point in Black history as African Americans struggled to keep slavery out of California…and Black people in it.