Despite the Declaration of Independence’s claim that “all men are created equal,” at least 18 US presidents owned slaves, including Thomas Jefferson, who owned about 175. Slave labor was also used to build the White House, and all early presidents except John Adams and his son owned slaves. The last president to own slaves while […]
The use of quilt codes as secret symbols for escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad is a popular but potentially inaccurate myth. While some quilting patterns may have been used as signals, others were not invented until after the Civil War. The tradition is based largely on the recollections of a slave’s daughter and has […]
