“The First Negro Exodus” (1818)
This file appears in: “Black Friday”: Enforcing Ohio’s “Black Laws” in Portsmouth, Ohio
“First Negro Exodus” documents the history of the first known expulsion of African-American residents of Portsmouth, who were warned out of the town for violating Ohio’s “Black Laws.”
This file appears in: “Black Friday”: Enforcing Ohio’s “Black Laws” in Portsmouth, Ohio
“Black Friday”: Enforcing Ohio’s “Black Laws” in Portsmouth, Ohio
On Friday, January 21st, 1831, the following notice appeared in the city’s paper: “The citizens of Portsmouth are adopting measures to free the town of its colored population. We saw a paper, yesterday, with between one and two hundred names,…