Discovering Black History in Southeast Ohio

On June 28, 2006, Governor Robert A. Taft signed legislation enacting section 5.2234 of the Ohio Revised Code, Ohio House Bill 393, to designate September 22 as Emancipation Day in honor of the anniversary of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. The First Ohio Colored Regiment. / John M. Langston, colored, made a speech at the Court House, Tuesday night of this week, in behalf of the 1 st Ohio Colored Regiment, in Camp Delaware – asking for aid and recruits. We did not hear him, but learn from several who did that he made an eloquent speech, not surpassed in power by any one who has spoken in Marietta, this year. The house was filled, and at the close, the sum of $260 was raised and paid for the Regiment. It will be borne in mind that the Government does not pay bounty as for white recruits, the law not authorizing it. The colored people present raised $10 towards procuring colors for the Regiment. Two recruits were obtaine...

Library of Congress photo.  Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an African American author, educator, and activist, well-known in the mid-19th century for her lectures, poetry, novels, and essays on the themes of abolitionism and women’s rights. An original copy of her highly successful 1857 book, “Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,” is held in the Stimson Collection at the Marietta College library. In December of 1860, Frances spent a week in Marietta, lecturing at the Washington County Courthouse and at the Methodist Church on Putnam Street, where “a room full of hearers” learned more about “the Progress of Freedom.” She was described in local newspapers as “a woman of considerable talent.”  Home News  [Marietta, Ohio] , Saturday, December 15, 1860 "F rances Ellen Watkins, a colored lady, will give a free lecture at the Methodist Church, Putnam street, on Monday evening next. She is a woman of considerable talent, so we are informed, and has written and published a number of...