The African-American Biography Research Assignment for Advanced High School and College StudentsTheresa Vara-Dannen, J.D., Ph.D.University of Connecticut Early College Experience American Studies Instructor, Darien High School, Darien, CT

Formerly at University of Connecticut Early College Experience American Studies Department at University High School of Science and Engineering, Hartford, CT

This project meets the following Common Core standards:

Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Craft and Structure:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.8Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

Craft and Structure:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.5Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10

By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

The ProjectEach year I compile a list of possible subjects from local and national newspaper obituaries, local biographies, histories and other sources. This list may have some information (for example, “Thelma Glass - helped organize Alabama bus boycott”), but for the most part, the information is minimal. In order to produce a polished and accurate biography, students embark on a research project which requires them to choose a subject and find as much verifiable information as they can from primary and secondary sources.

(Please see: What is a primary source?   <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/content/teach_resources/teacher_2.jsp#what> and What is a secondary source?   <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/content/teach_resources/teacher_2.jsp#secondary> for more information on sources.)

Some of this material may be found through:

Bibliomation or state public library systems state historical societies state libraries university libraries local historical societies local libraries Proquest Historical Newspaper - to find older issues of American

Periodical Series (APS), the Hartford Courant, the New York Amsterdam News, and the New York Times.

Primary sources include (but are not limited to): Books

Newspapers, Magazines, and Newsletter articles

Diaries

Courtroom testimonies, verdicts, legal documents

Songs, records, sheet music, concerts

Interviews

Speeches

Photographs, posters, cartoons, advertisements, sketches, blueprints

Films and television shows

Radio recordings

Polls, the census, public works surveys

Memoirs and autobiographies

The ProcedureTo begin, I would suggest submitting your list of possible subjects to the Editors of the AANB (African American Biography Online: aanbonline@oup.com) before distributing the list to students. That eliminates the possibility of researching a subject whose biography has already been written. The Editors may also have suggestions about available subjects.

Once the list has been vetted, students choose a subject and begin their work. Because of the likelihood that students will simply get mired in Google searches, they begin their electronic research in class under my supervision. My students have access to the excellent University of Connecticut electronic resources, but sometimes need help negotiating their way to archives of historical, African-American newspapers and other primary sources.

Immediately, I instruct students simply to search the internet for the subject’s name in quotes; placing the name in quotes limits hits to the complete name. Please see: How do I begin researching an individual?   <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/content/teach_resources/teacher_2.jsp#individual>. Once students get a sense of the subject’s lifespan, geographical connections and field of work, they can use this information to search other, more primary, academic and archival resources. When a student can literally find nothing on a subject in her first efforts, I check her process; if there is little information, I suggest another subject, rather than have her pursue increasingly frustrating research.

Students must read all their sources with some reasonable caution, as sometimes even primary sources contain errors of fact. The students review the basic rules for historians to be sure they understand this. See Basic Rules for Historians: <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/content/teach_resources/teacher_2.jsp#rules>.

ChallengesOne of the challenges students face is either a plethora or a scarcity of information. In the event a student finds too much, I urge students to locate a sample AANB entry for a subject who had a long, eventful and productive life in a similar field to see how the author wrote the article. Some information that may appear to be important may not be, and a sample gives a student a good sense of what to include.

In the case of sparse information, students must sometimes look to other sources; for example, some African American soldiers who fought in the Revolution or the Civil War are documented in military records, but their roles are unknown. Determining the actions and whereabouts of their regiments during their period of active service can offer some useful background. Additionally, some veterans seem to have disappeared after the war. In these cases, military pension records or census records can sometimes be helpful. If nothing more can be found, the biography must be brief, but perhaps will still be valuable for the identification of one soldier’s role in a particular war.

Another difficulty students face is finding the maiden names and birth families of women subjects. In some cases, this information is available in an obituary or a secondary source. Ancestry.com can be helpful in turning up marriage and birth records, but women subjects often require more time because of the difficulties presented by married names and their frequent omission from news accounts. In some rare cases, church newsletters, if accessible online, have been useful.

Resources in Hard Copy FormStudents are required to print or copy all resources (letters, newspaper accounts, obituaries, census records, etc.) with bibliographical source information attached. This eliminates the possibility that students will not be able to identify a valuable source after spending much time searching for it. It also eases the next step which requires students to highlight and number each fact they will use in their article. The numbering process need not be cumbersome, but some students have found it easier to highlight in color code; for example, all early life information is yellow, schooling information is orange, etc.

After students have drawn all this information together, they write out their first draft of the biography, using a sample from the African American National Biography as a model. Students bring their first draft and all their resources to class and peer edit their work; they are instructed to read each other’s resources and then the biography draft, while looking carefully for similarities of phrasing, inaccuracies, or important omissions of fact. This alerts all students to the dangers of plagiarism in their work, while reflecting on the completeness of their essay; the peer review process also primes students to value the fluidity of their writing, their careful fidelity to detail as confirmed by their sources, and the reactions of potential readers. Additionally, these multiple drafts make it almost impossible not to succeed to some degree on this project if they have done their research in class.

For questions about the mechanics of writing the biography, I have a hard copy of the AANB Contributor’s Manual available in class and students also have online access for questions at home. Please see: <http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/dubois/projects/african-american-national-biography/contributors-manual>.

Final ReviewTo save preparation time, and to urge students to be their own proofreaders, I have my students continue to review their own drafts and those of their partners until it appears that all errors and omissions have been corrected. This generally takes at least three drafts corrected in class, followed by a fourth draft to be reviewed by the teacher.

When biographies are ready for teacher review, all resources are attached to the draft to save time. While it is the student’s goal and responsibility to present the biography in its most perfect form, the teacher’s additional scrutiny eliminates the risk of error or plagiarism.

By this time, the biography should be evaluated on its fluency, accuracy and conformity to AANB style. Again, additional, detailed information about style, citations and word

allotment is available in the Contributor’s Manual at <http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/dubois/projects/african-american-national-biography/contributors-manual>.

In assessing student work, any rubric may be used, but the following simple rubric works best in my classes:

AANB Rubric

1. Found as much primary source material as possible: 20 ________2. Formatted essay in AANB style: 15 ________3. Further Reading included and correct: 15 ________4. Grammatically correct: 15 ________5. All primary documents attached: 15 ________6. Biography shows careful attention to detail: 20 ________

Total:_______

Tardiness deduction: 20 points per day

Plagiarism penalty: 100 points.

Advantages of the Project Students are doing true, publication-directed, historical research. The research and writing required address all the Common Core skills noted

earlier. Students have reported becoming “attached” to their subjects. After learning

about the accomplishments their subjects achieved against incalculable odds, they feel committed to getting their subjects’ names “into the history books.”

Students, who themselves face daunting challenges in life, are inspired and moved by the perseverance of the eminent people they research. Many students say they feel sure they can reach their goals now that they have learned what others have done.

The project raises a general awareness of the different stages of civil rights progress in American history; in spite of multiple American History courses, they are often shocked to learn that the military was still segregated during World War II and that African American entertainers had a difficult time finding a welcoming hotel through the 1960s.The project also places individuals into their historical context, enriching student understanding of both the era and the subject.

Students must adapt their writing style to that of the AANB, conveying factual information chronologically, clearly and objectively. Learning to write for a specific academic publication offers students experience in tailoring their work appropriately.

Students are given the opportunity to act like scholars and be treated like scholars. Some of the students have described this as the first “meaningful” academic work of their lives; they are writing purposefully, not just to get an assignment done for a grade. They are intrinsically motivated to “be published.”

The project often requires students to visit local historical societies and libraries sometimes for the first time. This opens them up to the resources and professional assistance in their own areas, and offers them the opportunity to understand both the joys and frustrations of academic and especially historical research.

SAMPLE STUDENT BIOGRAPHIES

Citation:

Aisevbonaye, Angela and Nataly Bernard. "Canty, Marietta." African American National Biography, edited by Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. , edited by , Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0001/e5270 (accessed Mon Oct 12 17:05:13 EDT 2015).

 

Canty, MariettaBy: Aisevbonaye, Angela and Nataly Bernard.

(30 Sept. 1905 – 9 July 1986),

actress, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Henry Carl Canty, a city hall elevator operator, and Mary Ann Gamble Canty, a housewife. She was born Mary Etta Canty, but later decided to change her name to Marietta because she felt it was a more memorable name for when she went on Broadway. She was the fourth born of five children (Arnold, Henry Jr., Carl, and Emily). She attended Northeast Elementary School and Hartford Public High School, where she became well known for her excellence in elocution and singing. She was a fervent member of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Main Street in Hartford, where she also exhibited her exquisite singing voice.

At age eighteen, Marietta was asked to be a last minute replacement for her brother Carl in a Charles S. Gilpin Players Production in Hartford. She was given the pants that her brother was supposed to wear in the play and was then hurried rather haphazardly onto the stage. Thus began her acting career. She became one of fifteen new members of the Gilpin Players. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Marietta Canty, with the Gilpin Players, performed original productions as well as their renditions of various traditional, well-known plays. By 1933, Canty was performing on Broadway. While in nursing school (Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing, New York City) she auditioned for a part in Run Lil' Chillun, and was awarded a role. Unfortunately, her opportunity to perform on Broadway was delayed for a short time due to the fact that it Run Lil' Chillun was made possible only by federal work funds, and in order for Canty to participate in the play, she had to be on welfare. Since she was not in this situation, she could not continue with the production. She temporarily took a job as a governess to support herself.

When Jerry Werlin, a member of the Works Progress Administration Theater Project, saw how well Canty acted in her performances at the Harlem Public Library, he introduced her to John Houseman, who was the director of the project's African American section. It was after an audition with John Houseman that she came back to

Broadway. Some of the first plays that she acted in include Kiss the Boys Goodbye and Horse Fever with Gene Tierney and Ezra Stone, respectively. By 1936, she was in Correspondent Unknown, playing the part of the loyal servant Bessie. In 1933, she was able to get a walk-on role in the film version of The Emperor Jones.

One of the biggest accomplishments during her extraordinary career came in 1940, when she performed in a stage production of The Night of January 16th, in Miami Beach, Florida. It was the first time in the state of Florida that African American actors performed on stage with an all-white cast for an all-white audience. The audience and various critics were highly pleased with Canty's performance. Canty and Kelsey Pharr II, another African American actor in the play, helped make it possible for African Americans to act in more plays and break down the racial barrier.

In 1941, Canty was cast in the play No Time For Comedy because of her remarkable performance in the Night of January 16th. The producer of No Time For Comedy, Francis Lederer, encouraged Canty to act in films. After several screen tests, Marietta Canty appeared in the movie The Lady Is Willing in 1942. This was her first film since her walk-on appearance in The Emperor Jones in 1933.

Marlene Dietrich, one of the stars of The Lady Is Willing, requested in 1942 that Canty have a special part in her next movie, The Spoilers, because Dietrich was so impressed with Canty's delightful performance in The Lady Is Willing.

Canty appeared in many popular and award-winning movies over the next decade, including The Magnificent Pope (1942), Three Hearts of Julia (1943), Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944), Sweet Homicide (1946), Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946), Mother Is a Freshman (1949), My Foolish Heart (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Valentino (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and The Man Called Peter (1955).

In 1952, though, Canty temporarily gave up acting to care for her ailing mother, Mary Canty, refusing to accept any job offers for more than a year. When her mother died in April of 1953, Canty resumed her acting career, and went on to appear in a variety of television shows and stock productions.

A talented singer and actress, Marietta Canty was kind, well liked, and trusted by the people that she met. Rachel M. Richardson, a good friend of the Canty family is quoted as saying, “She had a wonderful personality. She had loads of friends and she could make friends with someone the first time she talked to you” (Hartford Courant). When she was off the set of Rebel without a Cause(1955), she spent time counseling the troubled star of the movie, James Dean. The James Dean Club actually sent the Canty family flowers and condolences in appreciation for her help with James Dean's issues.

Canty paved the way for African Americans to appear more often in films. Although the roles she played were almost always maids and servants, she performed with remarkable dignity. Displeased with the unfortunate lack of diversity of the parts into which African Americans were cast, Canty and other African American actors formed their own professional version of the Gilpin Players to provide an alternative to the never-changing role as the loyal, wise servant to white coactors, or as a comical character, not to be taken seriously by the audience.

Rebel without a Cause was the last movie in which she appeared. She also had a brief stint with radio, performing along with Acadamy Award–winner Hattie Mcdaniel on the Beulah Show, where Canty played a decorous, overly proper Northerner who was mocked and ridiculed for her prim manner of speaking. In 1956, she was offered the role of the maid on the Danny Thomas Show. Around this time Canty's father became ill, so she rejected this offer and permanently gave up her job as an actress to care for her father. She worked as a nurse for Hartford's Terry Steam Turbine Corporation until she retired in 1971. When she stopped acting in 1956, she was fifty-one years old.

In the years following her acting career, she was still heavily connected to her church, serving as the president of the Local Home Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church from 1960 to 1980 and as conference director for the New England Annual Conference of the AME Zion Church from 1956 to 1980.

Canty was also very much involved with the community outside her church. She served as a justice of the peace from 1966 to 1973. She was a member of the Hartford Urban League and the board of the Hartford chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association, and president of the Hartford council of the National Council of Negro Women. Even though she was finished with professional acting, she never really let acting and theater go. She volunteered at the Union Settlement House in Hartford, giving acting lessons to youth in her community.

In 1961 and 1963, Canty ran unsuccessfully for office on the Hartford City Council. She ran as a Republican. Her proposals included the use of more streetlights along North Main Street, the implementation of more, improved day care centers, and new bus routes to accommodate the changes in population that Hartford was undergoing.

Though, like the vast majority of African American actors, Canty was never nominated for the highest awards (such as the Academy Awards or Tony Awards), she was recognized many times for her exemplary citizenship and her various community service efforts. She received the Certificate of Service and Award of Recognition from the Red Cross, the Club 51 Driver for the Blind Award of Recognition in 1960, the

Humanitarian Award from the Hartford Section of the National Council of Negro Women in 1969, and the Hartford Neighborhood Centers Certificate of Appreciation.

Canty died while at home in 1986, when she was eighty years old. She was buried at Northwood Cemetery in Windsor, in the Wilson Section plot.

Her house was put on the African American Freedom Trail, which has over fifty sites of importance to the history of African Americans. The two-family house, bought by her family in 1931, and which they still own, is located on Mahl Avenue in Hartford.

With her energy and professionalism in the theater and film industries, and her dedication as a community activist, Marietta Canty spent her life breaking down barriers for generations to follow.

Further Reading

Hartford Courant, 29 July 1986.

Hartford Courant, 12 July 1986.

Hartford Courant, 10 July 1986.

© Oxford University Press 2012. All Rights Reserved

Citation:

Ali, Yasmine. "Brown, Addie." African American National Biography, edited by Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. , edited by and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. . Oxford African

American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0001/e5069 (accessed Mon Oct 12 17:07:13 EDT 2015).

Brown, AddieBy: Yasmine Ali

(21 Dec. 1841 – 7 January 1870),

a literate domestic servant, grew up in Philadelphia and in New York City with her family. While her parents' names remain unknown, in one of her 1859 letters, she revealed that her father owned a restaurant. Brown severed ties with her family after her father's death in October 1862. In her letters to Rebecca Primus, her beloved friend, she discussed how her mother had remarried a man whom Addie described as often present in her nightmares.

Brown is known today primarily because of her relationship to Rebecca Primus of Hartford, Connecticut. Primus was the only African American among the five teachers selected by the Freedman's Society in 1865 to head to the south and start schools for freed blacks. She relocated to Royal, Maryland, and founded a school there, working until 1869. She was an inspirational figure and a close friend to Addie Brown and seems to have become her lover. Brown's correspondence with Primus, beginning in 1865, is valuable for the insight into the African American community of nineteenth-century Hartford, including the activities of the Talcott Street Congregational Church, where Primus's father, Holdridge Primus, served as deacon.

The Brown letters are the subject of Farah Griffin's book, Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford Connecticut, 1854–1868, which highlights the significance of the same-sex relationship of the women as voiced by themselves and viewed by their families. They were so close and intimately linked that Primus's mother, Mehitable Jacobs, said that “if either Addie or Rebecca were a gent then they would marry.” Three months later, Addie wrote to Rebecca informing her she would be happy to address her as “my husband.” In addition to calling her “my husband,” Addie affectionately called Rebecca “Stella” and signed her own letters “Perthena.” While the letters suggest that Addie, at least, had other lovers of both sexes, she reminded Rebecca in a letter, “No kisses is like yours” (quoted in Hansen, pp. 153–182).

Addie Brown made her living by sewing, mending, and cleaning, and was employed at various places, including Miss Porter's School in Farmington. In 1868 in New Haven,

Brown married Joseph Tines, a waiter on the Granite State, a steamship that traveled from New York City to Hartford three times a week. They did not have any children. Two years later, Brown died. Her death was recorded by Rebecca on Addie's last letter: “Addie died at her residence Phila. 7, Jan 1870 at 11 o'clock am.” Addie Brown's correspondence with Rebecca Primus is of historical significance on several counts: it is a loving exchange between two African American women a domestic in New England and an early Reconstruction educator, a rarely documented nineteenth-century same-sex relationship. In addition, Brown's letters illustrate the vibrant social fabric of Hartford's African American community and churches, while Primus's letters document the struggles of a young teacher starting a school all alone in the South in the years immediately following the Civil War.

Further Reading

Beeching, Barbara J. “The Primus Papers: An Introduction to Hartford's Nineteenth Century Black

Community.” Master's thesis, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, 1995.

Griffin, Farah Jasmine. Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal

Maryland, and Addie Brown of Hartford Connecticut 1854–1868 (1999).

Hansen, Karen. “‘No Kisses Is Like Youres,’: An Erotic Friendship between Two African-American

Women during the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Gender and History 7, no. 2 (1995):153–182.

© Oxford University Press 2012. All Rights Reserved

Citation:

Ky, Jennifer. "Primus, Nelson A.." African American National Biography, edited by Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. , edited by and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. . Oxford African

American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0001/e4691 (accessed Mon Oct 12 17:10:39 EDT 2015).

Primus, Nelson A.By: Jennifer Ky

(24 March 1843–29 May 1916),

painter, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Holdridge Primus, a porter at a grocery store and an active member of the Talcott Street Congregational Church, and Mehitable Jacobs, a dressmaker. The Primuses, one of the few African American families in the state to own property, consisted of the parents, Nelson, and his siblings Rebecca, Isabelle, and Henrietta, and their home was located on Wadsworth Street in Hartford. During Reconstruction, Rebecca Primus was active in efforts to educate the southern freedmen. Nelson Primus discovered his artistic talent at an early age. At the Hartford County Fair, he was recognized twice: in 1851, when he was only nine years old, he received a diploma for his sketches, and in 1859 he received a medal for his drawings.

Nelson Primus wanted to pursue that talent by painting professionally. His father likely thought that this would be a financially insecure career and was probably the person who suggested that Nelson seek a more practical career by apprenticing with George Francis, the owner of a local carriage making business. In 1858, Primus followed his father's advice and learned to design and paint the decorations on sleighs and carriages. Fortunately, Francis supported Primus's dream to be a painter and gave him lessons in painting landscapes and portraits. From 1860 to 1862, Primus also received informal art instruction from Elizabeth Gilbert Jerone, a local artist.

On 15 June 1864, Primus married Amoretta Prince and later that year moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he hoped to be the pupil of Edward Mitchell Bannister, an older, established black artist. In April 1865, Primus wrote of his satisfaction with Bannister, but this was short lived. According to Primus, Bannister soon realized how talented his pupil was and began to see him as competition. In July he wrote, “Mr. Banister i think is a little Jealous of me he says that i have got good tast in art. But does not try very hard to get me any work. The Colored people here think he could get me work if he was a mind to …” Primus felt betrayed by his mentor, but this conflict proves how difficult it was to make a living as an artist. If Primus's speculations were true, Bannister probably didn't personally dislike Primus; he just couldn't afford to share any of his precious clients.

From the beginning of his painting career, Primus's dream was to study abroad in Europe where, as other artists found, he might have faced less racial discrimination than in the United States. Primus didn't have the money nor did he make the connections necessary to ensure his admission into an art institute, but his dream was not an impossible one. Indeed, Charles Ethan Porter, also an African American painter from Hartford, had a background similar to Primus, but fulfilled Primus's dream. The famous writer Mark Twain, a Hartford resident, noticed Porter's paintings and wrote him recommendations that resulted in his enrollment of several art institutes, including one in Paris. Eventually, Porter was able to support himself with his art as his sole source of income. Porter was not necessarily a better painter than Primus; he was simply luckier. He attracted the attention of an influential white man and that was what a nineteenth century black painter needed to do to succeed. However, as time passed and people forgot about Twain's recommendations, Porter faced many of the same problems as Primus; few would buy paintings from a black man. In addition to the problems that all painters face, Primus faced racial discrimination while struggling to support himself and his family.

In 1865, Primus's daughter Leila was born. But with such an unsteady and unpredictable income, Primus had to send her to Hartford to stay with his family from March to September of 1867. This ensured her comfort and it allowed his wife more time to work outside the house. This desperate action was the result of a period of time in which Primus tried to rely on his painting as his family's sole source of income. When he failed to meet his goal, he was forced to borrow money from his parents in January of 1867 and again later that year. But he never stopped painting. That year, he painted Sunset, Italian Scene, Boston Boot Blacks, and the Madonna, and sent them to Hartford for sale. On 3 October 1867, the Hartford Daily Courant, now known as the Hartford Courant, praised four of Primus's paintings. But, dejected by his financial failure, he wrote to his family, “I am wirking at my old traid again carriage painting. … i have given portrait painting up for a while.” This hiatus lasted for a few months before he wrote a letter describing his latest project.

In 1872, Primus moved his family to Somerville, Massachusetts, where he remained listed in the Boston city directory until 1889. On 18 July 1876 Primus's wife, Amoretta, died. In 1886 Primus saw Christ Before Pilate, by the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy and was inspired to reproduce it. On 30 December 1888 Primus's copy of Christ Before Pilate was on exhibition at Boston's Horticultural Hall when an accidental fire spread through the building and destroyed the painting. Primus painted a second copy and after Leila died in 1894, he toured the copy around the country with Mary, his second wife. In 1896, he and his wife settled down in San Francisco,

California, where he found work at a delicatessen. On 29 May 1916, Primus died from pulmonary tuberculosis at age seventy-four with laborer listed as the occupation on his death certificate.

Primus never saved enough money to fulfill his dream to study abroad in Europe nor did he ever manage to support his family with his painting career, but he never stopped painting. Today he is remembered as a talented black painter. That was the core of his being, and that was how he identified himself, but the tragedy of his life, and of many African Americans seeking a career in the arts in the nineteenth century, was that he was never given the chance to fulfill his potential.

Further Reading

Nelson Primus's correspondence is located in the Primus Family Papers, Connecticut Historical Society,

Manuscript Collection, Hartford, Connecticut.

“Citizens of Color, 1863–1890: The ‘Talented Tenth,’” The Hartford Black History Project. Web site

available at http://www.hartford-hwp.com/HBHP/exhibit/05/3.html

Beeching, Barbara J. “Reading the Numbers: Census Returns as Key to the Nineteenth Century

Black Community in Hartford, Connecticut,” Connecticut History 44.2 pp. 224–247 (2005).

–––. “The Primus Papers: An Introduction to Hartford's Nineteenth Century Black Community,”

dissertation, Trinity College, 1995.

Holland, Juanita Marie. “Co-workers in the Kingdom of Culture: Edward Mitchell Bannister and the

Boston Community of African-American artists, 1848–1901,” dissertation, Columbia University,

1998.

“Work of a Bungler,” New York Times p. 1, 31 (December 1888).

© Oxford University Press 2012. All Rights Reserved

Citation:

Hollister, Dominick. "Jack, Andrew." African American National Biography, edited by Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. , edited by and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. . Oxford African

American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0001/e6018 (accessed Mon Oct 12 17:14:33 EDT 2015).

Jack, AndrewBy: Dominick Hollister

(30 June 1756–23 Jan. 1846),

may have been born in Connecticut to a New Haven plantation owner. The names of his parents and owner during this time are unknown.

Andrew Jack first appears in public records when he enlisted to fight in the Revolutionary War on 18 April 1777 in New Haven. Jack served from 1777 until he was discharged in 1782, but was only paid until 1781. He was first assigned to the Leavenworth Company which was part of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment. He served in this Company from 1777 to 1778. He was then assigned to the Barker Company, also a part of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment as a private. There were seventy-eight other men in his company, only three of whom were African Americans. Jack served in the Barker Company from 1778 to 1780. During Jack's time with the Sixth Regiment of the Connecticut Line, these troops were involved with building and repairing forts and buildings, and assisting other regiments when they were under attack and in need. African Americans in the regiment, like Jack, could have been working as carpenters, blacksmiths, and wheelwrights.

Between October 1780 and November 1782, Jack served in the Second Company, Fourth Connecticut Regiment, also known as the Company of Colored Troops led by Captain David Humphrey. This Company was made up of forty-eight privates, corporals, and sergeants. These African Americans mainly fought in this war under the promise of freedom if the rebels won; however very few were granted this prize. Two State of Connecticut–issued Notes, numbered 3387 and 3388, were issued to Andrew Jack for £9.8.3 each; the latter note is signed “Andw. Jack” on the reverse side, indicating Jack was probably literate.

After the war, it is unclear what happened to Jack; it is possible he was freed by his owner in return for his military service although very few slave owners held to their promise of freedom. Like many Connecticut residents, Jack emigrated to Ohio after the war. A monument to Andrew Jack, Revolutionary War veteran, was erected in the Springfield Friends Cemetery in Clinton County Ohio, indicating that he died at the age of ninety years, seven months, having served in the war under General Washington.

Further Reading

Connecticut Historical Society. Collections Volume VII: Revolution Rolls and Lists 1775–

1783 (1901), pp. 71–72.

Dobyns, L. http://www.history.org: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation official history and

citizenship website.

Johnston, H. The Record of Connecticut Men in the Military and Naval Service During the War of the

Revolution, 1775–1783(1997), p. 339.

“Muster Roll of African Americans in 6CR.” The 6th Connecticut Regiment.

http://www.6thconnecticut.org/?page_id=897.

© Oxford University Press 2012. All Rights Reserved

Citation:

Ganoe, Jacob. "Saunders, Judson L.." African American National Biography, edited by Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.. , edited by and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. . Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0001/e6032

(accessed Mon Oct 12 17:15:51 EDT 2015).

Saunders, Judson L.By: Jacob Ganoe 

(15 Feb. 1863–4 Apr. 1950),

janitor, Connecticut National Guard lieutenant, and founder of the first African American Boy Scout troop in Connecticut, was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. Little is known about his parents except that he was the second of four children. He had one older and younger sister, Alice and Martha, respectively, and one younger brother, Stephen. In the year 1887, at the age of ten, he, his mother, and his three siblings emigrated to America on the steamer Linda, arriving at Boston Harbor. His mother's name is listed as S. Saunders on the ship's manifest, so her real name is unknown. There is no record of his father. Saunders moved to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1892.

Saunders met his wife, Linna, who was born in January 1865, in Pennsylvania; the two married in 1890. They then settled down at 28 Hazel Street in New Haven. Their daughter Alma was born in June 1891, followed by their first son, Judson, in July 1899, and son Earnest in 1901. It appears that Earnest died sometime after 1910 since he does not appear in subsequent records. Saunders became naturalized as a US citizen on 14 March 1906.

In 1907 Saunders joined the military, enlisting in the infantry of the Connecticut State Militia, where he served for ten years in the 1st Separate Company, achieving the rank of second lieutenant. At the same time, he worked as a caretaker and a carpet layer in New Haven.

In the 1908 Congregational Year Book, which gives information about each employed member of the church, including salaries and invested funds, Saunders was listed as the Sunday school superintendent of the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, the nation's oldest African American Congregational United Church of Christ congregation. As the Sunday school superintendent, Saunders was in charge of running youth classes, making sure they occurred on a regular basis, and proceeded smoothly. Saunders also helped found the first African American Boy Scout troop sponsored by this church in about 1914, as reported by the New Haven Register. Saunders served as the head scoutmaster with the Reverend Edward F. Goin as the assistant scout master. This may have been because Saunders's son Judson, who was thirteen, wished to join a scout troop, although this cannot be confirmed.

According to the 1920 census, the Saunders household was composed of Saunders himself, his wife, Linna, and his daughter, Alma. In 1942 the couple still resided in New Haven. Saunders's wife predeceased him in 1944; he died on 5 April 1950 in New Haven at the age of eighty-seven, survived by his daughter Alma and his son, Judson.

Further Reading

“New Haven CT: Jan 7.” The New York Age, 8 Jan. 1914.

The Year Book of the Congregational Christian Churches of the United States of America 1908,

Issued Under the Sanction of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United

States,” vol. 30 (1908).

© Oxford University Press 2012. All Rights Reserved

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AANB Research Project 2014 - 2015

To access the AANB and AASC, visit www.oxfordaasc.com and enter the following information:

Username: tvara

Password: oxford (Both are case-sensitive)

For an A on this project, you will select one Connecticut-related person from the following list and make sure this person is not yet listed in the AANB! Then locate as much information about him or her as possible. In the course of your research, you may also get great advice from librarians who may have other great people to investigate. Remember that all these people must be (unfortunately for them) quite dead. You may use any resources available to you, but the best will be:

*Bibliomation, the Connecticut Public Library system

*Connecticut Historical Society

*Connecticut State Library

*University of Hartford Library

*Local Historical Societies

*Your local library

*UConn Library: Proquest Historical Newspaper - http://rdl.lib.uconn.edu/databases/1479 to find older issues of American Periodical Series (APS), the Hartford Courant, the New York Amsterdam News, and the New York Times. The Hartford Courant (1764 - 1922)

You will print or copy any primary or secondary resources you find (letters, newspaper accounts, obituaries, census records, etc.) and construct a narrative of this person’s life, based on a model of someone in the same field from the AANB. Follow the AANB article format. If your work is original and well-researched and beautifully written, we will submit it to the AANB for consideration; if it is accepted, you will be a published researcher and author! Names with asterisks are particularly challenging!

1. Jane Bolin- first African American woman graduate of Yale Law School (1931)2. Ulysses Byrd Jr.- Waterbury’s first black firefighter- died 8/22/20123. Joseph Charles Jenkins- born in Detroit 1914-first AA US Coast Guard officer4. Harry Clarence Russell- born 1918 in Louisville, KY- second AA US Coast Guard officer5. Javis Leon Wright, Jr.- member of US Coast Guard class of 19556. John E. Rogers- local Connecticut historian of AA history7. Peleg Nott- Revolutionary War vet and black Governor8. Frederick Seymour- civil rights activist9. Margaret Dwen Andrews-accomplished educator10. Connie Nappier-architect in Hartford 196311. Father of Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed- Yale caterer from 1822-186512. Curtis Patton-one of Yale’s first AA professors

13. James William Morris- first AA student to graduate from Yale Divinity School in 187414. Solomon Melvin Coles- second AA student to graduate from Yale Divinity School in 187515. Edwin Archer Randolph- Yale Law School first AA graduate in 188016. Warner Thornton McGuinn- Yale Law class of 1887-supported by Mark Twain17. Judson Lossen Saunders- began first black Boy Scout Troop 24 in 1913 in New Haven18. George Biddle Kelley- Civil Engineer, graduate of Cornell University19. Arthur Verdi Bates- born 1/16/1916 in New Haven, Lincoln University class of 193720. George Paul Macy Clarke- born 3/1/1910-firefighter, Lincoln University class of

1895/1898, born Aiken, SC21. George Edward Cunningham Sr.-born New Haven 8/1909; Lincoln University class of

1933- editor and housing manager22. Raymond O. Hatcher-born Waterbury, CT- Lincoln University class of 1934-non profit

work23. John Wesley Lancaster Jr.- born 8/29/1901 Bridgeport- activist- Lincoln University class

of 192624. Prince George- from Branford, CT. 2nd Co. 4th Regiment CT Line- Rev. War soldier25. Andrew Abner- served CT Line until 1780- Rev. War soldier26. Thomas Freeman- Rev. War soldier- from Saybrook- served 1775 and 1777-178227. Andrew Jack- served in CT Line 1777-1782- Rev. War soldier28. Jack Little- Rev. War soldier- 4th Regiment of the CT Line29. Cesar Sipio or Sippio- Rev. War soldier- 1st Regiment of CT Line30. Ned Freedom- served in David Humphrey’s All Black Company- Rev. War soldier31. George Aschley Thompson- from Greenwich, CT- graduated from Howard University

Pharmaceutic College in 1915 32. Joseph Harold Ray- from Newtown, CT- at Howard University Dental College in 191533. Samuel Gary Foeman- from New Haven, CT- at Howard University Dental College in

191534. Ernest Colbjornsen Schuster- from New Haven, CT- at Howard University Dental College

in 191535. James Oscar Lee- born 4/13/1910- minister- Lincoln University class of 193136. Cedric Earl Mills- born 12/17/1903 Hartford- minister- Lincoln University class of 192637. Robert Andrew Moody- born in New Brunswick, NJ 7/26/1898- clergyman- Lincoln

University class of 1920/1924- minister of Shiloh Baptist Church38. Stanley Sargeant- born New Haven, CT 5/21/1921- Lincoln University class of 1943- US

Army and medical school39. William Sailsman Weller- minister- born in Jamaica 8/4/1878- Lincoln University class of

190740. Edythe J. Gaines- born Edythe Pauline Jones- 1922-2006

41. John Dow: first AA superintendent of schools42. John Daniels: New Haven’s first AA mayor43. Rev. Oscar Leiber Mitchell, first Hartford ordained Episcopal priest, 189444. John Stewart Jr: Hartford Fire Chief 1980-199245. George Goodman: Editor of The Hartford Chronicle46. Leo Clark Sr.: founded a home and window cleaning business in 1930s47. Simon Manus from Farmington (1820-1904) (File from African-American Resources at the

Connecticut Historical Society:Brown, Matthew. "Grave of Simon Manus Lies alone in Hillside Cemetery." Farmington News clipping, 2 August 1990, 1 page. (Jean Fisher African-American Collection). African-American Simon Manus (1820-1904) of the Twenty-Ninth Colored Connecticut Regiment of Infantry was with the Union Army when it marched on Richmond in October 1864. He later settled in Farmington, CT, living in the former West District Schoolhouse. The American Legion places a flag by his grave each year.

48. Jacob Eaton (File from African-American Resources at the Connecticut Historical Society: Jacob Eaton Buckingham, William Alfred. Letter, 26 December 1863, to Major C. W. Foster. LS, 1 page. (William A. Buckingham Papers) Requests that Jacob Eaton be considered for a position as field officer in the colored regiment being formed in Connecticut (i.e., the Twenty-Ninth Colored Connecticut Regiment of Infantry). Records show that Rev. Jacob Eaton of Meriden died in the service in March 1865 while chaplain of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment of Infantry.)

49. Joseph Cross. (File from African-American Resources at the Connecticut Historical Society: Joseph Cross , Joseph O. Letters, 1864-1865 to his wife, Abby. 10 ALsS. (Ms 74274)On 10 December 1864, he writes from Chapin's Farm, VA, how difficult it was to break the news to a fellow soldier of the death of two of his brothers. He adds that five soldiers from the Forty-First Pennsylvania Black Regiment were shot that morning. Joseph Cross was an African-American sergeant in Company H of the Twenty-Ninth Connecticut Black Regiment of Infantry. He owned land in Griswold, CT.)

50. Benjamin Brown-public crier*51. Louisa Brown-dressmaker*52. Vernon Riddick, Jr., first black police chief in Waterbury, CT53. Cicero Booker, Sr., first black police officer in Waterbury, CT, sworn in 10/4/1943, died

10/4/1986.54. Edyth Gaines, Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools, 1975-197855. Sam Beamon*56. James “Pops” Wyrick*-both Beamon and Wyrick took part in federal discrimination

lawsuits against the Waterbury Police Department.57. E.C. Freeman-school teacher58. Jeremiah Jacobs-cobbler/ shoemaker59. Marcelino Manuel de Graca-Cape Verdean founder of the United House of Prayer 191960. Claude H. Ligon61. Rachel Taylor Milton62. M. Jane Taylor, née Mattie Jane 63. Storm DeLarverie died 2014 Dolphy, educator64. John B. Stewart, Jr.

65. Herb Jeffries- cowboy crooner66. William A. Davis died June 3, 2014 in Waterbury. New England’s #1 Gospel promoter.67. Wayne Henderson, Founder of Jazz Crusaders68. Basil A. Paterson, New York politics69. W.V. Cordice, surgeon70. Charles Atkinson71. Walter “Doc” Herley72. Salaria O’Reilly73. W. Lincoln Hawkins74. Foreststorn Chico Hamilton75. Cedric Earl Mills76. William Miles77. Mary Goodman- established scholarships for black students at Yale Divinity School78. George Williamson Crawford – first black Corporation Counsel for New Haven79. George E. Smith- wealthy Hartford resident 1877-AME Zion Church

AANB Rubric

7. Found as much primary source material as possible: 25 ________8. Formatted essay in AANB style: 15 ________9. Further Reading included and correct: 15 ________10. Grammatically correct: 15 ________11. All primary documents attached: 15 ________12. Biography shows careful attention to detail: 15 ________

Total:____

Tardiness deduction: 20 points per day