And Still We Rise: Aviator Bessie Colman

Bessie Coleman or "Queen Bess" became the first African American woman to hold an international pilot license. In 1915, Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois and found work as a manicurist. She was enthralled by stories she overheard from pilots returning home from WWI and decided to pursue her dream of becoming a pilot.

Coleman was unable to find a school or a pilot that would train an African American woman in the U.S. It wasn't until 1920 that she finally gained financial backing from banker Jesse Binga and the African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender, to study abroad at the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) in France.

On June 15, 1921, Coleman became the first woman and the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license from the FAI and returned to the United States a media darling. Soon after, Coleman made a name for herself as a stunt flyer and had aspirations of establishing a school for African American aviators before her untimely death in April of 1926 at the age of 34.

See the courageous and daring story of Bessie Coleman in And Still We Rise: Race, Culture and Visual Conversations open now through Sept. 1 #AndStillWeRise

-Assia Johnson, Public Relations and Social Media Coordinator

Tobacco on the Chesapeake

Twelve years after the British colony of Jamestown was founded in Virginia, the first Dutch ship brought several African men and women to the colony in 1619.  These people may have been indentured servants, but they were probably sold as slaves.  Over the next two centuries, the colonies expanded along the eastern coast from Georgia to Canada.  In the Chesapeake colonies of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, slavery was the predominant way of organizing labor.  By 1790, nearly forty percent of the population in the British colonies were enslaved.

Tobacco was a major cash crop in the Chesapeake colonies.  During the 1700s, many plantation owners were able to increase their fortunes by selling tobacco to Europeans and Africans.  The vast majority of tobacco during the late 16th century was cultivated by slave labor.  Slaves planted, harvested, cured and packaged tobacco in an extremely labor intensive process.  You can learn more about the colonial cultivation methods of tobacco here.  Between 1619 and 1775, generations of enslaved people labored in the American colonies to create wealth for their owners.

You can learn about tobacco and other cash crops like sugar cane, rice and cotton in the From Slavery to Freedom exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

— Cori Sisler, Manager of Exhibitions and Collections