1857

Chief Justice Taney's Dred Scott ruling — that Black people 'had no rights which the white man was bound to respect' — was met with organized Black defiance. Black conventions in Philadelphia, New York, and Ohio convened within weeks to assert citizenship. Frederick Douglass declared: 'My hopes were never brighter than now.' The ruling accelerated Black emigrationist sentiment led by Martin Delany and intensified Underground Railroad activity.

Philadelphia-born Frank J. Webb published 'The Garies and Their Friends' in London with a preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe — the second novel by a Black American and the first to depict middle-class free Black urban life in the North. Set in Philadelphia, it addressed racial violence, mixed-race families, and property rights. The 1838 Philadelphia race riots were a central event in the novel, making it early Black historical fiction.

Philadelphia-born Frank J. Webb published the second novel by a Black American in London, with a preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Set in Philadelphia, it depicted middle-class free Black urban life and fictionally reconstructed the 1838 Philadelphia race riots — making it among the earliest works of Black historical fiction.