Author: Antonia Leonard

After signing The Declaration of Independence, Franklin did not remain in Philadelphia much longer thereafter. The reason for Franklin’s departure was that he was named the United States Commissioner (Ambassador) to France in December of 1776, and he returned to Europe. What happened to the man who signed the Declaration […]

In 1787, he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. (The 81-year-old Franklin was the convention’s oldest delegate.) At the end of the convention, in September 1787, he urged his fellow delegates to support the heavily debated new document. How old was Benjamin Franklin when he signed the Constitution? […]

President John Quincy Adams. Did you know President John Quincy Adams had a pet alligator? He kept it in a bathtub in the East Room of the White House. But President Adams wasn’t the only commander-in-chief with an unusual pet. Which US president has a pet alligator? President John Quincy […]

Benjamin Rush. Benjamin Rush, the medical doctor and Founding Father, took after the Renaissance-man civic participation of his mentor, Benjamin Franklin. He is the lesser-known Founding Father from Philadelphia named Benjamin — the one whose face does not grace the $100 bill. Who is considered the forgotten Founding Father? Born […]

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address begins with the words, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A score is another way of saying 20, so Lincoln was referring to […]

A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self-purchase. Who was the person who freed the slaves? […]

Every year, the many visitors to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota draw inspiration from the colossal portraits of four outstanding presidents of the United States: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Is Abraham Lincoln part of Mount Rushmore? Mount Rushmore pays […]

Born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another enslaved person, but hit her instead. What happened to Harriet […]

Abraham Lincoln was voted the best US president in a survey where nearly 100 historians and biographers rated past commanders in chief on 10 leadership qualities. Notable best presidents included George Washington at No. 2, John F. Kennedy at No. Who was the best president George Washington or Abraham Lincoln? […]

Failure of amelioration. One major factor that enabled abolitionists to argue for emancipation was the failure of the government’s ‘amelioration’ policy. Late slave rebellions. Declining image of colonial planters. Overproduction and economic deterioration. Free labour ideology. A new Whig government. Compensation. What was the main reason why slavery was abolished? […]