an enslaved African who died a free man at a very old age, comes from the diary of the man who painted his striking portrait. Charles William Peale was an American portrait painter who established ...

so portraits of African American musicians, much like other markers of status that were long denied to people of color in European-controlled territories, serve as a cultural acknowledgment of their ...

The "Preamble" and "Articles" of the Free African Society (FAS) provide a succinct portrait of the organization, the first of its kind in Philadelphia, and probably the first in America.