February 13 – Exploring the Black Experience in Fell’s Point, 1730-1890

In the city’s first two centuries, Fell’s Point was the commercial engine of Baltimore. Black laborers—some enslaved, some free—worked along side white workers in the maritime industries, building ships and loading and unloading cargo at numerous wharves and warehouses. Dr. Donna Hollie will discuss how the African American community (both enslaved and free) worked to improve the economic, religious, educational, and political climate in one of Baltimore City’s oldest neighborhoods.

A native of Baltimore, Hollie is professor of history and chair of the Social Science Department at Sojourner-Douglass College. She also serves as vice president of history for the Baltimore chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. She is currently writing a biography of John W. Locks, a 19th-century African American prominent in Baltimore’s economic and political arena.