People, Locations, Episodes

Vasco de Balboa, Explorer, and Slave Trader born

*The birth of Vasco Balboa is affirmed on this date in c. 1475. He was a Spanish explorer, slave trader, governor, and conquistador. Vasco Núñez de Balboa was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He was a descendant of the Lord Mason of the Balboa castle on León and Galicia’s borders. His mother was […]

The Dahomey Amazon Women, a story

*The Dahomey Amazons are celebrated on this date in 1625. Also called Mino, or Minon, “our mothers,” they were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Western observers and historians named them due to their similarity to the mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea. King Houegbadja, the third King of Dahomey, is […]

Ganga Zumba, Afro Brazilian Community Leader born

*Ganga Zumba’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1630. He was the first leader of the vast escaped Afro Brazilian slave settlement of Quilombo dos Palmares, or Angola Janga, in present-day Alagoas, Brazil. Ganga Zumba is said to have been the son of Princess Aqualtune, the daughter of an unknown king of the central […]

Zumbi, Afro Brazilian Abolitionist born

The life of Zumbi in 1655 is celebrated on this date. He was an Afro Brazilian abolitionist and soldier.

The Komenda Wars Begin

*The beginning of the Komenda Wars is affirmed on this date in 1694. These wars lasted until 1700, largely between the Dutch West India Company and the British Royal African Company in the Eguafo Kingdom in the present-day state of Ghana, over trade rights. The Dutch were trying to keep the British out of the region to maintain […]

Abram Hannibal, Military General born

On this date we celebrate the birth of Abram Hannibal in 1697. He was an African slave who became a successfull general and military engineer in Russia.

Joseph Louis Cook, Patriot born

*The birth of Joseph Louis Cook is celebrated on this date in c 1737. He was a Black African Native American (Mohawk) American colonial leader.   Joseph Louis Cook, or Akiatonharónkwen, was born in Quebec, Canada. He was the son of an African father and an Abenaki mother. He and his mother moved to a […]

Andrew Frazier, Soldier born.

*Andrew Frazier’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1743. He was a Black enslaved laborer and soldier.  Born at the Manor of Morrisania, New York, Frazier served in the Revolutionary War first as a “waggoner” or wagon driver, then as a “waiter” or body servant to Colonel Morris Graham and was at the Battles […]

James Lafayette, Patriot born

*James Lafayette’s birth in 1748 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black slave and American patriot.

Born on William Armistead’s New Kent County farm, in 1781 he received permission to leave his master’s service and volunteer with the American forces under the Marquis de Lafayette, (a young French general and American ally). During this time the British had devastated Richmond, looting and burning much of the city and chasing the Virginia legislature from the Capitol; thus the Generals offer to assist the small army came at a critical time.

Joseph Brant, Indigenous Slave Owner, and Military Officer born

*Joseph Brant was born on this date in 1743. He was a Native American Mohawk chief, a Christian missionary, an African slave trader, and a British military officer.   Brant was born near the Ohio River and given the Indian name of Thayendanegea, meaning “he places two bets.” He inherited the status of Mohawk chief from […]

Don Miguel Hidalgo, Priest and Revolutionary Leader born

*Don Miguel Hidalgo was born on this date in 1753. He was a Criollo Catholic priest, educator, and revolutionary military leader. Commonly known as Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo, he was the second-born child of Don Cristóbal Hidalgo y Costilla Espinoza de los Monteros and Doña Ana María Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor, both criollos. On […]

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Military Officer born

*Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was born on this date in 1762. He was a Black French general in Revolutionary France. Born in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was the quarteron son of Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a white French nobleman, and Marie-Cessette Dumas, an African slave. He was born into slavery […]

Maria Remedios, Abolitionist born

*The birth of María Remedios. is celebrated on this date in c1768. She was an Afro Argentine abolitionist and soldier. María Remedios del Valle was born in Buenos Aires in the second half of the eighteenth century. The details of her parentage are unknown, but according to her military record, she was a parda or pardo, one of the categories […]

Black History, and the Boston Massacre, a story

*This is the date of the Boston Massacre in 1770. That evening Crispus Attucks, a free Black man, was the first person to die for America’s independence; here’s what happened.

Alexandre Pétion, Soldier, and Politician born

*On this date in 1770, Alexandre Pétion was born. He was a Black politician, soldier, and the first President of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death. Alexandre Sabès Pétion was born “Anne Alexandre Sabès” in Port-au-Prince. His father was Pascal Sabès, a wealthy white French father, and Ursula, a free mulatto woman. Like other […]