People, Locations, Episodes

The Stories of Aesop’s Fables Are Published In English

*Aesop’s Fables was published in English for the first time on this date in 1484. Aesop’s Fables is a collection of stories credited to Aesop, a North African slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Published by William Caxton, these diverse origins and stories by Aesop have descended to modern […]

Mahmoud al-Kati, Writer born

*On this date in c 1498, Mahmoud al-Kati was born.  He was a Black African historian and Soninke writer. Mahmoud al-Kati was born in Timbuktu, Mali.  Al-Kati was a member of the Soninke tribe who learned to read and write Arabic, the language of West African scholars in his time. Travel to Mecca.  As a […]

The Kikongo Language, a story

*The Kikongo language is celebrated on this date in 1500. It is one of the Bantu languages the Kongo people speak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Gabon. Often called Kongo, it is a tonal language. It was spoken by many who were enslaved people during the Middle Passage. For this reason, […]

Juan Latino, Professor, and Poet born

*This date celebrates the birth of Juan Latino, who was born in 1518. He was a Black Spanish professor, poet, and writer in Grenada during the sixteenth century.   Born Juan de Sessa in Baena, he was the son of Black slaves of the second Duke Consort of Sessa since 1520. Luis Fernández de Córdoba, Latino, […]

Negro (the word), a story

The word Negro is discussed on this dates Registry. This brief article and its references is written to add to the history of this word.

Negro means “black” in both Spanish and Portuguese languages, being derived from the Latin word niger of the same meaning. The term “negro”, literally the Spanish and Portuguese to refer to Black Africans and people with that heritage used “black.” From the 18th century to the mid-20th century, “negro” (later capitalized) was considered the correct and proper term for African Americans. It fell out of favor by the 1970s in the United States.

Jupiter Hammon, Poet born

Jupiter Hammonm a Black poet and the first published black writer in America, was born on this date in 1711.

Hammon served several generations of the Lloyd family on Long Island, New York. He had been a slave his entire life, allowed to attend school, and his formal education influenced his development as a poet. Like his masters, Hammon was a devout Christian, and was influenced by the religious revivals taking place in 18th century New England.

Ignatius Sancho, Composer and Writer born

The birth of Ignatius Sancho, a Black writer, in 1729 is celebrated on this date.

He was born on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the West African nation of Guinea. After the ship reached the Caribbean port of Cartagena, in what is now Colombia, his mother died and his father committed suicide.

Lucy Terry Prince, Poet, and Orator born

The birth of Lucy Terry, Black abolitionist, poet, and skilled orator, in 1730 is celebrated on this date. Although she was not a lawyer, she argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court and won.

Terry was born in Africa, enslaved and stolen from there as an infant, and sold to Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, MA. She was baptized at 19 in June 1735, during the Great Awakening, and at the age of 20, she was “admitted to the fellowship of the church.” In 1756, Terry married Abijah Prince, a prosperous free black man who purchased her freedom.

William Ansah Sessarakoo, Slave Trader born

*The birth of William Ansah Sessarakoo is affirmed on this date in c. 1736.  He was a Black African slave trader and writer. He was prominent among his Fante people and influential among Europeans concerned with the Middle Passage. Ansah was born in Annamaboe, the then-largest slave-trading port on the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana). His father, John […]

Hannah Moore, Writer born

*Hannah More was born on this date in 1745. She was a white-English poet and abolitionist. From Stapleton, Gloucestershire, England, Moore was the most influential female member of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. She was educated at Bristol, an important slave-trading town, and began to publish her writing in […]

Olaudah Equiano, Slave, and Author born

*On this date in 1745, we remember the birth of Olaudah Equiano, an African slave, and author.

Adolf Gustaf Badin, Royal Servant born

*The birth of Adolf Gustaf Badin is celebrated on this date, c1750. He was an Afro Swedish (Black Swede) court servant and chronicler. He was born in Africa or the Danish island Saint Croix and enslaved at birth. He said the only thing he remembered about his past was burning his parents’ hut. It is […]

Phyllis Wheatley, Poet born

*Phillis Wheatley was born on this date 1753. She was a Black slave and writer.

Born in Senegambia, Africa she was sold into slavery at the age of 7 and transported to North America. The Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write, and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent, purchased her. Her publication of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) brought her fame both in England and the American colonies; figures such as George Washington praised her work.

Ottobah Cugoano, Philosopher born

*The birth of Ottobah Cugoano is celebrated on this date, c. 1757.  He was a Black African abolitionist, author, anti-imperialist, and natural rights philosopher.  He was born Quobna Ottobah Cugoano near Ajumako, in modern-day Ghana. He was a Fanti.   At 13, Cugoano was sold into slavery and transported to Grenada to work on an […]

Omar Ibn Sa’id, Author born

*The birth of Omar ibn Sa’id is celebrated on this date in 1770.  He was a Black Muslim slave, scholar, and author. Omar ibn Sa’id was born in present-day Senegal in, a region along the Middle Senegal River in West Africa, to a wealthy family.   He was an Islamic scholar and a Fula who […]