*The birth of Antarah is celebrated on this date in 525. Antara (as he was called) was a Black North African Soldier and poet. Antarah Antar Ibn Shaddad was born in Najd (northern Saudi Arabia). He was the son of Shaddad, a member of the Arabian tribe of Banu Abs; his mother was Zabibah, an […]
learn more*On this date in 57 BCE, we affirm the birth of Queen Amanirenas. She was a queen and military leader of the Kingdom of Kush from the end of the 1st Century BCE to the beginning of the 1st Century CE. Biography Queen Amanirenas was born in Kush in present-day Sudan. This affluent city was the […]
learn more*The birth of Christopher Columbus is estimated to be on this date in 1451. He was a white-Italian explorer, navigator, and slave trader of African and indigenous people. He was from the territory of the Republic of Genoa (now part of modern Italy). His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked in Genoa […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*The birth of Juan Garrido in 1487 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black African Spanish conquistador.
learn more*The birth of Henrique Dias is celebrated on July 3, 1590. He was an Afro Brazilian Portuguese soldier and militia leader. From Bahia, Brazil, there is no agreement among historians whether he was born free or as a slave. He led a military regiment composed of enslaved and freed slaves and was known as “Governor […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
learn moreThe life of Zumbi in 1655 is celebrated on this date. He was an Afro Brazilian abolitionist and soldier.
learn more*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 […]
learn moreOn 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.
learn more*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 […]
learn more*The birth of Prince Estabrook is celebrated on this date in 1741. He was a Black slave and a Minutemen Private Patriot. Born in Ashby, Massachusetts, he belonged to the family of Benjamin Estabrook, from whom he took his last name. He enlisted in the Lexington Militia in 1773. On April 19, 1775, he was […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*Toussaint Louverture was born on this date in 1743. He was a Black Haitian general and abolitionist. François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture is thought to have been born on the plantation of Bréda at Haut de Cap in Saint-Domingue. Louverture’s parents are not known. John Beard’s biography of Louverture claims that family traditions name his grandfather as from Southern Benin. […]
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