People, Locations, Episodes

Isaac Hobhouse, British Slave Trader born

*The birth of Isaac Hobhouse is celebrated on this date in 1685.  He was a white-English slave trader and merchant. He was the youngest of four children, was born in Minehead, Somerset, England to John Hobhouse and Anne Maddox. In the seventeenth century, the Hobhouse family worked as shipwrights and mariners in Minehead. Shortly after […]

Black Hair Care and Culture, a story

This date is Hairstylist Appreciation Day and The Registry looks briefly at African American hair.

The history of “Black Hair and Beauty Culture” mirrors the intricacy of both African and American cultures. Over the years, African American hair has been associated with the ideology of white visual conception. Some people say that blacks have embraced hairstyles and beauty methods that reflect popular European standards of beauty. However, Blacks have used their West African roots and their own artistry to create styles and standards that reflect a unique black culture.

The Society of Merchant Ventures founded

*The Society of Merchant Ventures is celebrated on this date in 1442. They are a British charitable organization in the English city of Bristol. The society can be traced back to a 13th-century guild that funded the voyage of John Cabot to Canada. The society its first Royal Charter in 1552 and for centuries had […]

Christopher Columbus, Explorer born

*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 both in […]

Edward Colston born

*Edward Colston was born on this date in 1636.  He was a white-English philanthropist, merchant, slave trader, and Member of Parliament. From Bristol, England, Edward Colston was the youngest of at least 15 children. His parents were William Colston a prosperous merchant who was High Sheriff of Bristol in 1643, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Edward Batten. He was brought […]

The Royal African Company (RAC) Founded

*On this Indigenous Peoples Day, the 1662 founding of the Royal African Company (RAC) is briefly examined.   This was an Irish/English commercial slave trading company set up by the royal Stuart family and City of London to trade along the west coast of Africa. It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother of Charles II and later took the throne as James II.   Soon […]

Francisca da Silva de Oliveira, Afro Brazilian Socialite born

*The birth of Francisca da Silva de Oliveira is celebrated on this date in c. 1732. She was an Afro Brazilian socialite who became eminent for becoming rich and powerful despite having been born into slavery. Francisca was the daughter of a Portuguese man, Antônio Caetano de Sá, and an enslaved African woman, Maria da Costa from […]

Wentworth Cheswell, one of New Hampshire’s finest

Wentworth Cheswell was born on this date in 1746. He was a Black businessman and politician.

From Newmarket, NH Cheswell was the only child of Hopestill and Catherine Keniston Cheswell. There is virtually no information about Catherine Keniston in Newmarket town records. However, the various local historians and genealogists generally accept that she came from a local Newmarket/Durham family, and that she was white. Like his father before him, Wentworth Cheswell was born to a white mother.

Prince Hall, Preacher and Mason born

*Prince Hall was born (circa) on this date in 1748. He was a Black preacher, administrator, mason and businessman.   From Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies Prince Hall was born free. His father, Thomas Prince Hall, was a white Englishman, and his mother a free Black French woman. In 1765, at the age of 17, he worked […]

Marie Bernard Couvent, born

*The birth of Marie Bernard Couvent is celebrated on this date in 1757.      She was a Black philanthropist and education advocate.  Born a slave in Benin, Africa, Marie Cirnaire came to New Orleans, Louisiana and married Bernard Couvent, a carpenter and former slave.  Together they accumulated property, other assets before he died.  In August […]

Philanthropist Paul Cuffe born

*Paul Cuffe was born on this date in 1759. He was an Black philanthropist, merchant, sea captain and abolitionist.

Pierre Toussaint, Businessman and Philanthropist born

*Pierre Toussaint was born on this date in 1766. He was Haitian immigrant to America, businessman and philanthropist.

Anthony D. Allen born

*Anthony D. Allen was born on this date in 1772.   He was a Black mariner and businessman.  From Schenectady, New York, he was owned by the Dougal family, his mother was their slave and his father a freeman and a mariner.   As a young man he picked up medical skills in Schenectady where ill or […]

Sally Hemings, Domestic born

*The birth of Sally Hemings in 1773 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black domestic chambermaid. She was also the mistress to and mother of (some) of the children of president Thomas Jefferson.

Frank McWorter born

*The birth of Free Frank McWorter is celebrated on this date in 1777.  He was a Black slave, abolitionist and businessman who bought his own freedom.   Frank McWorter was born into slavery in South Carolina to Juda, a Black West African woman abducted into slavery and transported to the colony. His father was her white master, George McWhorter, a Scots-Irish planter. According to family tradition, […]