People, Locations, Episodes

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 […]

Pedro Niño, Navagator born

*The birth of Pedro Niño is celebrated on this date in c. 1455. He was a Black Spanish navigator and explorer. Pedro Alonso Niño was born in Moguer, Spain he was of mixed heritage of African and Spaniard. He was known as El Negro and his father was one of the sailors Captured from Elmina. According […]

The Dutch West India Company is Formed

*The Dutch West India Company was founded on this date in 1621. They were a chartered company of Dutch merchants, slave traffickers, and well foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx and Jessé de Forest it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the Dutch West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and […]

Edward Colston, Slave Trader 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 Swedish Africa Company is Formed

*On this date in 1649, we affirm the Swedish Africa Company (SAC). They were a Swedish slave trading company, founded by the Walloon-Dutch merchant Louis De Geer and his son Laurens. The primary interest of the company was the trade on the Swedish Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. History In 1648 De Geer’s charter on exporting Swedish […]

The Swedish African Slave Trade, a story

*The Swedish, African slave trade began on this date in 1650. This was a business venture that many white European countries involved with the Middle Passage. In the mid-17th century, Sweden established trading stations along the West African coast, with bases in an area called the Swedish Gold Coast which is today part of Ghana. Sweden and […]

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 […]

The Danish West India Company is Formed

*The Danish West India Company was formed on this date in 1671.  This was a Dano-Norwegian chartered slave-trading business that operated out of the colonies during the Middle Passage in the Danish West Indies.  Originally the Danish Africa Company it was started in Glückstadt by the originally Finnish Hendrik Carloff, two Dutchmen, and two German […]

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 […]

Richard Oswald, Merchant born

*The birth of Richard Oswald is celebrated on this date in 1705. He was a white Scottish merchant and slave trader.  Richard Oswald was born to the Reverend George Oswald of Dunnet, and his wife Margaret Murray. At age 20 he was apprenticed to cousins who were merchants in Glasgow, the brothers Richard Oswald of […]

Henry Laurens, Slave Trader born

*Henry Laurens was born on this date in 1724. He was a white-American merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laurens succeeded John Hancock as President of the Congress. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and President of […]

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 […]

William Ansah Sessarakoo, Merchant born

*The birth of William Ansah Sessarakoo is celebrated on this date in c. 1736.  He was a Black slave trader and writer. He was both 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 […]