People, Locations, Episodes

Bayano, Central American Abolitionist born

*This date celebrates the birth of Bayano, who was born in 1520. Also known as Ballano or Vaino, he was an African revolutionary. Captured from the Yoruba community in West Africa, it has been debated that his name means idol. Different tales tell of their revolt in 1552, beginning on the ship or after landing in Panama’s Darien […]

The Palmares Community of Brazil, a story

*The Palmares community in 1605 is celebrated on this date. This was a Brazilian settlement of runaway and freeborn African slaves.

Cyrus Bustill, Abolitionist born

*Cyrus Bustill was born on this date in 1732. He was a Black brewer and baker, abolitionist, and community leader. Born in Burlington, New Jersey, Cyrus Bustill was the son of white Quaker lawyer Samuel Bustill and Parthenia, an African woman who was a slave owned by Samuel. After Samuel Bustill died, his widow sold Cyrus […]

Granville Sharpe, British Abolitionist born

Granville Sharpe was born on this date in 1735. He was a European abolitionist and philanthropist.

Joseph Chatoyer, Caribbean Abolitionist, born

*This date in 1738 is celebrated as the birth date of Joseph Chatoyer. Also known as Satuye, Chatoyer was a Garifuna (Carib) chief and abolitionist. Very little is known of his early formative years.  In 1772, the population rebelled. Led by Chatoyer, the First Carib War forced the British to sign a treaty with them in 1773. […]

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 […]

Prince Hall, Preacher, and Mason born

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

William Wilberforce, British Abolitionist born

William Wilberforce was born on this date in 1759. He was a White British abolitionist.

José Morelos, Afro Mexican Abolitionist born

José Morelos y Pavyn was born on this date in 1765. He was an Afro Mexican priest, soldier, abolitionist, and an early leader of Mexico’s struggle for independence from Spain.

James Forten, Abolitionist, and Businessman born

*James Forten’s birth is marked on this date in 1766. He was a Black businessman and abolitionist.

Henri Christophe, Revolutionary, and Haitian King

On this date in 1767, Henri Christophe was born. He was a West African slave and became an early Black king of (Haiti).

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 […]

Elihu Embree, Abolitionist born

*Elihu Embree was born on this date in 1782.  He was a white-American abolitionist and the brain trust of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, one of the first newspapers in the United States devoted exclusively to abolishing slavery.   Embree was the son of a Quaker minister who moved from Pennsylvania to Washington County in East Tennessee around 1790. It is unknown where he attended school, although some accounts suggest he was taught […]

Peter Williams Jr., Priest and Abolitionist born.

*The birth of Peter Williams Jr. is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a Black Episcopal priest and abolitionist. Williams was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of Peter Williams Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran, and his wife, Mary “Molly” Durham, an indentured servant from St. Kitts. After his family moved […]

Benjamin Lundy, Abolitionist born

Benjamin Lundy was born on this date in 1789. He was a White American abolitionist and news publisher.

He was from Sussex County, New Jersey and raised a Quaker. Lundy was working as a saddle maker in Wheeling, Vermont, when he first became troubled about the morality of the slave trade. In 1815, he created the Union Humane Society. In 1821, he began publishing the anti-slavery newspaper, Genius of Universal Emancipation. In 1829, Lundy brought on William Lloyd Garrison as co-editor before he moved to Boston and began the Liberator.