People, Locations, Episodes

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 […]

Black History, and the Boston Massacre, a story

*This is the date of the Boston Massacre in 1770. That evening Crispus Attucks, a free Black man, was the first person to die for America’s independence; here’s what happened.

Alexandre Pétion, Soldier, and Politician born

*On this date in 1770, Alexandre Pétion was born. He was a Black politician, soldier, and the first President of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death. Alexandre Sabès Pétion was born “Anne Alexandre Sabès” in Port-au-Prince. His father was Pascal Sabès, a wealthy white French father, and Ursula, a free mulatto woman. Like other […]

Fort Ticonderoga is Captured

On this date in 1775, Black patriots helped capture Fort Ticonderoga.

Blacks participated in one of the first aggressive actions of American forces in the prelude to the Revolutionary War.

Ethan Allen, the Green Mountain Boys, and numerous Black patriots captured Fort Ticonderoga. This incident took the British in New York by surprise and defeated them.

Black History, and the Battle of Bunker Hill, a story

On this date in 1775, several Blacks participated in the famous, but misnamed, Battle of Bunker Hill.

This episode in the Revolutionary War actually took place on Breed’s Hill, across the river from Boston, Massachusetts. More Blacks than had previously been thought fought with the colonial troops, according to a Revolutionary War historian, who says that 103 Blacks and Native Americans fought with the colonial force. Among them were Salem Poor, Peter Salem, Caesar Brown, Prince Estabrook, Grant Cooper, Prince Hall, and George Middleton.

Black Loyalist in Colonial America, a story

*Black Loyalists are celebrated on this date in 1775. They were African slaves who sided and fought with the British during the American Revolutionary War. They escaped the enslavement of Patriot masters and served on the Loyalist side because the Crown promised freedom. In November 1775, Lord Dunmore issued the controversial Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation. As […]

Blacks Are Barred From The Continental Army

On this date in 1775, the Continental Congress of the United States issued the order to bar Blacks from the army.

Jean-Pierre Boyer, Haitian Politician born

*Jean-Pierre Boyer was born on this date in 1776. He was a Black soldier and politician. Jean-Pierre Boyer was born in Port-au-Prince and was the mulatto son of a French tailor and an African mother, a former slave from Congo. He was sent to France by his father to become educated. During the French Revolution, he fought […]

Jean-Baptiste Riché, Soldier and Politician born

*Jean-Baptiste Riché’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1780. He was a Black Haitian, a career officer, and a politician. Riché was born free, the son of a prominent free Black man of the same name in the North Province of Saint-Domingue (the French colony that later became Haiti). His father was a sergeant […]

Faustin Soulouque, Military Officer and Politician born

*Faustin Soulouque was born on this date in 1782. He was a Black Haitian politician and military commander. Faustin-Élie Soulouque was born in Petit-Goâve, a small town in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, to a slave mother, Marie-Catherine Soulouque. She was a Creole of ethnic Mandinka descent. Soulouque was freed because of a 1793 emancipation decree that […]

Vicente Guerrero, Soldier, and Politician born

*Vicente Guerrero was born on this date in 1783. He was an Afro Mexican soldier, politician, and abolitionist.  From Tixtla, Mexico, Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldana was the son of Juan Pedro Guerrero and María Guadalupe Saldaño.  Guerrero began his military career in 1810 when he joined the independence movement against Spain under José María Morelos. […]

John F. Webber, Soldier, and Abolitionist born

*John Webber’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a white-American soldier and abolitionist. John Ferdinand Webber was born in Vermont, the son of John Webber and Hannah Morrill.  As a soldier in the War of 1812, he served as a private in Capt. S. Dickinson’s company. He was in the thirty-first […]

Pedro Camejo, Soldier born

*Pedro Camejo was born on this date in 1790. Also known as Negro Primero (“The First Black”), he was an Afro Venezuelan soldier and abolitionist. Pedro Camejo was born a slave of a Spanish royalist, Vincente Alonzo, in San Juan de Payara. He gained his freedom in 1816 after enlisting in the military to fight in […]

Lorenzo Barcala, Military Commander born

*Lorenzo Barcala was born on this date in 1793. He was an Afro Argentine military commander who participated in the Argentine civil wars on the side of the Unitarian Party. He was one of the few Black soldiers to reach the rank of colonel in that country. The son of slaves from Mendoza, Argentina, he […]

Lawrence Taliaferro, Soldier and Slave Owner born

*Lawrence Taliaferro was born on this date in 1794. He was a white-American Army officer, Indian agent, and enslaver. Lawrence Taliaferro was born at Whitehall Plantation in King George County, Virginia, to James Garnett Taliaferro and his wife Wilhelmina (Wishart) Taliaferro. During the War of 1812, he enlisted at age 18 as a volunteer in […]