People, Locations, Episodes

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, Slave 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 […]

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 […]

The African Company of Merchants is Formed

*The founding of the African Company of Merchants is affirmed on this date in 1752. This was a British chartered slave trading company operating from 1752 to 1821 in the Gold Coast area of modern Ghana. This coastal area was dominated by the indigenous Fante people. It was established by the African Company Act 1750, and […]

Marie Bernard Couvent, Philanthropist 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 1831, […]

Paul Cuffe, Merchant, and Philanthropist 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, Mariner 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 […]