*John Rolfe’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1585. He was a white English slave owner, tobacco planter, and member of the American colonial First Family of Virginia. John Rolfe, son of John Rolfe and Dorothea Mason, was born in Heacham, Norfolk, England, and baptized on May 6, 1585. At that time, Spain held a […]
learn more*Plantations in America are affirmed on this date in 1600. These were planned structural communities governed by and that relied on chattel slavery. The plantation complex in the Southern United States was the built environment that was common on agricultural plantations in the Antebellum South from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything […]
learn more*On this date, 1600, the East India Company (EIC) was founded. This Slave labor business was an English, and later British, joint-stock company. The East India Company was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the […]
learn more*The White Lion slave ship was affirmed on this date in 1604. During the middle passage, this was an English pirate operating under a Dutch letter of marque. The ship brought the first Africans to the English colony of Virginia in 1619, a year before the arrival of the Mayflower in New England. Though the African captives were sold […]
learn more*Anthony Johnson’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1606. He was an African slave and farmer and one of the first Black property owners in colonial America. He was a tobacco farmer in Maryland and had his right to own a slave recognized by the Virginia courts legally. There is no information about his […]
learn more*The Virginia Company of London was chartered on this date in 1606. This was a slave-trading business and refers collectively to two joint-stock companies. They were chartered during the middle passage under James I of England to establish settlements on the coast of North America. The two companies are referred to as the “Virginia Company of London” […]
learn more*On this date in 1607, the Virginia Company of London settled on Jamestown Island as the place to build their fort in America. Also called the London Company, it was an English joint-stock company. It was established in 1606 by a royal charter from King James I to establish colonial settlements in North America. In […]
learn more*The Headright Property System in America began on this date in 1618. A headright refers to a legal grant of land given to settlers during the European colonization of the Americas. Headright is most notable for its role in expanding the Thirteen Colonies; the Virginia Company gave headright to settlers, and the Plymouth Company followed. […]
learn more*The Dutch West India Company was founded on this date in 1621. They were a chartered company of Dutch merchants, slave traffickers, and foreign investors. Among its founders were Willem Usselincx and Jessé de Forest. The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands granted it a charter for a trade monopoly in the Dutch West Indies. It gave […]
learn more*On this date in 1626, the charter of Compagnie de Saint-Christophe was affirmed. This slave-trading company was chartered by France to exploit the island of Saint-Christophe, which is present-day Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 1625, a Pierre Bélain sieur d’Esnambuc, landed on Saint-Christophe with slaves. Returning to France in 1626, he applied to and received […]
learn more*Fort Amsterdam is remembered on this date in 1631. The British and Dutch used this Fort to facilitate Black African slave labor in the Middle Passage. The English built it between 1638 and 1645 as Fort Cormantin and captured it by the Dutch West India Company in 1665 in retaliation for the English’s capture of […]
learn more*Edward Colston was born on this date in 1636. He was a white-English philanthropist, merchant, slave trader, and Member of Parliament. Edward Colston was the youngest of at least 15 children from Bristol, England. His parents were William Colston, a prosperous merchant High Sheriff of Bristol in 1643, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Edward Batten. He was brought up […]
learn more*The birth of John Cabess is affirmed on this date in c. 1640. He was an African slave trader and merchant. John Cabess (also known as John Kabes or John Cabes) was the son of John Cabessa, a prominent African official working for the British at Fort Amsterdam in the 1660s. His father was most noted in […]
learn more*On this date in 1649, we affirm the Swedish Africa Company (SAC). The SAC was a Swedish slave trading company founded by the Walloon-Dutch merchant Louis De Geer and his son Laurens. The company’s primary interest was the trade on the Swedish Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. History In 1648, De Geer’s charter on exporting Swedish copper […]
learn more*The Swedish African slave trade began on this date in 1650. This was a business venture that many white European countries were involved in regarding the Middle Passage. In the mid-17th century, Sweden established trading stations along the West African coast, with bases in the Swedish Gold Coast, which is today part of Ghana. Sweden and Denmark […]
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