People, Locations, Episodes

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 […]

John C. Calhoun, Segregationist born

*John C. Calhoun was born on this date in 1782. He was a white-American statesman from the Democratic party. John Caldwell Calhoun was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, the fourth child of Patrick Calhoun and Martha C. Caldwell. Patrick’s father, also named Patrick Calhoun, had joined the Scotch-Irish immigration movement from County Donegal to southwestern Pennsylvania. After his grandfather’s […]

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. […]

Saint Barthélemy, Swedish Colony is Formed

*On this date, in 1784, the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy was formed. This was a Swedish colonial property during the Middle Passage and existed for nearly a century.   Following problems experienced by early French settlers, Saint Barthélemy was successfully colonized by French mariners in 1763. Attracted by the island’s prosperity during the American Revolutionary War, Gustav […]

Domingo Sosa, Soldier born

*Domingo Sosa’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1784. He was an Afro Argentine soldier who became an army colonel and participated in the Wars of Independence and the Argentine Civil War. Born a slave in Buenos Aries, Argentina, with no formal education, he learned to read and write. His parents were Agustín Sosa, […]

Moeshoeshoe I, African Leader born

*The birth of Moshoeshoe I is celebrated on this date, c. 1786. He was a Black South African leader. Moshoeshoe I was born at Menkhoaneng in northern Lesotho, South Africa, under Lepoqo. His name’s literal translation is Dispute, which originated from accusations of witchcraft against a man in Mekhoaneng around the time of his birth. […]

Abraham, Black Seminole Leader born

The birth of Black Seminole warrior Abraham is celebrated on this date in 1787. He was an African Native American soldier and politician.

John Quincy Adams, Politician, and Amistad Counsel born

John Quincy Adams was born on this date in 1767. He was a White American diplomat, politician, opponent of slavery, and the sixth president of the United States.

Adams was born in Braintree, MA, in a part of town which eventually became Quincy. Adams was the son of U. S. President John Adams and Abigail Adams. Much of Adams’ youth was spent overseas accompanying his father, who served as an American envoy to France from 1778 until 1779 and to the Netherlands in 1780. During this period, he was educated at institutions such as the University of Leiden.

The ‘Three-Fifths Compromise’ in America, a story

On this date in 1787, the Three-fifths Compromise was enacted. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia that year accepted a plan determining a state’s representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was ironic that it was a liberal northern delegate, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, who proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, as a way to gain southern support for a new framework of government.

Shaka Zulu, African Monarch born

*Shaka Zulu was born on this date, c. 1787.  Shaka Zulu was a Black South African Monarch and military innovator of the Zulu Nation.    He was born Sigidi kaSenzangakhona near present-day Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal Province. Due to persecution due to his illegitimacy, he spent his childhood in his mother’s settlements, where he was initiated into an ibutho lempi (fighting unit). In his early days, Shaka […]

William Cuffay, Tailor, and Politician born

The birth of William Cuffay in 1788 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black tailor, and politician.

From Chatham, Kent in England his father was a naval cook and former slave. A young Cuffay found work as an apprentice tailor. Also as a young man he held conservative views and as late as 1833. Cuffay argued against the formation of trade unions and was the last member of his lodge to join the (then) new tailors’ union. Yet when the tailors’ union came out on strike in April 1834, Cuffay joined them and as a result lost his job.

The Slave Trade Act of 1788 is Enacted

*On this date, 1788, the Slave Trade Act of 1788 was enacted. Also known as Dolben’s Act, it was an Act of Parliament that limited the number of people that British slave ships could transport based on tonnage.   It was the first British legislation passed to regulate slave shipping. In the late 18th century, […]

Bernardo de Monteagudo, Politician born

*Bernardo de Monteagudo was born on this date in 1789.  He was an Afro Argentine political leader at the time of independence. Monteagudo became involved early in the independence movement and was arrested several times. In 1808, he wrote Diálogo entre Atahualpa y Fernando VII, criticizing the colonial system. Monteagudo talked about the need for independence […]

Thaddeus Stevens, Politician, and Abolitionist born

*Thaddeus Stevens was born on this date in 1792. He was a White American abolitionist. Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont.