*Slave Fortresses in Africa are affirmed on December 20, 1441. A fort was built to protect someone or something, and a slave fort or slave castle kept enslaved victims until ships were ready to set them aboard and forcefully kidnap the enslaved people. A slave fort was a militarized factory (trading post) that evolved at […]
learn more*The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 began on this date in 1823. This uprising involving about 12,000 African slaves took place in the British colony of Demerara-Essequibo in what is now Guyana. The rebellion took place a few months after the founding of the Anti-Slavery Society and had a substantial impact on Britain. Although public sentiment […]
learn more*The Slave Compensation Act 1837 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on December 23, 1837. Together with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, it authorized the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt to compensate slave owners in the British colonies of approximately £20 million for the freeing of […]
learn more*The Berbice Rebellion began on this date in 1763. This was a year-long slave rebellion in Guyana that lasted into 1764. The Dutch colony of Berbice was owned by four Amsterdam merchants who founded the Society of Berbice as a public company listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The colony was unsuccessful compared to other […]
learn more*Thomas Coleman was born on this date in 1910. He was a white-American highway engineer, sheriff deputy, and segregationist. On August 20, 1965, voting rights activists were released from jail in Fort Deposit, a small town in Lowndes County, Alabama. After release, the group waited near the courthouse jail while one of their members called […]
learn more*The Fairvue Plantation is affirmed on this date in 1832. The Fairvue was a plantation house in Gallatin, Tennessee. It was built for Isaac Franklin. Franklin retired to be a planter there after a career as a partner in the South’s largest slave-trading firm before the American Civil War. After his death, his widow inherited […]
learn more*The Barbados Slave Code was enacted on this date in 1661. Officially titled as An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes, it was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados to provide a legal basis for slavery in the English colony of Barbados. Throughout British North America, slavery evolved in practice […]
learn more*The Bussa Rebellion began on April 14, 1816. Lasting three days, it was the largest slave revolt in Barbadian history. The rebellion, which took its name from the African slave Bussa, who led it, was the first of three mass slave rebellions in the British West Indies. It was eventually defeated by the colonial militia […]
learn more*The Freedman’s Savings Bank opened on this date in 1865. It was the first federal bank in America. Also known as the Freedman’s Saving and Trust Company, it was a private savings bank chartered by the U.S. Congress to collect deposits from newly emancipated slaves. At the end of the American Civil War, the poor […]
learn more*The ‘Navassa Island Riot’ is affirmed on this date in 1889. Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba. In September 1875, the fierce 1875 Indianola hurricane swept over the island, destroying much of the company’s infrastructure, including the rail line and workers’ homes. The storm caused an estimated $25,000 […]
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