Elizabeth Greenfield, known as “The Black Swan,” was one of the most remarkable vocalists of the 19th century. Born into slavery in Natchez, Mississippi, sometime between 1808 and 1826, she overcame immense racial and social barriers to become the...
On April 6, 1968, 17-year-old Robert James “Lil’ Bobby” Hutton was murdered by Oakland police in a hail of bullets. He was the first member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) to be killed, just a year and a...
Born in Chittagong (modern-day Bangladesh) in 1762, Louis-Benoît Zamor was taken as a child by British slave traders and trafficked to France, where he was gifted to Madame du Barry, the mistress of King Louis XV. However, rather than...
On April 26, 1826, a desperate struggle for freedom unfolded aboard the Decatur, a coastwise slave ship sailing from Baltimore, Maryland, to New Orleans. Among the enslaved Africans on board was 24-year-old William Bowser, a young man who had...
William Still, was a very important figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States. Known as the "Father of the Underground Railroad," Still played a crucial role in aiding and assisting at least 649 enslaved Africans escape to...
On August 23, 1828, Annice became the first enslaved woman known to be executed in Missouri. She was hanged for the murder of five children—including two of her own—whom she drowned in a desperate act of defiance against slavery....
John Punch, born around 1605 in Angola, holds a significant place in American history as the first person in British colonial America to be legally sentenced to lifelong servitude as punishment for a "crime". His case, decided in 1640...
James Meredith is a civil rights activist, writer, and U.S. Air Force veteran best known for integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962, an act that sparked a deadly riot and forced the U.S. government to deploy thousands of...
Calvin Smith was a wealthy American planter in the antebellum South who operated a notorious slave breeding farm. His plantation was infamous for its focus on breeding biracial children, or mulattoes, who were often sold at higher prices than...
George Case was a British slave trader, businessman, and politician who played a key role in Liverpool’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. He was responsible for at least 109 slave voyages, transporting thousands of enslaved Africans to the...
