History

Mangi Meli: The African Leader Executed by German Colonizers for Resisting Colonial Rule in 1900

In the late 19th century, as European powers carved up Africa during the Scramble for Africa, many African leaders rose to resist colonial oppression. One such hero was Mangi Meli of the Chagga people in present-day Tanzania. His courageous...

Cesar Picton: The Enslaved African Who Defied the Odds to Become a Wealthy British Businessman

Cesar Picton was a formerly enslaved African child, taken from Senegambia in West Africa and gifted to a British politician. He rose to become a wealthy coal merchant and property owner in 18th- and 19th-century England, defying the odds...

The Untold Story of Shields Green: The Abolitionist Who Was Hanged for Attempting to Free Enslaved Africans

Shields Green, also known as “Emperor,” was one of the most enigmatic figures in the fight against slavery in the United States. An escaped slave from Charleston, South Carolina, Green became a close associate of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and...

King Toera: The Malagasy King Who Was Beheaded for Resisting French Rule in 1897

King Toera was the last independent ruler of the Menabe region in western Madagascar who was executed by French colonial forces in 1897 during their conquest of the island. After initially extending hospitality to the French, he was met...

The Anti-Lynching Crusaders: The Women Who Fought to End The Lynching of African Americans

During the early 20th century, when lynching was a widespread tool of racial terror in the United States, a determined group of women formed the Anti-Lynching Crusaders to combat this horrific practice. This organization, established in 1922 as an...

Franklin & Armfield: The Two Men Who Built the Largest and Most Profitable Slave Trading Firm in U.S. History

Isaac Franklin and John Armfield were not just slave traders; they were industrialists of human misery and were the most influential and ruthless slave traders in the history of the United States. Operating in the 1820s and 1830s, they...

Ellen Bordon: The Woman Who Tortured an Enslaved Woman to Death in a Jealous Rage

In September, 1855, the town of Franklin, Tennessee, was shaken by one of the most horrifying acts of cruelty ever recorded. A woman named Ellen Bordon, driven by jealousy over her husband’s attention to an enslaved Black woman in...

Born Enslaved, Destined to Sing: The Story of Elizabeth Greenfield

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...

The Short Life of Lil’ Bobby Hutton: The 17-Year-Old Black Panther Murdered by the American Police in 1968

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...

Henry Brown: The Enslaved African Who Escaped Slavery By Mailing Himself to Freedom

Throughout the history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, many enslaved Africans were forced to live their lives without ever experiencing freedom. However, the innate human desire for self-determination remained unyielding, leading many to seek freedom through the Underground Railroad...
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Nathan “Nearest” Green: The Enslaved African Who Taught Jack Daniel the Art of Whiskey

Nathan “Nearest” Green is one of the most influential, yet long-overlooked, figures in the history of American whiskey. Born...
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