History

Zappo Zaps: The Mercenaries Who Enforced King Leopold’s Deadly Rubber Quota in the Congo Free State

From 1885 to 1908, DR Congo was transformed into a massive forced labor camp. This territory, then known as the Congo Free State, was unlike any other colony in Africa. It wasn’t controlled by a government or a European...

Kadungure Mapondera: The African Chief Who Led an Uprising Against British Rule and Paid With His Life

Chief Kadungure Mapondera was a Shona leader who led one of the most determined early armed uprisings against British colonial domination in the early 20th century. At a time when much of the region today known as Zimbabwe was...

Duluth lynchings: How a White Girl’s False Accusation Led to the Lynching of Three Black Circus Workers in 1920

On the night of June 15, 1920, a white mob in Duluth, Minnesota, dragged three African-American circus workers from jail, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, and lynched them in front of thousands. The men had been falsely...

George Whitefield: The English Preacher Who Funded His Orphanage by Enslaving Africans on His Plantation

George Whitefield is remembered as one of the most influential preachers of the 18th century. A co-founder of Methodism alongside John and Charles Wesley and a major force in the First Great Awakening, Whitefield’s legacy is often told as...

King Béhanzin: The African Monarch who was Banished for Resisting France’s Conquest of His Kingdom

King Béhanzin, born Kondo and later known as Gbehanzin, was the eleventh monarch of the Kingdom of Dahomey, modern-day Benin. He is remembered as the last independent ruler of his kingdom, and one of West Africa’s most rebellious leaders...

Remembering Ruth First: The Woman Who Was Assassinated by South African Police for Opposing Apartheid

Ruth First was a journalist, activist, and scholar who dedicated her life to exposing the cruelty of apartheid in South Africa. Unafraid to challenge the regime, she used words as weapons against injustice. Her bold resistance made her a...

Alexander Falconbridge: The Slave Ship Surgeon Who Turned Against Slavery

In the 1780s, Alexander Falconbridge, a British surgeon, made several voyages aboard slave ships along the West African coast. Initially employed to care for the crew and captives, Falconbridge later turned into one of the most effective voices against...

Tula Rigaud: The Freedom Fighter Tortured to Death for Leading the 1795 Curaçao Slave Revolt

Tula Rigaud, known simply as Tula, was an enslaved African man on the Dutch-controlled island of Curaçao who courageously led one of the most significant slave uprisings in the Caribbean during the 18th century. His resistance against the brutal...

Waruhiu Itote: The Mau Mau Leader Who Was Sentenced to Death for Resisting British Rule in Kenya

In the long and bitter fight against British colonialism in Kenya, the name General China stands out as both a symbol of rebellion and a figure of deep controversy. Born Waruhiu Itote in 1922 in Kaheti village, Nyeri District,...

From Stono to Nat Turner: These Are the 10 Most Explosive Slave Rebellions in U.S. History

Throughout the brutal centuries of American slavery, resistance was as common as the oppression itself. Enslaved Africans did not passively accept their bondage; they rebelled, sometimes in open defiance, other times in carefully organized revolts that struck at the...
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Le Rôdeur Massacre: The French Slave Ship That Drowned 36 Enslaved Africans for Insurance Money

The Le Rôdeur massacre was the deliberate drowning of 36 enslaved African people by the crew of the French...
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