History

A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars: The First Autobiography Published by a Former Slave

In 1772, a groundbreaking publication quietly emerged in England: A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince, as Related by Himself. It was the first known autobiography published by...

The Untold Story of Henrietta Duterte: The Woman Who Used Her Mortuary to Help Enslaved Africans Escape Slavery

Henrietta Smith Bowers Duterte was a pioneering African-American funeral home owner, philanthropist, and courageous abolitionist from Philadelphia who turned her profession into a powerful tool of resistance, smuggling freedom through the very rituals meant to honor the dead. She...

Forbidden Sermons: How Black Ministers in America Risked Death to Preach the Gospel During Slavery

During slavery in America, one of the most dangerous acts for a Black person, especially an enslaved one, was to preach the gospel without white supervision. While Christianity was widely promoted among enslaved Africans by white slaveholders, it was...

Babemba Traoré: The African King Who Died Defending His City Against French Colonial Forces in 1898

In the late 19th century, as the French empire aggressively expanded across West Africa, one Malian king refused to bow to colonial subjugation. His name was Babemba Traoré, the last ruler of the Kénédougou Kingdom. Revered today as a...

Shelburne Riots: The 1784 Race Riot That Targeted the Homes of Formerly Enslaved Africans in Canada

In the summer of 1784, the quiet town of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, was thrown into chaos, not by war or natural disaster, but by a violent, racially charged riot led by white Loyalist settlers. Over several days, mobs looted,...

The Great Hanging of Moshi: How Germany Executed 19 Tanzanian Leaders Who Refused to Bow to Colonial Rule

The Great Hanging at Old Moshi, also known as the Great Chagga Conspiracy, was a mass execution that took place on March 2, 1900, under German colonial rule in what is now northern Tanzania. Nineteen local leaders and noblemen...

Rev Basil Manly Sr.: The 19th-Century Pastor Who Used the Bible to Justify White Ownership of Black Bodies

Basil Manly Sr. was more than a Southern preacher, he was one of the most vocal and influential theological defenders of American slavery. A prominent Baptist minister, university president, and the author of the infamous Alabama Resolutions, Manly’s beliefs...

The Battle of Annual: How Spain Lost Over 13,000 Troops in Its Worst Military Defeat in Africa

On 22 July 1921, in the mountainous terrain of northeastern Morocco, the Spanish Empire suffered its most devastating military defeat in modern history, the Battle of Annual. Fought between the Spanish Army and the Riffian Berbers during the Rif...

Rudolf Duala Manga Bell: The African King Executed by Germany for Standing Against the Displacement of His People

Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, was a visionary monarch, legal strategist, and resistance leader who was executed on August 8, 1914, for opposing Germany’s plan to seize ancestral lands and forcibly displace his people to make way for a European-only...

Rev. James Thornwell: The Pastor Who Preached Slavery as God’s Will and Called Abolitionists Enemies of Christianity

Rev. James Henley Thornwell was a prominent 19th-century Presbyterian pastor who believed that slavery was morally right and fully justified by the teachings of Christianity. A staunch supporter of the Confederacy, Thornwell argued that those who opposed slavery, particularly...
- Advertisement -

Latest News

Seay J. Miller: The Black Man Lynched in 1893 by a White Mob of 5,000 Over a False Murder Accusation

On the evening of July 7, 1893, the small town of Bardwell, Kentucky, became the stage for one of...
- Advertisement -