History

Throughout the antebellum era, slave breeding was a highly profitable investment. Slaves were scarce. The cheap labor they provided in plantations wasn’t cheap anymore and slave children sold like wildfire. The couple of years following the prohibition of slave importation...

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas is the first ever black man to lead a European army. He was the first person of color in the French military to become brigadier general, the first to become divisional general, and the first to become general-in-chief of a French army.

Ogbidi Okojie, king of Uromi was a ruler of the Esan people in what is now present day Edo State in Nigeria, he is well known all over Esan land for his opposition to British rule.

Ana Joaquina dos Santos y Silva also referred to as Dona Ana Mulata was a rich entrepreneur who was very active in the transatlantic slave trade business. She is perhaps the biggest slave trader in Angola in the 1830's.

In 1898, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, or Mbuya Nehanda as she was known, was a powerful spirit medium, and heroine of the First Chimurenga, the revolt against the British South Africa Company in Matabeleland.

Slavery in the United States wasn’t abolished at the federal level until after the Civil War, but on this day in history, May 18, 1652, the first anti-slavery statute in the U.S. colonies was passed in what’s now the state of Rhode Island.

The decades between 1907 and 1963 was a stretch of existential horror in the United States for people who were considered poor. Their existence was perceived as a kind of pollution, and the best way to ensure their weak seeds don’t germinate into mistakes like them was to sterilize them clean of their ability to reproduce.

Orompoto or Orompotoniyun as she’s more commonly referred to was the first woman to become Alaafin of Oyo in the imperial era. Orompoto assumed the throne because there was no adult male successor within her family at the time. The Oyo...

Although French and African historians have unearthed volumes of evidence of colonial crimes, French leaders have consistently denied and attempted to conceal this black chapter of history. These African countries are still pursuing restitution of the French army’s crimes and...

From the Umoja community in Northern Kenya to the small rural community of Arnado Debbo in Niger state, Nigeria. These here are three African communities with long-standing traditions where to be a woman is superior.