An Online Reference Guide to African American History
Quintard Taylor
Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History
University of Washington, Seattle
An Online Reference Guide to African American History
Quintard Taylor
Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History
University of Washington, Seattle
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Olaudah Equiano, whose father was an Ibo chief, was born in 1745 in what is now Southern Nigeria.
Born on August 15, 1875 to a physician from Sierra Leone and an Englishwoman, musical composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor grew-up in Holborn, England. He revealed his musical talents at the age of five, began studying the violin at the age of seven, and entered the Royal College of Music in London at the age of fifteen. By the mid-1890s, due largely to his association with the African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunb
Juan Latino, or Juan de Sesa as he was actually named, was an Afro-Hispanic poet in Renaissance Spain who taught at the Cathedral school in Granada and became famous for his epic Latin poems. A native of BerberÍa, a Spanish term associated with the Northern Coast of Africa, Latino was brought to Spain at the age of twelve.
Alessandro de' Medici, called “Il Moro” (“The Moor”), was born in the Italian city of Urbino in 1510. His mother was an African slave named Simonetta who had been freed. Alessandro’s paternity is uncertain. Most sources name Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Urbino.
Sold into Turkish slavery, Abram Petrovich Hannibal was brought as a black servant to Czar Peter I, known as Peter the Great. He became one of the royal favorites, a general-in-chief and one of the best educated men in Russia. His great-grandson was Alexander Pushkin, the famous Russian writer who later glorified the deeds of his black ancestor in his book, The Negro of Peter the Great.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was a mulatto born in the French colony of Saint Domingue. He joined the French Army as a private and rose to the rank of a General during the French Revolution. Dumas is probably best known for fathering the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas (père). 
Joseph de Bologne was born December 25, 1745 on a plantation near Basse-Terre, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. His mother was Anne Nanon, slave-mistress of his father, the nobleman George de Bologne de Saint-Georges. He was educated in France, where his father became Gentleman of the King's Chamber.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century classical violinist George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower is perhaps now best remembered for his association with Ludwig von Beethoven, who composed his Kreutzer Sonata for the young Afro-European musician, and personally performed the sonata for violin and piano with Bridgetower.
In 1925 Josephine Baker took Paris by storm appearing on stage in “La Revue Negre” wearing nothing but a skirt of artificial bananas in Danse Sauvage. Born Josephine Freda MacDonald in St. Louis Missouri on June 3, 1906, she was nicknamed “Tumpy” because she was a chubby baby. Her mother, Carrie MacDonald was part black and part Apalachee Indian, while her father Eddie Carson was part black and part Spanish.
Yvette M.
P. Carlson, "American Aphrodite: From Modeling to TV to Politics,
Yvette Jarvis Is a Goddess in Her Adopted Homeland of Greece,
Washington Post, August 16, 2004, p. C01,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3846-2004Aug15.html;
"Yvette Jarvis," Euro-American Women’s Council (2008);
http://www.eawc.org/?q=YJarvis; "Yvette Jarvis to join PASOK ticket for
Athens municipal polls," Athens News Agency, May 11, 2002,
http://www.greekembassy.org/Embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=5&fol...
Now known as an upscale tourist destination, few people realize that Saltspring Island, British Columbia was seen as a land of freedom and of opportunity for many blacks in the mid-19th Century. It was a new frontier where blacks were granted rights by the British that had been denied to them in the United States.
R. W. Sandwell, Contesting Rural Space: Land Policy and the Practices of Resettlement on Saltspring Island, 1859-1891 (Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005); Crawford Kilian, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, Publishers, 1978).
Ira Frederick Aldridge was the first African American actor to achieve success on the international stage, performing before Kings and Queens all over Europe, becoming known as the preeminent Shakespearean actor and tragedian of the 19th Century. He was born in Maryland. His father, a lay preacher, sent him to the African Free School in New York. Young Ira was attracted to the African Grove Theatre, the first ever black theatre founded by William Henry Brown in 1821.Born on August 15, 1875 to a physician from Sierra Leone and an Englishwoman, musical composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor grew-up in Holborn, England. He revealed his musical talents at the age of five, began studying the violin at the age of seven, and entered the Royal College of Music in London at the age of fifteen. By the mid-1890s, due largely to his association with the African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunb
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was a mulatto born in the French colony of Saint Domingue. He joined the French Army as a private and rose to the rank of a General during the French Revolution. Dumas is probably best known for fathering the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas (père). Eighteenth and nineteenth century classical violinist George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower is perhaps now best remembered for his association with Ludwig von Beethoven, who composed his Kreutzer Sonata for the young Afro-European musician, and personally performed the sonata for violin and piano with Bridgetower.
Dr. Paul Freeman was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1936 and grew up there. He studied both clarinet and cello and then earned a Ph.D. at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A Fulbright Grant enabled him to continue his studies in Berlin. Freeman is Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, which he founded in 1987 to achieve, in the words of its mission, "Musical Excellence Through Diversity." The Chicago Sinfonietta is the official orchestra of the Joffrey Ballet. BlackPast.org is an independent non-profit corporation 501(c)(3). It has no affiliation with nor is it endorsed by the University of Washington. BlackPast.org is supported in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a state-wide non-profit organization supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Washington, and contributions from individuals and foundations.