Anna Maria Weems is best known as an enslaved person who gained her freedom with a daring escape from slavery. Weems was born into slavery about 1840 in Maryland to John and Arabella Talbot Weems. Her father was a free man of color, but her … Read MoreAnna Maria Weems (1840-?)
Thomas Fuller, often called “the Virginia Calculator,” was born in 1710, somewhere between the “Slave Coast” of West Africa (present-day Liberia) and the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Benin). When the pre-colonial scramble for slaves replaced the earlier trade in gold, Fuller was snatched from his … Read MoreThomas Fuller (1710-1790)
Porto-Novo, meaning “New Port” in Portuguese, became the official capital of the West African country of Benin in 1960. In 2002 it had an estimated population of 223,552 people. Porto-Novo is located in the southeastern part of the country on an inlet of the Gulf … Read MorePorto-Novo, Benin (16th Century- )
Harriet Robinson Scott was an enslaved person who is best remembered for being the second wife of Dred Scott. Harriet was born a slave on a Virginia plantation around 1820. From a young age she was a servant to Lawrence Taliaferro, a US Indian Agent. … Read MoreHarriet Robinson Scott (ca. 1820-1876)
Libreville is the largest city and capital of Gabon, a small country on the western coast of Africa. In 2005 its population was 578,156. It is a tropical city that has a port on the Komo River. The city is the trading center for the … Read MoreLibreville, Gabon (1848- )
Nanny, known as Granny Nanny, Grandy Nanny, and Queen Nanny was a Maroon leader and Obeah woman in Jamaica during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Maroons were slaves in the Americas who escaped and formed independent settlements. Nanny herself was an escaped slave … Read MoreQueen Nanny of the Maroons (? – 1733)
The brief entry for “Dorcas the blackmore” that appears in the Records of the First Church at Dorchester in New England, 1636-1734 suggests that Dorcas may have been one of the first enslaved persons to be freed in British North America. On April 13, 1641, … Read MoreDorcas the blackmore (ca. 1620-?)
Educator Mary Jane Patterson is considered to be the first African American woman to receive a B.A. when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. A fellow Oberlin alumnus, Lucy Stanton Day Sessions, graduated twelve years earlier but was not in a program that awarded … Read MoreMary Jane Patterson (1840-1894)
Fredrick McGhee, a founding member of the Niagara Movement, was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1861. He was freed in 1864 as Union forces marched through the northeastern part of the state. McGhee’s parents helped make it possible for him to attend a United … Read MoreFredrick L. McGhee (1861-1912)
Belinda Royall, whose name appears in some documents as Royalle, was born in 1712 in Ghana, Africa. She was kidnapped from her home near the Volta River when she was 12 years old. Her description of her abduction captured in an 1783 petition vividly describes … Read MoreBelinda Royall (1712-?)
