*On this date, 1600, the East India Company (EIC) was founded. This Slave labor business was an English, and later British, joint-stock company. The East India Company was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the […]
learn more*The White Lion slave ship is affirmed on this date in 1604. This was an English pirate operating under a Dutch letter of marque during the middle passage. The ship brought the first Africans to the English colony of Virginia in 1619, a year before the arrival of the Mayflower in New England. Though the African captives were sold as […]
learn more*The birth of Anthony Johnson is celebrated on this date in 1606. He was an African slave and farmer and one of the first Black property owners in colonial America. He was a tobacco farmer in Maryland and had his right to legally own a slave recognized by the Virginia courts. There is no information […]
learn more*The Virginia Company of London was chartered on this date in 1606. This was a slave-trading business and refers collectively to two joint-stock companies. They were chartered during the middle passage under James I of England to establish settlements on the coast of North America. The two companies are referred to as the “Virginia Company of London” […]
learn more*On this date in 1607, the Virginia Company of London settled on Jamestown Island as the place to build their fort in America. Also called the London Company, it was an English joint-stock company. It was established in 1606 by a royal charter by King James I to establish colonial settlements in North America. In […]
learn more*The Headright Property System in America began on this date in 1618. A headright refers to a legal grant of land given to settlers during the European colonization of the Americas. Headright is most notable for its role in expanding the Thirteen Colonies; the Virginia Company gave headright to settlers, and the Plymouth Company followed. […]
learn more*The Dutch West India Company was founded on this date in 1621. They were a chartered company of Dutch merchants, slave traffickers, and foreign investors. Among its founders were Willem Usselincx and Jessé de Forest. The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands granted it a charter for a trade monopoly in the Dutch West Indies and gave […]
learn more*On this date in 1626, the charter of Compagnie de Saint-Christophe was affirmed. This slave-trading company was chartered by France to exploit the island of Saint-Christophe, which is present-day Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 1625, a Pierre Bélain sieur d’Esnambuc, landed on Saint-Christophe with slaves. Returning to France in 1626, he applied to and received […]
learn more*Edward Colston was born on this date in 1636. He was a white-English philanthropist, merchant, slave trader, and Member of Parliament. Edward Colston was the youngest of at least 15 children from Bristol, England. His parents were William Colston, a prosperous merchant High Sheriff of Bristol in 1643, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Edward Batten. He was brought up […]
learn more*The birth of John Cabess is affirmed on this date in c. 1640. He was an African slave trader and merchant. John Cabess (also known as John Kabes or John Cabes) was the son of John Cabessa, a prominent African official working for the British at Fort Amsterdam in the 1660s. His father was most noted in […]
learn more*On this date in 1649, we affirm the Swedish Africa Company (SAC). They were a Swedish slave trading company founded by the Walloon-Dutch merchant Louis De Geer and his son Laurens. The company’s primary interest was the trade on the Swedish Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. History In 1648, De Geer’s charter on exporting Swedish copper ended. […]
learn more*The Swedish African slave trade began on this date in 1650. This was a business venture that many white European countries involved with the Middle Passage. In the mid-17th century, Sweden established trading stations along the West African coast, with bases in an area called the Swedish Gold Coast, which is today part of Ghana. Sweden and […]
learn more*On this Indigenous Peoples Day, the 1662 founding of the Royal African Company (RAC) is briefly examined. This was an Irish/English commercial slave trading company set up by the royal Stuart family and the City of London to trade along the west coast of Africa. It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother of Charles II and later took the throne as James […]
learn more*The French West India Company was founded on this date in 1664. It was a French trading company that participated in the Middle Passage. It was created some three months before Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s foundation of its eastern company. The company received the French possessions of the Atlantic coasts of Africa and America and was granted […]
learn more*The Danish West India Company was formed on this date in 1671. This was a Dano-Norwegian chartered slave-trading business that operated out of the colonies during the Middle Passage in the Danish West Indies. Originally the Danish Africa Company, it was started in Glückstadt by Finnish Hendrik Carloff, two Dutchmen, and two German merchants. Their […]
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