People, Locations, Episodes

The First Rhode Island Infantry is Formed

On this date in 1778, the Black, elite First Rhode Island regiment defeated three assaults by British troops at the battle of Rhode Island (Newport).

The First Rhode Island regiment was the first all-Black unit in America. Most Continental regiments were integrated except this northern regiment.

An Act for The Gradual Abolition Of Slavery is Passed

*An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery passed on this date in 1780. Approved by the Fifth Pennsylvania General Assembly, it prescribed an end to slavery in Pennsylvania. It was the first Act abolishing American slavery in human history to be adopted by a democracy. The Act prohibited further importation of enslaved people into the state. […]

Micanopy, Seminole Chief born

*The birth of Micanopy is celebrated on this date in c. 1780. He was an ally of African slaves and the leading chief of the Seminole during the Second Seminole War. His name was derived from the Hitchiti terms Miko (chief) and naba (above), meaning “high chief” or the like. Micanopy was born near present-day St. Augustine, Florida, sometime around […]

Jean-Baptiste Riché, Soldier and Politician born

*The birth of Jean-Baptiste Riché is celebrated on this date in 1780.  He was a Black Haitian, a career officer, and a politician. Riché was born free, the son of a prominent free black man of the same name in the North Province of Saint-Domingue (the French colony that later became Haiti). His father was […]

America’s Articles of Confederation Are Enacted

*The Articles of Confederation of the United States of America were enacted on this date in 1781. Formally called the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, it was an agreement that served as America’s first constitution after being ratified by all 13 states.  It was approved, between July 1776 and November 1777, by the Second […]

John C. Calhoun, Segregationist born

*John C. Calhoun was born on this date in 1782.  He was a white-American statesman from the Democratic party. John Caldwell Calhoun was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, the fourth child of Patrick Calhoun and Martha Caldwell. Patrick’s father, also named Patrick Calhoun, had joined the Scotch-Irish immigration movement from County Donegal to southwestern Pennsylvania. After the death of his grandfather in 1741, the family moved to […]

Faustin Soulouque, Military Officer and Politician born

*Faustin Soulouque was born on this date in 1782. He was a Black Haitian politician and military commander. Faustin-Élie Soulouque was born in Petit-Goâve, a small town in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, to a slave mother, Marie-Catherine Soulouque. She was a Creole of ethnic Mandinka descent. Soulouque was freed because of a 1793 emancipation decree that […]

Vicente Guerrero, Soldier, and Politician born

*Vicente Guerrero was born on this date in 1783.  He was an Afro Mexican soldier, politician, and abolitionist.  From Tixtla, Mexico Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldana was the son of Juan Pedro Guerrero and María Guadalupe Saldaño.  Guerrero began his military career in 1810 when he joined the independence movement against Spain under José María Morelos. […]

Saint Barthélemy, Swedish Colony is Formed

*On this date, in 1784, the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy was formed. This was a Swedish colonial property during the Middle Passage and existed for nearly a century.   Following problems experienced by early French settlers, Saint Barthélemy was successfully colonized by French mariners in 1763. Attracted by the island’s prosperity during the American Revolutionary War, Gustav […]

Domingo Sosa, Soldier born

*The birth of Domingo Sosa is celebrated on this date in 1784. He was an Afro Argentine soldier who became an army colonel and participated in the Wars of Independence and the Argentine civil war. Born a slave in Buenos Aries, Argentina, with no formal education, he learned to read and write. His parents were […]

Moeshoeshoe I, African Leader born

*The birth of Moshoeshoe I is celebrated on this date, c. 1786. He was a Black South African leader. Moshoeshoe I was born at Menkhoaneng in the northern part of present-day Lesotho, South Africa, under the name Lepoqo. His name’s literal translation is Dispute, which originated from accusations of witchcraft against a man in Mekhoaneng […]

Abraham, Black Seminole Leader born

The birth of Black Seminole warrior Abraham is celebrated on this date in 1787. He was an African Native American soldier and politician.

John Quincy Adams, Politician, and Amistad Counsel born

John Quincy Adams was born on this date in 1767. He was a White American diplomat, politician, opponent of slavery, and the sixth president of the United States.

Adams was born in Braintree, MA, in a part of town which eventually became Quincy. Adams was the son of U. S. President John Adams and Abigail Adams. Much of Adams’ youth was spent overseas accompanying his father, who served as an American envoy to France from 1778 until 1779 and to the Netherlands in 1780. During this period, he was educated at institutions such as the University of Leiden.

The ‘Three-Fifths Compromise’ in America, a story

On this date in 1787, the Three-fifths Compromise was enacted. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia that year accepted a plan determining a state’s representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was ironic that it was a liberal northern delegate, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, who proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, as a way to gain southern support for a new framework of government.

Shaka Zulu, African Monarch born

*Shaka Zulu was born on this date, c. 1787.  Shaka Zulu was a Black South African Monarch and military innovator of the Zulu Nation.    He was born Sigidi kaSenzangakhona near present-day Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal Province. Due to persecution due to his illegitimacy, he spent his childhood in his mother’s settlements, where he was initiated into an ibutho lempi (fighting unit). In his early days, Shaka […]