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Moments in time is an archive of historical events, people and places.
Onesimus was an enslaved West African man whose African teachings helped to reduce the impact of the smallpox outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts. Little is known about Onesimus before he was enslaved other than he was Coromantee (also known as Akan people from modern Ghana). Like many enslaved people his original name, age and date of …
You’ve heard of Rosa Parks, but what do you know of Claudette Colvin? Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette did the exact same thing. Early life Claudette Austin was born in Birmingham, Jefferson County, to Mary Jane Gadson and C P Austin …
What is Juneteenth? Juneteenth is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It is observed annually on 19 June. It is also called Emancipation Day, or Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day. The term Juneteenth is a combination of the words June and nineteenth. History of Juneteenth During the American Civil …
When the English took over the colonisation of Jamaica from the Spanish, they imported thousands of Africans as slaves to work on plantations of wealthy Englishmen. Like other colonised islands, the slaves rebelled regularly. The most well-known Jamaican slave rebellions are the 1831 Christmas rebellion, led by Samuel Sharpe and the Maroon Wars led …
Jamaican Maroons were escaped African slaves who had run away from Spanish owned plantations when the British took the Caribbean Island of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. They fled to the mountainous areas of Jamaica, where it was difficult for their owners to follow and catch them. There they formed independent communities as free men …
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) was a prominent Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary who played a crucial role in leading the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. As Ghana’s first Prime Minister and later President, Nkrumah championed pan-Africanism and was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity. His socialist and nationalist policies …
The partition of India on 15 August 1947 resulted in the creation of India and Pakistan, two separate states divided along religious lines. This decision was made by the British government, which sought to withdraw from the region after centuries of colonial rule. However, the consequences of partition were dire, with widespread violence, displacement, and …
The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. Death and discrimination Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in voting based on race, efforts by civil rights organisations such as the Student …
Here are seven Caribbean and American women who were abolitionists, revolutionaries and activists. These women fought to free their people from the chains of slavery, discrimination and the lasting effects of slavery. Some took up arms, some used strategy and some used the pen. The women discussed in this video are: Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth …
The history of Scotland’s involvement in the slave trade is a complex and often overlooked aspect of the nation’s past. Between 1500 and 1860, Europeans enslaved over 12 million West Africans and forcibly deported them to the Americas. Britain was the second biggest slaving nation after Portugal, selling three million African people into slavery. The …
Flore Bois Gaillard was a St Lucian runaway slave who led a band of free slaves called ‘Armée Française Dans Les Bois (French Army in the Woods). The life of Flore Bois Gaillard Flore Bois Gaillard was an enslaved biracial woman owned by a man known as Master Bellac. For several years she worked on …
Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile is notable as part of the Haitian Revolution. While there is much written about the men of the Haitian Revolution, not much is known or written about the women who helped to emancipate the people of the island. Born near Cap-Francais (now Cap-Hattian) to enslaved parents, we rely on oral history …
In February 1965, civil rights campaigner Malcolm X was in Britain to speak at the London School of Economics. Avtar Singh Jouhl, general secretary of the Indian Workers Association, invited him to speak at Birmingham University and visit Smethwick, a small town in the West Midlands, UK. Smethwick was a hotbed of racial tension. Just …
On Sunday 18 January 1981 a fire broke out in a house in New Cross Road, Deptford, South East London, killing 13 young people and marking a massive change for black people in Britain. Thirteen people died in the New Cross fire and another, committed suicide 18 months later in July 1983, aged 20, having …
Most people believe that black people came to Britain after the Second World War with the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948. But Black people have had a presence in Britain for as far back as Roman times. Even closer in history, there were Blacks in Britain during and after slavery. If white British …
0n 5 December 1492, European navigator Christopher Columbus came upon an island in the Caribbean that he claimed for Spain and called La Isla Española (“The Spanish Island”, later Anglicised as Hispaniola). Haiti colonised by Spain Spain colonised the island and enslaved the native Taino and Ciboney people. Forced to mine gold under brutal working …
Samuel Sharpe instigates a rebellion On 27 December 1831, the Christmas Rebellion began at the Kensington Estate in St James, Jamaica. Samuel Sharpe was the main instigator of the 1831 Slave Rebellion. Although he was a slave, he was also a leader of the native Baptists in Montego Bay. This enabled him to travel and …
Britain’s 1919 race riots started at the end of the First World War starting with an outbreak of violence in Glasgow in January, race riots happened around the United Kingdom until late in the summer, including in Liverpool, Hull, Cardiff, Salford, Newport and South Shields. There were several outbreaks in the East End of London, …
Charles Wotten was a 24-year-old ship’s fireman from Bermuda who was murdered by an angry white mob during the Liverpool race riots of 1919. What led to Charles Wotten’s murder? Since the 16th century, the Black presence in London and Liverpool had been noticeable but Liverpool’s Black population grew dramatically during the war as Black …
Queen Anna Nzinga was a 17th-century African ruler who ruled the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in Angola and fought against the slave trade and European influence in Angola. Anna Nzinga was born in 1581 in Kabasa, the capital of the Kingdom of Ndongo, which was ruled by a Mbundu-speaking people called …
Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-1797) was an eighteenth-century African writer whose experiences as a slave prompted him to become involved in the British abolition movement. Early years Equiano was born in c1745 in what is now Nigeria to an Ibo chief. He was captured by slave traders and sold into slavery at the age of 11. He …
Altheia Jones-LeCointe, a Trinidadian physician, research scientist, and political activist, is known for her significant role in the Black Power Movement in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. Her dedication to fighting racial injustice and promoting equality has impacted British society and the global struggle for civil rights. Early life and education Born in 1945 in Port …
What is Notting Hill Carnival? Notting Hill Carnival is a 3-day annual event that takes place on the streets of Notting Hill during late August bank holiday weekend. It’s a huge tourist attraction and an opportunity for everyone to come together and enjoy music, parades, food and other aspects of black culture. The carnival follows …
The Great Migration, also known as the Great Northward Migration or the Black Migration, was a significant event in American history that changed the demographic and cultural landscape of the United States. Between 1916 and 1970, this mass movement saw over 6 million African Americans relocate from the rural South to the North, Midwest, and …
