William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on (February 23, 1868? he was an American civil rights activist,Pan-Africanist,sociologist,historian,author, and editor. He grew up in Great Barrington, a predominately Anglo American town. His Mother, Mary Silvina Burghardt's family was part of the very small free black population of Great Barrington, having long owned land in the state. ...

Ignatius Sancho was the first African prose writer whose work was published in England. Ignatius Sancho was the first African prose writer whose work was published in England. A former slave and renowned shopkeeper, Sancho came to England at the age of two, it was 1731. The Duke of Montague made him presents of books to ...

Joseph Knight was a slave born in Africa and sold in Jamaica to a Scottish owner. He was taken to Scotland in 1769. Three years later a ruling in England (see Somersett's Case) cast doubt on the legality of slavery under the common law. Assuming this applied to the rest of Britain he demanded wages ...

Sarah Forbes was a Yoruba girl captured by the King of Dahomey in 1848 during a war in which her parents were killed. She was given as a present to Commander Forbes when he was visited Dahomey as an emissary of the British Government in 1850, and she subsequently took Forbes' name as well as ...

Francis Barber was a servant and companion to the writer Samuel Johnson.? Francis Barber was born in Jamaica around 1735. He came to Britain with a planter from the island. For one year he went to school in the small village of Barton nr Darlington in Yorkshire England. Then, as he got older he entered the ...

Olaudah Equiano, later to be known as (Gustavus Vassa) was born in what is Today Nigeria, kidnapped from his African village at the age of eleven, and sold to a Virginia planter. He was later bought by a British naval Officer, Captain Pascal, as a present for his cousins in London. Equiano bought his freedom after ten ...

Examiner.com 1492-1493- A black navigator, Pedro Alonso Nino, travels with Christopher Columbus 1494- The first Africans arrive in Hispaniola (current day Haiti - Dominican Republic) with Christopher Columbus. They are free persons. 1501- The Spanish king allows the introduction of enslaved African into Spain 1511-The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola. 1513-Thirty African accompany Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his ...

Julius Soubise was unusual for a Black man living at his time. He led an extremely privileged lifestyle. He came to England from the West Indies, carried by Captain Stair Douglas of the Royal Navy. Catherine Hyde, the Duchess of Queensberry met Soubise and persuaded the Captain to part with him as she found the boy ...

Ottobah Cuggano was born around 1757 in Ghana, he was kidnapped as a slave at around thirteen. He came to England from ...

A reading list of books related to the ongoing black presence in Britain, Slavery, colonialism and black Settlement in the U.K The list is by no means exhaustive! Staying ...