Tag: black history

Francis Williams: Afro-Caribbean Landowner, Scholar, and Poet

Francis Williams is speculated to have been the first person of African descent to attend Cambridge, although records are contested. A potential subject of a social experiment by the 2nd Duke of Montagu to test whether those of African descent could equal Caucasian intellectual achievements, Williams later established a free school in Jamaica for children of African descent, challenging sociopolitical norms. Despite racism and societal constraints, he left his legacy as a landowner, scholar, poet, and disruptor of racial bias.

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William Brown: Sailor, Adventurer, Woman

While women weren't officially allowed to fully serve in England’s Royal Navy until 1993, there are reports of women dressing as men long before. These women worked alongside male sailors for months, years, and sometimes lifetimes without revealing their gender to their shipmates. Some recognizable women who worked as sailors under these conditions were Anne Jane Thornton (1817-1877) and Mary Lacy (1740-1795). While it’s unclear exactly how many women dressed as men to go venturing on the high seas, some sources say that the first woman of African descent to serve for the Royal Navy was Miss William Brown, birth name unknown.

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Mary Prince: Author, Abolitionist, and Former Slave

Mary Prince was born into slavery in Bermuda. After passing through several slaveowners in the Caribbean, she was taken to England, where she shortly after left her master. She became an abolitionist and autobiographer, her written account being one of the few from women of African descent in the British colonies when slavery was legal.

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