I’ve seen this doing the rounds on instagram. Unfortunately most of it is ahistorical, which imo does a disservice to all the fascinating historical figures from Africa and the diaspora.

SO have a thread of amazing historical black people who we should be taught about https://twitter.com/lironsie/status/1263899533471252482
On the left is Avram Gannibal, who was adopted by Peter the Great and later became a Russian general. Gannibal was the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin (right), regarded as the father of Russian literature and Russia’s national poet.
This is Mary Seacole who, after the British government refused to allow her to go to Crimea as a nurse, went solo and set up a hospital on her own. A British officer described her bravery in treating the wounded: “she did not spare herself if she could do anything good ...
... for the suffering soldiers. In rain and snow, in storm and tempest, day after day she was at her self-chosen post”
This is Frederick Douglass. Regarded as one of the greatest orators in American history. He was famous for his vigorous campaigning to abolish slavery, having been a slave himself. He also supported equal rights for women, and ran for VP as the first black individual to do so.
(Douglass’ lifestory is really fascinating and you should read up on him more - or better yet, read his books)
On the left is Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, born to a white father and African mother in Haiti. He rose to become General-in-Chief of the French Army.

Thomas-Alexandre also fathered Alexandre Dumas (right), author of the Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers
This is Mansa Musa. Arguably the richest man in history and certainly the richest of the middle ages. As Emperor of Mali, he was famous for giving out so much gold on his hanj to Mecca that he crashed the Egyptian economy.
Finally, this is Toussant L’Ouverture.

He lead the Haitian rebellion against Revolutionary France, eventually leading to Haiti becoming the second ever country in the Americas to win independence from Europe, and arguably the first to properly abolish african slavery.
Apologies for this being almost all men - these were people who I already knew of and I tried to keep it pre-1900. The fact I’ve been doing a history degree for 4 years and can only think of 1 pre-1900 black woman off the top of my head shows how much more we need to teach this
As a late addition to this thread - this is Władysław Jabłonowski. Slightly more obscure, but an interesting example of the degree that black individuals could be accepted in European society in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Jabłonowski was born to an aristocratic Polish mother and an African father - making him extremely unusual amongst examples of mixed-race Europeans, as most pairings were of a white father and black mother.
He attended the French École Militaire, where he was subjected to racist bullying, including allegedly by Napoleon. He later served in the Polish Legion of the French Army, and died of disease in Haiti, fighting the uprising there.
Interestingly, he is mentioned in Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, an epic poem regarded as an early example of Polish nationalistic romanticism.

In it, Jabłonowski is described the “Polish general smiting the negroes, but sighing for his native soil”.
It’s super interesting to me that Mickiewicz chooses to highlight Jabłonowski’s Polishness, opposing it to the “negroes” of Haiti. Perhaps Mickiewicz considered Jabłonowski’s skin colour to be irrelevant to his Polishness?
You can follow @slimsherwood.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: