Legally freed from slavery by the owner.
| Name | Occupation | Birth | Death | Known for |
|---|
| Aesop |
Author |
c. 620 BC |
c. 560 BC |
Purported author of Fables |
| Richard Allen |
Religion |
14-Feb-1760 |
26-Mar-1831 |
Founder, African Episcopal Methodist Church |
| Anton Wilhelm Amo |
Philosopher |
1703 |
1784 |
First European-educated African philosopher |
| Joseph Cinqué |
Activist |
c. 1813 |
c. 1879 |
Led the Amistad slave rebellion |
| Epictetus |
Philosopher |
c. 55 AD |
c. 135 AD |
Stoic, wrote Encheiridion |
| Harriet Ann Jacobs |
Author |
1813 |
7-Mar-1897 |
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
| Toussaint L'Ouverture |
Military |
20-May-1743 |
7-Apr-1803 |
Led the 1791 Slave Rebellion |
| James Armistead Lafayette |
Spy |
10-Dec-1748 |
9-Aug-1830 |
American spy during the Revolution |
| John R. Lynch |
Politician |
10-Sep-1847 |
2-Nov-1939 |
Congressman from Mississippi |
| James C. Napier |
Government |
9-Jun-1845 |
21-Apr-1940 |
Founder of Nashville One-Cent Savings Bank |
| Juan de Pareja |
Painter |
c. 1606 |
1670 |
Velázquez's slave turned painter |
| Phaedrus |
Author |
c. 15 BC |
50 AD |
Roman fabulist |
| Joseph Rainey |
Politician |
21-Jun-1832 |
1-Aug-1887 |
Congressman from South Carolina, 1870-79 |
| Dred Scott |
Victim |
c. 1799 |
17-Sep-1858 |
Slave denied freedom by US Supreme Court |
| Robert Smalls |
Politician |
5-Apr-1839 |
23-Feb-1915 |
Slave elected to Congress from South Carolina |
| Terence |
Playwright |
c. 195 BC |
c. 159 BC |
Comic playwright of Ancient Rome |
| Josiah Walls |
Politician |
30-Dec-1842 |
15-May-1905 |
Congressman from Florida, 1871-76 |
| Booker T. Washington |
Educator |
5-Apr-1856 |
14-Nov-1915 |
Founder, Tuskegee Institute |
| Phillis Wheatley |
Poet |
c. 1743 |
5-Dec-1784 |
First prominent African-American poet |
| George Henry White |
Politician |
18-Dec-1852 |
28-Dec-1918 |
Congressman from North Carolina, 1897-1901 |
