Aruba, officially known as the Country of Aruba, is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, situated in the south of the Caribbean Sea. Aruba is located approximately 29 kilometres (18 mi) north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná and 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Curaçao.
Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a Lesser Antilles island in the southern Caribbean Sea and Dutch Caribbean region, about 65 km (40 mi) north of Venezuela. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Papiamento or Papiamentu is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands.
Oranjestad, the capital and most populous of Aruba's eight regions, is located on the southwestern coast of the island. In Papiamento, the local language, Oranjestad is commonly referred to as "Playa" by the locals.
The culture of Aruba, encompassing its language, music, and cuisine, is diverse and has been influenced by both regional and foreign cultures. One significant foreign influence originates from the Iberian Peninsula, which had a significant impact on the island for approximately 137 years, starting c. 1500. These influences were characaterized by a strong religious presence, missionary activities, and economic exploitation.
William Cabell Rives was an American lawyer, planter, politician and diplomat from Virginia. Initially a Jackson Democrat as well as member of the First Families of Virginia, Rives served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing first Nelson County, then Albemarle County, Virginia, before service in both the U.S. House and Senate. Rives also served two separate terms as U.S. Minister to France. During the Andrew Jackson administration, Rives negotiated a treaty whereby the French agreed to pay the U.S. for spoliation claims from the Napoleonic Wars. During the American Civil War, Rives became a Delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and the Confederate House of Representatives.
The Berbice slave uprising was a slave revolt in Guyana that began on 23 February 1763 and lasted to December, with leaders including Coffy. The first major slave revolt in South America, it is seen as a major event in Guyana's anti-colonial struggles, and when Guyana became a republic in 1970 the state declared 23 February as a day to commemorate the start of the Berbice slave revolt.
The history of Curaçao starts with settlement by the Arawaks, an Amerindian people coming from the South American mainland. They are believed to have inhabited the island for many hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans.
The institution of slavery in North America existed from the earliest years of the colonial history of the United States until 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States except as punishment for a crime. It was also abolished among the sovereign Indian tribes in Indian Territory by new peace treaties which the US required after the Civil War.
Lily Ann Granderson (1816-1889), was an American educator. She was born a slave in Virginia in 1816. She has also been known as Milla Granderson. She was a pioneering educator who taught other enslaved people how to read and influenced the founding of Jackson State University.
Tuckahoe, also known as Tuckahoe Plantation, or Historic Tuckahoe is located in Tuckahoe, Virginia on Route 650 near Manakin Sabot, Virginia, overlapping both Goochland and Henrico counties, six miles from the town of the same name. Built in the first half of the 18th century, it is a well-preserved example of a colonial plantation house and is particularly distinctive as a colonial prodigy house. Thomas Jefferson is also recorded as having spent some of his childhood here. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1969.
The caves of Aruba, located on the windward side within the Arikok National Park, comprise notable formations such as Quadirikiri Cave, Fontein Cave, and Huliba Cave. These subterranean environments serve as habitats for a variety of nocturnal bats, including insectivores and frugivores. The presence of these bats species is of ecological importance, contributing to the preservation of Aruba's biodiversity. Their role in controlling insect populations and aiding in pollination underscores their significance within the island's ecosystem.
Slavery in Virginia began with the capture and enslavement of Native Americans during the early days of the English Colony of Virginia and through the late eighteenth century. They primarily worked in tobacco fields. Africans were first brought to colonial Virginia in 1619, when 20 Africans from present-day Angola arrived in Virginia aboard the ship The White Lion.
Alette Beaujon was a Dutch poet and psychologist from the Netherlands Antilles. Born in Curaçao and later living in the Netherlands and Aruba, she published poems in Dutch, English and Papiamento, while working as a clinical psychologist. A collection of her unpublished poems were discovered after her death and released in 2009.
Winney Grimshaw was an enslaved African-American woman at the Mount Airy Plantation in Richmond County, Virginia. The Grimshaws are one of the most well-documented enslaved families who lived at Mount Airy. Though the Grimshaws were a well-regarded enslaved family at Mount Airy, their enslaver still dissolved her family ties.
Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim was a Dutch governor of the colony of Berbice. During his rule, the Berbice Slave Uprising took place.
Sarah Johnson was an African American woman who was born into slavery at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate in Fairfax, Virginia. She worked as a domestic, cleaning and caring for the residence. During the process, she became an informal historian of all of the mansion's furnishings. After the end of the Civil War, she was hired by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, ultimately becoming a council member of the organization. She bought four acres of Mount Vernon land to establish a small farm. The book Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon (2008) tells the story of her life within the complex community of people who inhabited Mount Vernon.
Marriage of enslaved people in the United States was generally not legal before the American Civil War (1861–1865). Enslaved African Americans were considered chattel legally, and they were denied human or civil rights until the United States abolished slavery with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Both state and federal laws denied, or rarely defined, rights for enslaved people.
The plantations of Sint Eustatius were primarily set up in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by European settlers. Workers on the plantations were obtained from human trafficking, and the proceeds primarily went back to the mother country. In the second half of the eighteenth century, trade became more of a priority to Sint Eustatius rather than the plantation economy.
The discovery of guano on Klein Curaçao by John Godden in 1871, sparked a "guano mania" across the Antillean islands, including Curaçao. In 1874, J. H. Waters Gravenhorst is credited with the discovery of guano in Aruba, although an earlier interest was shown by an American named S.R. Kimball in 1859. The exact outcome of Kimball's efforts remains uncertain. This ultimately led to the incorporation of a limited company on Curaçao, known as Aruba Phosphate Company on December 18, 1879.
