Nineteenth Century Europe
Napoleon in Egypt, Part 2
Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign was a military disaster,* but the Army of the Orient wasn’t the only army that Napoleon brought with him to Egypt. A commission of some 160 savants–scientists, artists, engineers, and scholars–accompanied the invading army, bringing with them virtually every book on Egypt available, dozens of crates of scientific instruments and a printing…
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Shin-Kickers From History: Olaudah Equiano
Most accounts of the slave trade were written by slave traders, or by people dedicated to abolishing the slave trade. Few accounts were written by the slaves themselves. One important exception is The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, published in 1789. Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in what is now Nigeria. When he was…
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Déjà Vu All Over Again: Grass Roots Organizing And the Abolition of the Slave Trade
The first popular political movement to use the techniques of what we call grass roots organizing was the movement to abolish the slave trade in the eighteenth century. The Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, were the first group to take a public stand against slavery and the slave trade, even though Quakers…
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