Definitions

Titus Andronicus is the earliest tragedy by William Shakespeare (l. c.1564-1616), probably written sometime between 1589 and 1593, and first performed in 1594. Infamous for its gratuitous violence and two-dimensional characters, Titus Andronicus...

Phillis Wheatley (l. c. 1753-1784) was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry and become recognized as a poet, overcoming the prevailing understanding of the time that a Black person was incapable of writing, much less...

Lebensraum ('living space'), is a geopolitical concept which was adopted by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the leader of Nazi Germany, to justify the military domination of Central and Eastern Europe, and then the USSR. Hitler promised that Lebensraum...

Mary Prince (l. c. 1788 to c. 1833) was the first enslaved Black woman to publish an autobiography/slave narrative. Prince was illiterate but dictated her life story to the writer Susanna Strickland (l. 1803-1885), published in 1831 as The...

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare (c. 1564-1616), written in 1610 or 1611, and first performed for the court of James I of England (r. 1603-1625) on 2 November 1611. Believed to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote on his own...

The Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in southwest France was the murder on 10 June 1944 of 643 civilian men, women, and children by the Waffen SS during the Second World War (1939-45). The massacre and the razing to the ground of the village was...

Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare (l. c. 1564-1616), written between 1600 and 1601 and first performed on 2 February 1602. As suggested by the title's allusion to Twelfth Night – the night before...

The 1811 German Coast Uprising (8-11 January 1811) was the largest slave revolt in US history involving between 300-500 enslaved and free Blacks in the Louisiana parishes of St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Jefferson in the Territory...

Gabriel's Rebellion (30 August 1800) was a carefully planned slave revolt in Virginia orchestrated by the literate slave blacksmith Gabriel (l. c. 1776-1800), property of one Thomas Prosser, and so referred to as Gabriel Prosser. The plans...

The Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato's Rebellion or Cato's Conspiracy, 9 September 1739) was the largest slave revolt in the British colonies of North America. Led by an educated slave, Cato (also known as Jemmy), enslaved Black people...