a lawyer and planter from the Northern Neck of Virginia, in what became the United States. For two decades he sat on the Colonial Virginia Governor's Council. After the American Revolutionary War, and influenced by his Baptist faith, Carter began what became the largest manumission and release of enslaved African Americans in North America in the 74 years pr...

a lawyer and planter from the Northern Neck of Virginia, in what became the United States. For two decades he sat on the Colonial Virginia Governor's Council. After the American Revolutionary War, and influenced by his Baptist faith, Carter began what became the largest manumission and release of enslaved African Americans in North America in the 74 years prior to the American Civil War. By a deed of gift filed with Northumberland County on September 5, 1791, and related documents filed in Westmoreland County in subsequent years, Carter began manumitting 500 slaves from his plantations in his lifetime. He also settled many of them on land he gave them.

a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, who became the first endenizened English Jew. He dealt in all kinds of merchandise, including gunpowder, wine, hides, pictures, cochineal, and especially corn and silver, and is reported to have brought to England, on average, £100,000 worth of silver per annum. In the early days of his residence in England, Carvajal used to at...

a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, who became the first endenizened English Jew. He dealt in all kinds of merchandise, including gunpowder, wine, hides, pictures, cochineal, and especially corn and silver, and is reported to have brought to England, on average, £100,000 worth of silver per annum. In the early days of his residence in England, Carvajal used to attend mass at the Spanish ambassador's chapel, and in 1645 was informed against for not attending church; but the House of Lords, on the petition of several leading London merchants, quashed the proceedings.

a French Jewish philanthropist. He was a contractor to the army, and employed his wealth and his influence with the French government in promoting the material and spiritual welfare of his coreligionists. The government permitted him to settle at Strasburg, in opposition to the wishes of the authorities of that city, who zealously enforced the law excluding ...

a French Jewish philanthropist. He was a contractor to the army, and employed his wealth and his influence with the French government in promoting the material and spiritual welfare of his coreligionists. The government permitted him to settle at Strasburg, in opposition to the wishes of the authorities of that city, who zealously enforced the law excluding Jews.

a piano manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts. Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, and raised in nearby New Ipswich, New Hampshire where his father Abner Chickering kept a farm and worked as a blacksmith. Chickering apprenticed three years as a cabinet maker with John Gould. In 1818 Chickering removed to Boston with Gould's permission, working for ca...

a piano manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts. Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, and raised in nearby New Ipswich, New Hampshire where his father Abner Chickering kept a farm and worked as a blacksmith. Chickering apprenticed three years as a cabinet maker with John Gould. In 1818 Chickering removed to Boston with Gould's permission, working for cabinet-maker James Baker, but one year later began working for pianomaker John Osborn at 12 Orange Street. In 1823, Chickering formed a partnership with pianomaker James Stewart; they produced 15 pianos the first year at workshops at 20 Common street and sold their first piano on June 23, 1823 for $275.

a bookseller of London. He was born in Steeple, Dorset, of a branch of an old Dorsetshire family. Clavell was the author of a curious little treatise entitled His Majesties Propriety and Dominion on the British Seas asserted: together with a true Account of the Neatherlanders' Insupportable Insolencies, and Injuries they have committed; and the Inestimabl...

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a bookseller of London. He was born in Steeple, Dorset, of a branch of an old Dorsetshire family. Clavell was the author of a curious little treatise entitled His Majesties Propriety and Dominion on the British Seas asserted: together with a true Account of the Neatherlanders' Insupportable Insolencies, and Injuries they have committed; and the Inestimable Benefits they have gained in their Fishing on the English Seas: as also their Prodigious and Horrid Cruelties in the East and West Indies, and other Places. To which is added an exact Mapp, &c., octavo, London, 1665.

an American politician and Founding Father of the United States. He was one of the first Patriots to advocate complete independence from Britain. As a Pennsylvania representative, Clymer was, along with five others, a signatory of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He attended the Continental Congress, and served in political off...

an American politician and Founding Father of the United States. He was one of the first Patriots to advocate complete independence from Britain. As a Pennsylvania representative, Clymer was, along with five others, a signatory of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He attended the Continental Congress, and served in political office until the end of his life.

an English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with two major free trade campaigns, the Anti-Corn Law League and the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty. As a young man, Cobden was a successful commercial traveller who became co-owner of a highly profitable calico printing factory in Manchester, a city with which he would become strongly identif...

an English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with two major free trade campaigns, the Anti-Corn Law League and the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty. As a young man, Cobden was a successful commercial traveller who became co-owner of a highly profitable calico printing factory in Manchester, a city with which he would become strongly identified. However, he soon found himself more engaged in politics, and his travels convinced him of the virtues of free trade (anti-protection) as the key to better international relations.

an early settler of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arriving with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. He was an innkeeper and confectioner, and in 1634 established the first house of entertainment in the colony, called Cole's Inn. He and his wife Ann were among the earliest members of the Boston church, having joined in the autumn of 1630. He opened t...

an early settler of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arriving with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. He was an innkeeper and confectioner, and in 1634 established the first house of entertainment in the colony, called Cole's Inn. He and his wife Ann were among the earliest members of the Boston church, having joined in the autumn of 1630. He opened the first tavern in the area on 4 March 1634 in what later became downtown Boston, but in 1645 relocated his business to the future Merchants Row between State Street and Faneuil Hall. Cole's establishment was a center of social and political life in Boston.

an English merchant, philanthropist and Tory Member of Parliament who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Colston followed his father in the family business becoming a sea merchant, initially trading in wine, fruits and textiles, mainly in Spain, Portugal and other European ports. By 1680, he became involved in the slave trade as a member of the Royal ...

an English merchant, philanthropist and Tory Member of Parliament who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Colston followed his father in the family business becoming a sea merchant, initially trading in wine, fruits and textiles, mainly in Spain, Portugal and other European ports. By 1680, he became involved in the slave trade as a member of the Royal African Company, which held a monopoly on the English trade in African slaves. He was deputy governor of the company in 1689–90. Colston's name was widely commemorated in Bristol landmarks, and a statue of him was erected in 1895. With growing awareness in the late 20th century of his involvement in Britain's slave trade, there were protests and petitions for name changes, culminating in June 2020, when the statue was toppled and pushed into Bristol Harbour during protests in support of Black Lives Matter.

an American inventor and industrialist from Hartford, Connecticut. He founded Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (today, Colt's Manufacturing Company), and made the mass production of the revolver commercially viable. Colt's first two business ventures — producing firearms in Paterson, New Jersey, and making underwater mines — ended in disappo...

an American inventor and industrialist from Hartford, Connecticut. He founded Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (today, Colt's Manufacturing Company), and made the mass production of the revolver commercially viable. Colt's first two business ventures — producing firearms in Paterson, New Jersey, and making underwater mines — ended in disappointment. But his business expanded rapidly after 1847, when the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers during the American war with Mexico. During the American Civil War, his factory in Hartford supplied firearms both to the North and the South.

an English businessman. He is best known for founding the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while "walking from Market Harborough to Leicester to attend a meeting of the Temperance Society". With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of temperance campaigners from Leiceste...

an English businessman. He is best known for founding the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while "walking from Market Harborough to Leicester to attend a meeting of the Temperance Society". With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street railway station to a teetotal rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook escorted around 500 people, who paid one shilling each for the return train journey, on his first excursion.

a well-known Antwerp printer. From 1533, Gillis Coppens van Diest was a member of the Antwerp Saint Luke Guild for artists and art craftsmen and worked in the Scheldt City as Boeckprintere . He is among the most important book printers of Antwerp at the time of Christoffel Plantin's entrance around 1552. Between about 1539 and 1573 he produces many books on ...

a well-known Antwerp printer. From 1533, Gillis Coppens van Diest was a member of the Antwerp Saint Luke Guild for artists and art craftsmen and worked in the Scheldt City as Boeckprintere . He is among the most important book printers of Antwerp at the time of Christoffel Plantin's entrance around 1552. Between about 1539 and 1573 he produces many books on many subjects and in different languages. Gillis-senior would have cooperated with Plantin in case, but the exact nature of this collaboration remains unclear. Gillis Coppens van Diest, as a printer and publisher, has been intensively involved with the Abraham Ortelius ' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum ; he produced the successful card collection from 1570 to 1573. Later on, the production was in the hands of Plantijn. Gillis' son Marcus Antonius Gillis worked as a proofreader and translator, probably in his father's workshop.

a Baptist preacher in Virginia, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky. He has sometimes, although rather dubiously, been credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey. Craig became politically active as the legislative liaison of the general convention and general association to Vi...

a Baptist preacher in Virginia, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky. He has sometimes, although rather dubiously, been credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey. Craig became politically active as the legislative liaison of the general convention and general association to Virginia's legislature as well as the ratification convention of 1788. As such, he worked with Patrick Henry and James Madison to protect religious freedom federally and in Virginia after the Revolutionary War.

an American landowner, salt maker, and slave trader, based out of Gallatin County, Illinois. He is also the great-great grandfather of killer and suspected serial killer Joe Ball, also known as "The Alligator Man". Although Illinois was a free state, Crenshaw leased the salt works in nearby Equality, Illinois from the government, which permitted the use of s...

an American landowner, salt maker, and slave trader, based out of Gallatin County, Illinois. He is also the great-great grandfather of killer and suspected serial killer Joe Ball, also known as "The Alligator Man". Although Illinois was a free state, Crenshaw leased the salt works in nearby Equality, Illinois from the government, which permitted the use of slaves for the arduous labor of hauling and boiling brackish water to produce salt. Crenshaw was widely believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sale of free black citizens in free states as slaves in the south, an enormously profitable trade later known as the Reverse Underground Railroad. Crenshaw was twice prosecuted for kidnapping, but never convicted.

an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America who became the region's key figure earlier than his 1746 appointment to the Iroquois' Onondaga Council and remained so until his banishment from the frontier in 1777. Emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1741, he became an important trader by going to the villages of Native Americans, learning their lang...

an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America who became the region's key figure earlier than his 1746 appointment to the Iroquois' Onondaga Council and remained so until his banishment from the frontier in 1777. Emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1741, he became an important trader by going to the villages of Native Americans, learning their languages and customs, and working on the frontier where previously mostly French had been trading. During and after King George's War of the 1740s, he helped negotiate new treaties and alliances with Native Americans.

an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary and unscrupulous manner. By cashing in on scandals, publishing pornography, offeri...

an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary and unscrupulous manner. By cashing in on scandals, publishing pornography, offering up patent medicine, using all publicity as good publicity, he managed a small empire of printing houses. He would publish high and low quality writing alike, so long as it sold. He was born in the West Country, and his late and incomplete recollections (in The Curliad) say that his father was a tradesman. He was an apprentice to a London bookseller in 1698 when he began his career.