African Americans were active in fencing during the 1930s, when Young Men’s Christian Associations (YMCAs) and Young Women’s Christian Associations (YWCAs) provided basic instruction in the sport. But racial discrimination practiced by the AFLA severely curtailed their opportunities to compete at the local and national levels. A case in point is the experience of Violet Barker, who learned to fence at the Harlem YMCA under the tutelage of Alex Hern, a Jew who was teaching fencing in settlement and neighborhood houses throughout New York City. Barker won a recreational league championship sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, which earned her a membership card in the AFLA. But when she arrived at the New York Fencers Club for an AFLA open foil meet, she was barred from the competition because of her race; when she produced her AFLA membership card, an official tore it into little pieces. Hern and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People initiated a lawsuit against the AFLA but dropped the action when Barker refused to pursue the case. Hern welcomed blacks at his Foils Club on Fourteenth Street, which his enemies at the AFLA dubbed the “Abyssinian School of Fencing.” Another racial incident occurred in 1949, when Columbian University’s varsity fencing team withdrew from all meets sponsored by the AFLA because of pressure applied by that organization to withdraw its two black members from a competition at the New York Athletic Club. In the aftermath of the Columbia boycott the Board of Directors of the AFLA split over the issue of excluding blacks from its meets. Its president Miguel Angel deCapriles, supported desegregation, stating: “It is time to recognize that fencing has changed from the aristocratic sport that it was to the democratic sport that it is.”

By the 1950s African Americans were gaining acceptance by the AFLA and were winning fencing titles in intercollegiate meets. In the following decades several blacks captured prestigious national honors. Sophronia Pierce Stent was captain of the New York University team; in 1951 she became the first black woman to gain admission into the AFLA Collegiate champions include Bruce Davis of Wayne State University (Detroit); Tyrone Simmons of the University of Detroit; Peter Lewison of the City University of New York; and Peter Westbrook, Michael Lofton, and Ruth White of New York University. In 1969 White became the first black athlete to win a national fencing title, when she won the under-nineteen crown in foil. She was trained by several Hungarian coaches, including Bela de Csajaghy. Subsequent African Americans who have won national championships include Lewison, Westbrook, Lofton, Uriah Jones, Burt Freeman, Ed Ballinger, Terrence Lasker, Mark Smith, Erin Smart, Bob Cottingham, Nikki Tomlinson Franke, and Sharon Monplaisir, among others. Westbrook, who is half Japanese and half black, also took home a bronze medal in the saber at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. To a great extent these honors are the result of increased participation by African Americans at black fencing clubs in several cities.

Finally, since the 1930’s American fencing has exhibited an increasing multiethnic and multiracial character, as Hispanic and Asian athletes have become prominent as administrators and champions. The deCapriles brothers were men of great education, status, and wealth from Mexico who represented the older aristocratic tradition. Julia Castello, Hugo Martinez Castello, Natalia Clovis, Marcel Pasche, Maria Cerrn Tishman, and Henrique Santos were all of Spanish or Latin American heritage. Among Asians, Heizaboro Okawa of Japan won two titles in the 1960s and then settled in California, while Jennifer Yu of California won the women’s foil title in 1990.

Ruth White

Women's Foils, 1969
Los Angeles, California
17-year-old Ruth White was the youngest and first African-American woman to win the National Fencing Championship. She was selected to fence on the 1972 U.S. Olympic team.

VICENTE GUERRERO (1783-1831)

O

ne of the leaders of the independence movement and second president of Mexico, Vicente Guerrero was born into a poor peasant family in Tixtla, in what is today the state of Guerrero. A Mestizo with a strong African background, he had a little education and dedicated himself to farming the land. He started his military career under Hermenegildo Galeana in 1810.

As a captain, he was commissioned by José María Morelos to attack Taxco. He continued under Morelos’ command and fought in southern Puebla.

After the defeat in Puruarán, Michoacán, he was assigned to fight in the south, where he made his way with only one assistant. Guerrero and his peasant army, equipped only with clubs, fought against a vice-regal officer at the head of 700 troops. Guerrero defeated him, took 400 prisoners, and seized a large quantity of weapons. In all of the battles in which he took part, he showed extraordinary bravery; sometimes he received point-blank shots, and he fought with cold steel.

After Morelos’ death in late 1815, the rebel movement was weakened, and just a few leaders continued fighting. Guerrero was one of them. A number of leaders began asking for pardons. Viceroy Apodaca persuaded Guerrero’s father to try to convince his son to surrender, but the rebel refused, giving his oft-quoted answer, “My country comes first.”

With just a few troops, Vicente Guerrero continued fighting from his rebel base in the mountainous region of the state which now bears his name. When Iturbide put his plans to achieve the independence in action, he went southwards to fight Guerrero and Alquisiras, but he failed in his attempt, and the royalist forces were worse of it.

On January 10, 1821, Guerrero received an invitation from Iturbide to give a conference on the independence movement. They met in Acatempan, and the rebel leader agreed to fight with his former enemies and to accept a subordinate post.

Although Guerrero acknowledged Iturbide as the emperor, he and Nicolás Bravo soon turned against him. On January 23, in Almolongo, Guerrero fought the imperial forces commanded by Epitacio Sánchez, who died in action, although he was able to defeat his rivals.

Guerrero had been a division general since 1821. When Iturbide was overthrown, Guerrero became a member of the Supreme Executive Power from April 1 to October 10, 1824, until General Guadalupe Victoria became president of Mexico.

Vicente Guerrero was head of the Yorkean (popular) party, and he started to appear as the party’s frontrunner. When Nicolás Bravo, head of the Scottish party, took up arms against Guadalupe Victoria’s government, in 1828, Guerrero fought against him in Tulancingo.

Guerrero became a presidential candidate that same year. Although he had numerous followers, the state legislative bodies gave the presidency to Manuel Gómez Pedraza, who had influenced the elections from within the War Ministry, by an indirect vote of 11 to 9. A protest arose, the Parián was plundered, and Gómez Pedraza’s election was declared invalid.

Guerrero became President on April 1, 1829; General Anastasio Bustamante was appointed as vice-president.

Spanish forces led by General Isidro Barradas invaded Mexico, but were defeated. Bustamante, who was watching Guerrero from Xalapa, proclaimed the Plan of Xalapa, which refused to recognize Guerrero’s regime.

Vicente Guerrero gave up the presidency on December 16, 1829, when Congress declared him unfit to govern the country. He went south and started a new civil war. Armijo was sent to fight him, but Armijo was defeated and died in Texaca.

The war continued through all 1830. Bustamante’s government, through his minister José Antonio Facio, arranged for the Genoese sailor Francisco Picaluga to kill Guerrero. In January 1831, the Genoese invited Vicente Guerrero to lunch on his ship El Colombo. Once on board, Picaluga took him prisoner and sailed for Huatulco, on the Oaxaca coast.

Picaluga delivered his prisoner to Captain Miguel González, who took Guerrero to Oaxaca. A court-martial sentenced Guerrero to death, and he was executed in Villa de Cuilapan, on February 14, 1831.

A Mexican state now bears Vicente Guerrero’s name in his honor.

Alessandro de' Medici

FIRST REIGNING DUKE OF FLORENCE (1510-1537)

Despite the many portraits of this 16th century Italian Renaissance figure, his African heritage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.

TO STUDENTS of color discrimination European history offers no more astonishing figure than Alessandro de' Medici, "The Moor," first reigning Duke of Florence. His mother Anna was a fine and robust black peasant of Colle Vecchio, Italy, in the employ of Alfonsina Orsini, a near relative of Pope Clement VII, while his father is very generally said to be the Pope himself, who was then Cardinal de' Medici.

As Duke of Florence, Alessandro, after the death of Pope Clement, became the head of one of the most illustrious families in European history--a family that furnished a long roll of statesmen and patrons of art, as well as three popes, three kings of France, three queens, and a mother of one of England's kings.

Allesandro's nominal father, Lorenzo II, died while he was still young and left the dukedom to his brother Pope Clement VII, the same who had a dispute with Henry VIII over the divorce of Catherine of Aragon. Living in the Medici Palace with Alessandro were his cousin Ippolito and his supposed sister Catherine-the Catherine of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. They, with the Pope, were the last of the cider branch of the family. Of the four, all were illegitimate, except Catherine, and perhaps Clement. But being born out of wedlock in those days, especially in the homes of the great, was not a serious handicap. As in the Orient, many of the noblest names were carried on by a capable bastard who had proved himself superior to the legitimate offspring.

Alessandro made his debut into politics at a time critical for the fortunes of his family. The Pope, its head, was having considerable difficulty trying to preserve the orthodox faith, and with it his hold on European politics. Not only was he at odds with the Florentines, but also with Charles V, the Napoleon of his time, the ruler of Spain and part of Italy and France, all of Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The quarrel between the Pope and the Florentines broke into open revolt. An attack was made on the palace and Cardinal Cortina, the guardian of the three children, fled, taking Alessandro and Ippolito. The people held Catherine as a hostage.

To make matters worse, Charles V defeated the Pope's ally, Francis I of France, and marching on Rome, sacked it. The Pope fled and locked himself up in the fortress of San Angelo.

The Pope, seeing that his only hope was to make peace with Charles V, promised him his entire support. If Charles dominated the bodies of men, the Pope would dominate their souls. Accordingly, a treaty was made between them, one of whose provisions was that the emperor should restore the Pope's family to power in Florence. To bind the agreement a match was arranged between Alessandro and the emperor's daughter Margaret. She was nine, Alessandro, twenty.

In fulfillment of his promise, the emperor sent an army under the Prince of Orange against Florence. The Florentines, among them Michelangelo, fought desperately for a year, but finally surrendered. They were heavily fined and had to yield to the government that the Pope and the emperor imposed upon them. This was a heavy blow to the Florentines who had always prided themselves on their independence. Their city, now made into practically an absolute monarchy, was given to Alessandro to rule with the title of duke.

The young duke began his reign well. Cecchereghi, Italian historian, credits him with wit and wisdom, a fine sense of justice, and "judgments that would have done credit to a Solomon." He restored to the Florentines most of their former liberties. But numbers of them were not content with a monarchy. Besides, a good many were still bitter over the war.

Into this stirring drama now steps a fourth character. Mention has already been made of him Ippolito de' Medici.

Ippolito felt that he and not Alessandro should have been made head of the family. He claimed not only priority of age, but nobler birth, his mother having been a noblewoman while Alessandro's was a servant, perhaps even a slave. He became Alessandro's worst foe and headed the faction against him.

Varillas says:

When Ippolito understood that Pope Clement had decided that Alessandro was to be made heir to the riches and greatness of the House of Medici, a great change took place in him. He was seized with immense anger and grief, as it seemed to him that, being older and a nearer relative of the Pope and better endowed by nature that so rich an inheritance and so brilliant a marriage should be his; either not knowing, or refusing to believe, the secret rumors, that Alessandro was the son of Clement.

The Pope made Ippolito a cardinal, but this so little contented him that he disdained the high honor, preferring Hungarian dress to the red hat.

An interesting light is thrown on the quarrel by Ambassador Soriani, who was an eyewitness. He says:

The Duke Alessandro shows that he has a good mind and that he has the tact to accommodate himself better to the nature and will of the Pope than the Cardinal Ippolito de Medici. Therefore, His Holiness has made it evident to me that he loves the Duke more than the Cardinal, and expects very much more from him. Many times in conversation with me, he has told me that he intends to make the Duke head of the Medici family and to let him govern Florence as his ancestors have done.

The most Rev. Cardinal Ippolito de Medici was twenty years old on March 23, 1531. He has a good mind and has given some little time to study, so that in comparison with the other cardinals, he cannot be considered as ignorant. He is indeed of vivacious, one might almost say, of a restless nature, but perhaps it comes from his youth.

He is very envious of the Duke because it seems to him that the Pope did him a great injustice in putting the Duke at the head of the government of Florence. He thinks himself of a better social crass than the Duke whose mother is a slave. The quarrel between the two gives great displeasure to His Holiness who is disgusted with the Cardinal for disturbing his plans.

This question of the respective characters and merits of the duke and of Ippolito is still a subject of dispute among historians. By some Alessandro is painted as a just and able young man; by others he is held to be a creature who would have disgraced even "the worst epochs of Roman villainy."

Ippolito readily found a number of influential Florentines to support his claims. He continued his plotting until he was forced to leave Florence for Rome, where he found refuge, and where his home became a center for all those who fled from Duke Alessandro. Several attempts were made on the duke's life, after which he disarmed friend and foe. He garrisoned the towns and built the fortress of San Giovanni to dominate the city. Many of his enemies he caused to be stripped of their wealth and sent into exile. At last Ippolito decided to make a direct appeal to the emperor Charles V, who was on his way to attack the great African pirate, Barbarossa. But Ippolito never reached him; he died on the way, poisoned, it is said, by the emissaries of Alessandro.

Alessandro's troubles multiplied. To make matters worse, the Pope died, thus depriving him of his ablest counselor. Alessandro, in order to pacify the people, began to give them fetes after the manner of the old Roman emperors. This only helped to give him the reputation of a libertine-a reputation that was not unjustified. It was a dissolute age and Alessandro was a part of it, but his enemies magnified those faults that would have been condoned in another ruler. When his mother died, quite naturally, it seems, he was accused of starving her to death to get her out of the way. At last the enemies of the duke took their case to the emperor. The latter summoned Alessandro before him, whereupon Alessandro defended himself so ably that he rose higher in the imperial favor. Charles not only promised him his full support but decided to hasten his daughter's marriage to him.

In June, I536, the emperor visited Florence in great state, and on the 16th of that month the marriage was celebrated in gorgeous style in the old palace of the Medicis in the presence of the kings and queens of the leading countries of Europe.

This marriage, by the way, helps to throw some light on the better side of Alessandro's character. Charles V was just, devout, and much beloved. Later he voluntarily renounced his vast empire to follow a life of solitary meditation and Christian devotion. Is it logical to believe that he would have given his daughter to a monster such as Alessandro has been painted, especially after Clement died?

That Alessandro was a despot there is no doubt whatever, though some of the blame must be placed on his adviser, Francesco Guicciardini, an able historian of Machiavellian tendencies. Enters now the villain, Lorenzino, better known as Lorenzaccio (The Wicked). Lorenzino, who has been described as "half-poet, half-madman," and who had been threatened by the Pope with hanging if ever he showed himself in Rome, for having out of sheer wantonness, knocked off the heads of some precious statues, felt that since Alessandro was illegitimate he, as the eldest offspring of the younger branch of the family, was the rightful heir. He began to plot. To further his intrigues he cultivated the good graces of the duke. This was not difficult as he had qualities that pleased the duke, especially his capacity for vice. Both soon became boon companions, going about the streets dressed as minstrels and serenading the Florentines. Sometimes both would ride on the same horse through the town.

When the enemies of Alessandro learned of Lorenzino's real feelings toward the duke, they decided to use him as the instrument of their vengeance and promised him the dukedom if Alessandro were put out of the way.

Lorenzino readily fell in with this plan. Among his friends was a soldier named Michaele who was nicknamed Scoronconcolo because of his wild and turbulent disposition. A giant in physique, this ruffian was devoted body and soul to Lorenzino.

One day when Lorenzino said to him, "I want you to kill the man I hate most on earth," Michaele readily agreed. Accordingly, Lorenzino invited the duke to his home, promising him a rendezvous there with a beautiful Venetian, already married, of whom Alessandro was enamored: Signora Ginori.

Alessandro left the palace masked, accompanied by his two faithful guards, Giacomo and Bobo. Arriving at Lorenzaccio's gate, he sent the men to wait for him at a wine shop and slipped in unseen. At the door he was received by Lorcnzaccio. All the servants had been dismissed. Hidden within was Michaele. The duke gave his coat to Lorenzaccio. The latter urged him also to lay his sword aside, and taking it, hid it in another room. He then left, saying he was going in search of the lady and would return soon. Before leaving, he signaled Michaele that the coast was clear for the attack on the duke.

The duke, left alone, went over to the fire to await Signora Ginori, but feeling drowsy, threw himself on a couch and was soon fast asleep. Hours passed, and Lorenzaccio returned. To his chagrin he found the duke still alive. Michaele had lost his nerve.

Deciding to lose no more time, Lorenzaccio crept into the room, sword in hand. He plunged the weapon into the back of the sleeping ruler. But the wound was not fatal. Alessandro, leaping to his feet, shouted, "Traitor," "Assassin," and seized his attacker in a desperate grip.

Both went to the floor. The duke bit Lorenzaccio's thumb so hard that he yelled with pain. Michaele rushed to his aid, and lunged at the duke, but in the tangle of bodies struck Lorenzaccio instead, wounding him on the cheek and nose.

This caused Lorenzaccio to yell the louder, whereupon Michaele, drawing his dagger, plunged in into the duke's side and twisted it all the way around. As the duke fell, Michaele drew his sword across his throat, almost severing the duke's head.

The two hastened to remove the blood from their hands. It was then that Lorenzaccio made a chance remark that apprised Michaele of the rank of his victim, which so terrified Michaele that he rushed from the house and confessed. As to Lorenzaccio, he lost his nerve also, and mounting a horse, galloped out of the city.

Alessandro's bodyguards, tired of waiting, at last burst into Lorenzaccio's home and found the body. They hastened to tell the prime minister, Cardinal Cibo, who, fearing the effect of the news on th populace, kept it secret and buried the duke privately.

A council was at once summoned. Alessandro's son Julian was named as his successor, but as he was only five years old, he was set aside in favor of Cosimo, a member of the younger branch and a near relative of Lorenzaccio. One of Cosimo's first acts was to seek vengeance on Lorenzaccio, who, safe in France, declared that he had killed Alessandro because of an insult the latter had offered to his sister Laodomia. Later he assumed a Brutus-like pose and alleged that he had saved his country from a tyrant.

For eleven years he eluded the emissaries of Cosimo, but finally overtaken in Venice, he was stabbed to death.

Margaret, Alessandro's widow, married the Duke of Parma and became a powerful figure in European politics. She was made regent of the Netherlands by her brother, King Philip of Spain.

The tomb into which Alessandro had been hurriedly thrust was that of his nominal father, the Duke of Urbino, under Michelangelo's famous statue, "Il Penseroso." For a long time this was disputed by historians. To settle this question, the Italian government ordered the tomb opened in 1875.

Charles Heath Wilson, who was present, said that the two dukes were lying head to foot, that they were embalmed, and that Alessandro's body was clothed in an embroidered shirt. He also said that the latter was easily recognized by his hair, his mulatto cast of features, and the traces of wounds about his head and body Alessandro might have gone far but for his untimely death. Charles V was planning to make him general-in-chief of his armies in Italy.

Joachim Murat

RENOWNED CAVALRY LEADER OF NAPOLEON AND KING OF NAPLES (1767-1815)

JOACHIM MURAT, who assumed the name of Joachim Napoleon, and was later King of Naples, came from the Department of Lot, in the Auvergne, France, a region known for the Negroid strain in its inhabitants, many of whom are descended from the Moors who settled in that region after they had been driven out of Spain. It is estimated that more than a million of these people of African ancestry migrated to that region. This is the same part of France from which came Bernadotte, King of Sweden, and Pierre Laval, twice Premier of France, both of whom were dark-skinned and were commonly said to be of Moorish ancestry. In fact, Murat himself claimed descent from a Moorish king, and Frederic Masson, noted writer on Napoleon's cavalry, said it was commonly believed that he was of that ancestry.

The most striking proof of Murat's Negro strain comes from Laura, Duchess d'Abrantés, famous writer of the times, who knew Murat intimately and was moreover well acquainted with evidences of Negro strain. She had lived in Portugal with her husband Marshal Junot, French ambassador, at a period soon after the Negro slaves there had been freed and there was still an abundance of mulattoes. She says of Murat, "There was a great deal of the Negro in his face. His nose, it is true, was not flat, but his lips were thick. This nose, although straight, lacked distinction, thus giving him in keeping with the rest of his features, at least the appearance of a half-breed." She uses the word métis, which, in addition to meaning "half-breed," is often used in France for "mulatto." Indeed it is the same thing. Next to Napoleon himself Murat was the most spectacular figure of the Napoleonic era. Indeed, but for him there might have been no Napoleon of such greatness. Napoleon thought so much of him that he gave him his favorite sister, Marie Caroline, in marriage.

Arriving in Paris, the young Murat found work as a pot washer. Then he joined the army and found such favor with Napoleon that the latter made him one of his aides-de-camp. In Egypt, where he served directly under the command of General Dumas, a mulatto born in Haiti, he distinguished himself and was made general of a division. Devoted body and soul to Napoleon, after they returned to France he urged Napoleon to make himself dictator. When Napoleon hesitated, he drew his sword and declared he would not sheathe it until Napoleon was dictator of France. A few days later, with sixty of his guards, he burst into the National Convention in Paris, as Cromwell had done in the English Parliament, dominated it, and kept his word to make Napoleon supreme. "Good citizens," he said to the 500 members, "the Convention is dissolved," and he drove them all out. In reward, Napoleon appointed him the next most powerful man in France, and married his youngest sister, Marie Caroline, later Queen Caroline, to him. He also made him Governor of Paris and later for his victories over the Germans made him, successively, a Marshal of the Empire, Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, and Grand Admiral of France. Finally when the Bourbons were ousted, he made him ruler of Naples, one of the richest countries of southern Europe. But the two were later to be enemies. During the disastrous campaign in Russia where he was in command of the cavalry, Murat deserted his post to return to Naples, upon which Napoleon sent him a most insulting letter. Thereafter, he Previous worked as hard to pull down Napoleon, as he had to build him up.

The loss of Murat's services contributed much to Napoleon's final downfall, an admission that Napoleon himself later made. His presence at Waterloo, Napoleon said, would have inspired the French and discouraged the English. In the hundred or so battles in which he had fought, Murat had been so dashing, so courageous, and so victorious, that he was invested with invincibility by his men. He could be seen always in the forefront of the fight, conspicuous in his gorgeous uniform and snow-white plumes.
But it was not Murat's fault that he was not at Waterloo. A month before he had returned to France. The Allies, once having succeeded in isolating him from Napoleon, turned against him and in face of the strong coalition he was forced to flee. In France he offered his services to Napoleon, who contemptuously refused them.

After the capture of Napoleon, he went to Corsica and sailed from there with an expedition to recover his kingdom. A storm scattered his ships and he was forced ashore at Pizzo, Italy, with only thirty men. Captured, he was court-martialed five days later and shot. Murat had four sons. One of them, Napoleon, came to the United States and married a grandniece of George Washington. Another, Lucien, married a Baltimore society woman. He returned to France when Napoleon III came to the throne, and was recognized as a prince of royal blood.

The Image of Joseph de Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George (also called Joseph Boulogne, theChevalier de Saint-Georges) is available on an Imani Fencers Foundation T-shirt.

Imani T-shirts are available for a small donation.

Donations are tax-deductible.

Antonio Maceo

1848 -- 1896

Maceo was the son of a Venezuelan farmer and dealer in agricultural products, Marcos Maceo and an Afro-Cuban woman, Mariana Grajales y Coello. His father moved from Caracas, Venezuela to Santiago de Cuba,Cuba, in 1823, after some of his comrades were exiled from South America. José Antonio Maceo y Grajales (full name) was born in June, 14, 1845, in a rural farm not far from Santiago de Cuba. Although his father taught him skills in the use of arms and management of their small properties, it was his mother, Mariana Grajales, who inculcated in him a sense of order. This maternal discipline would be important in the development of Maceo's character and would be reflected later in his acts as a military leader.

At the age of sixteen, Maceo went to work for his father, delivering products and supplies by mule. He was a successful entrepreneur and farmer. As the oldest of the children, he inherited his father's leadership qualities and later would become a decorated general. Maceo developed an active interest in the political issues of his time and was initiated in the mysteries of Freemasonry. The Cuban Freemasonry movement was influenced by the principles of the French Revolution - "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" - as well as the Masons' main guidelines: God, Reason Virtue.

Angelo Soliman (1721 - 1796) is historically recognized as the "First Moorish Freemason." Born in the Congo (Cameroon), at age seven he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. In Europe, he was the slave (child toy) of a prominent Sicilian lady. Later, at age 16, he was sold to a royal family in Vienna, Austria. There, he so impressed his masters with his remarkable intelligence, they chose to educate him.

In his mid twenties, Soliman distinguished himself as a studious and honorable subject with his masters, and actually won his freedom through his high moral character and education. As a free citizen of Vienna, the world's citadel of culture and enlightenment at the time, Soliman, now a member of the royal Hapsburg household, continued to pursue a personal course of erudite and moral excellence. He spoke six languages fluently and could write three of them fluently as well. He was also a master swordsman, war hero, chess specialist, navigation expert, concert composer, and a tutor to royalty. He was the subject of Mozart's popular opera The Magic Flute. Soliman is considered one of the most learned people of his generation as well as one of the greatest Vienna citizens of all time.

He was a Vienna celebrity, a dashing figure and personality widely admired for his handsomeness, fashionable Moorish attire and social grace; he was an excellent dancer and romancer at elite social affairs. He married in 1768 and in the same year joined the True Concord Freemason's lodge, which included his friends Mozart and Haydn. He eventually became the Grand Master of the lodge and rewrote and refined its rituals and other literature. The Soliman Freemasonic literary style spread all over Europe and around the world, eventually even influencing modern Freemasonic literature and rituals. Thus, Soliman is called the Father of Pure Masonic Thought. The Moorish Rite hails Angelo Soliman as its patriarchal figure; he is a profound model of early Moorish/Black achievement. To this day, in Vienna, he is celebrated in song and dance and national memory. And today, in America, two Moorish Rite lodges so far have been named in Soliman's honor.

Aalim Bey Al Dey's The Moorish Prince Of Vienna (a soon to be published book on Angelo Soliman) will cover more about the incredible life of this great ancestor and Freemasonic pioneer.

Abraham Hannibal

RUSSIAN GENERAL AND COMRADE OF PETER THE GREAT (d. 1782)

HISTORY CONTAINS FEW FIGURES more extraordinary than Abraham Hannibal. Stolen from his parents in Africa and sold into slavery, he became general-in-chief of one of the leading white empires of his day. His great-grandson became one of the world's greatest poets, while other of his descendants became members of the leading royal families of Europe.

Destiny was kind to Hannibal from the beginning; instead of being sent to America, where he would have been at best a house servant, he was taken to Turkey. At that time, while Africans were languishing in slavery in America, some of their brothers, also from the jungles, were the pampered pets of European royalty, especially at the court of Russia.

Still a child, Hannibal was sold as a slave to Sultan Selim IV at Constantinople, where he attracted the attention of Count Raguinsky, the Russian ambassador. Wishing to take an unusual gift to the czar, Raguinsky secured Hannibal either by kidnapping or as a gift, and took him back to Russia.

Merry, vivacious, and intelligent, the ten-year-old boy captivated Peter the Great, who adopted him immediately. With Christina, Queen of Poland, as his godmother, Hannibal was baptized into the Christian faith. Peter gave him his own name, but the boy, whose real name was Ibrahim, wept so bitterly at the change that thereafter he was called Abraham, the Christian equivalent of his own name. Hannibal was later added as a tribute to his military skill. However, his parents, who later appeared on the scene, claimed that he was descended from the great Carthaginian and that his real name was Hannibal. The lad showed special talent for mathematics and engineering and Peter sent him to Paris to study. There, as the czar's protégé, he was received in the highest circles. His exotic appearance won him the favor of the ladies of the gay court of the Duke of Orleans, who was then regent; indeed the duke himself offered Hannibal a high position if he would transfer his allegiance to him. But Hannibal, though preferring the gayer and more cultured French atmosphere, remained loyal to his master, even though at this time Peter, preoccupied with the affairs of state, had quite forgotten Hannibal who, finding himself without money, thought of returning on foot to Russia.

While Hannibal was pursuing his studies war broke out between France and Spain. He accepted a commission in the French army, serving with valor until he was wounded in the head. Soon afterward he returned to Russia where he became an officer in the engineers' corps, winning rapid promotion on his own merits. About this time his people in Africa, discovering his whereabouts, sent a rich ransom for him, but he refused to leave his benefactor. Peter appointed him tutor in mathematics to the crown prince, later Peter II. As this post gave him great influence with the future ruler, he became of considerable importance to those engaged in court intrigue. As a result of this, fortune was to turn Previous Page against him after the death of Peter the Great for the next sixteen years.

On Peter's death in 1735 the throne was seized by his wife, Catherine I, grandmother of Peter, the real heir, who was set aside, the chief power being in the hands of Prince Menshikov. Menshikov, who was of humble origin, having started as a common soldier, wanted to marry his daughter to the young Peter. Knowing Hannibal's influence with Peter, he tried to bribe him. Hannibal, who had sworn to Peter the Great that he would protect his grandson, refused, and Menshikov, to stop his influence with the prince, sent him on a military mission to Siberia. Then to lengthen his stay he ordered him to take the exact measurements of the Great Wall of China, which was 1,500 miles long. Menshikov hoped that Hannibal would not survive the hardships of this undertaking. Hannibal remained in Siberia until the death of Catherine in 1737. Learning that young Peter had ascended the throne, that Menshikov had been exiled, and that Dolgouriki, a former favorite of Peter the Great, was in control, he decided to return. But at Tomsk he was arrested. Dolgouriki feared his influence with Peter no less than Menshikov-and he was held there until Peter's death two years later.

Peter was succeeded by Anna the Bloody, a niece of Peter the Great. Once more Hannibal started for St. Petersburg, but when he reached it he was compelled to go into hiding, as he was suspected of belonging to the faction that wanted to put Elisabeth, daughter of Peter the Great and rightful heir, on the throne. Hannibal escaped, thanks to his friend Field-Marshal Munich, who smuggled him out of the city and sent him to inspect the fortifications on the Swedish border. This duty done, he was sent to a little village near the city of Reval where he spent the next twelve years of Anna's reign, almost forgotten.

On Anna's death, Elisabeth came to the throne, and grateful to Hannibal for his unswerving loyalty to the family of Peter the Great, she showered honors on him. Among her gifts were ten villages with thousands of white serfs. She wished him to remain at court, but remembering what his influence there had once cost him, he declined, and asked permission to return to Reval, where he was made commander. But his retirement was short. He was one of the empire's leading engineers, and when a dispute arose with Sweden over the boundary in 1752, he was appointed head of the Russian commission to settle the matter. Still later, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. But in spite of all these honors, the title Previous Pagehe cherished the most was "The Negro of Peter the Great."

Hannibal had other troubles, too--domestic ones. He had married a very beautiful woman, the daughter of a Greek captain named Dioper. During his long absences she had found consolation elsewhere and had presented to him a daughter who showed no African blood. Hannibal sued for divorce and the ensuing trial was one of the most celebrated of its day. It dragged on for fifteen years while scientists discussed at great length the question of whether the offspring of a black and white couple could be "pure" white. Hannibal finally won, whereupon the unfaithful wife, seeking to justify her actions, said, "That Negro is not of our race," She was punished severely. In addition to the court's censure, she was forced to do public penance and to spend the remainder of her life in a convent. As for the white daughter, Hannibal kept her in his house, gave her a good education, and left her considerable property but never permitted her to come into his presence.

While the case was pending, he married a titled German woman, Regina von Schellberg, by whom he had eleven children, all bonafide mulattoes, five of whom were sons, and all of whom attained distinction. The cidest, Ivan, was a naval commander who was victorious over the Turks at Navarin and was also the hero of the battle of Chesma. Later he was Governor of Ukraine and founded the city of Kherson. After a quarrel with Potemkin, the powerful favorite of Catherine the Great, he retired to his estates.

Another son, Joseph, was a naval commander and a navigator. His daughter, Nadejda, married Count Pushkin, whose grandfather had been privy counsellor to Peter the Great and whose father had borne the scepter at the coronation of Catherine the Great. Her son, Alexander Pushkin, was the famous poet. Hannibal continued in favor under Catherine the Great, who appointed him to draw up plans for a canal linking St. Petersburg with Moscow. Finally he retired to his estates, immensely rich, and died there in 1782, over ninety years old. Pushkin, who was born seventeen years after Hannibal's death, and who, in preparation for his book The Negro of Peter the Great, had gathered details from those who had known his illustrious ancester, describes him as "A pure Negro--flat nose, thick lips, woolly hair."

D. M. Wallace, British ambassador to Russia, says of him. "Hannibal, who died with the rank of Commander-in-Chief, was a Negro."

ABRAHAM HANNIBAL

(1670 - 1761)

General Abraham Hannibal was born in 1670 in Eritrea, East Africa. As a young child he was stolen from his parents and sold in to slavery. He ended up in Turkey. In parts of Europe the fate for black people was much kinder than that of the millions who were sold into the trans-Atlanic slave trade, as the story of Abraham Hannibal shows. Abraham was taken to Russia where Tsar Peter (Peter the Great) and his wife Christina Queen of Poland adopted him.When Abraham was a young man, his bilogical parents found him and told him his real name was Ibrahim Hannibal and he was a descendent of the carthaginian Empire. Alike his namesake Hannibal, the great African military genius who lived around 200 bc, Abraham also became a military genius.

Tsar Peter sent Abraham to France to learn mathematics and engineering from the highest educationl insitutes. During Abraham's studies, war broke out between France and Spain and in 1718, he joined the French army to gain access to the best military engineering program and was captured bt the Spanish army. He was released in 1722 and promoted to lieutenanat and continued to study mathematics and engineering in france for anther year. he returned to Russia the following year and his advanced training enabled him to apply and successfully aquire posts frist as an engineer and than as a mathematics tutor for one of the Tsar's private guard units.

Abraham was sent to Siberia for three years to complate an engineering project. During this time he built a fortress and led several construction projects where he became a master engineer. he complated his srvice in Siberia in 1733 and returned to the court in 1741.

Abraham had 11 childern, most of whom became members of the Russian rayalty, he was the great grandfather to one of Russia's great men, Alexander Pushkin the poet and father of modern Russian literature.

Aberaham died around 1761

Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre (1762–1806)

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was a mulatto born in the French colony of Saint Domingue. He joined the French Army as a private and rose to the rank of a General during the French Revolution. Dumas is probably best known for fathering the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas (père).

The son of the lesser French nobleman Alexandre-Antoine Davy, Marquis de la Pailleterie, and a black slave woman, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was born on the island of Saint Domingue on March 25, 1762. In 1772, the Marquis returned to France, followed by his son in 1776. As Dumas grew into manhood he moved to Paris, enjoying life with the financial support of his father. But soon after the senior Davy married his second wife, he suspended the payments to his son.

Without any income, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas decided to join the French Army in 1786. At the request of his father, he enlisted under his mother's name Marie Dumas, in order to preserve the family's reputation. During the French Revolution Dumas became a devout republican serving in an all-black unit known as “La Légion Américaine.” This dedication helped him being catapulted from the rank of a corporal to that of a general of a division in less than two years.

Dumas' relationship with Napoleon Bonaparte, under whom he served in the Italian campaign between 1796 and 1797, was ambivalent. Napoleon admired Dumas' bravery and appreciated his military expertise, but the general's hot temper and his low opinion of Bonaparte often got Dumas into quarrels with his commander. Despite his skepticism about the purpose of the campaign, Dumas followed Napoleon to Egypt in 1798. Disappointed with the Army’s lack of military success, aware of his declining relationship with Napoleon and in poor health, Dumas left Egypt in February 1799. He was shipwrecked off the Italian port of Taranto where he was made prisoner of war by the Neapolitans for two years.

After he was finally released in 1801, Dumas sailed home having lost all of his possessions. Dumas spent his last years recovering from his time as a prisoner with his family in Villier-Cotterêts. Once and again he offered his service to Napoleon, but waited in vain to be restored to active duty. Only the birth of his son Alexandre in 1802, who would later become one of the most famous French writers, brought joy and hope into Dumas’ life. On February 27, 1806, Dumas died at the age of 44.

Sources:
Jon G. Gallaher, General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997); André Maurois, The Titans: A Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957); J.A. Rogers, World's Greatest Men of Color, Volume II (New York: Macmillan, 1972).

Gaspar Yanga

The most memorable of the numerous Afro-Mexican maroon colonies in the range was the one founded after a bloody slave rebellion in the sugar fields in 1570. The rebel leader Gaspar Yanga was a slave from the African nation of Gabon, and it was said that he was from the royal family. Yanga led his rebel band into the mountains, where he found a locale sufficiently inaccessible to settle and create his own small town of over 500 people. The Yangans secured provisions by raids upon the Spanish caravans bringing goods from the highlands to Veracruz. Relations were established with neighboring runaway slaves and Indians. For more than thirty years Yanga and his band lived free while his community grew in size. A Spanish study of the situation concluded that Gaspar Yanga must be crushed. With that goal in mind a Royal war party left the city of Puebla in January of 1609. It did not succeed in its goal. Before he died, Yanga would have in hand a treaty with the Spaniards that granted freedom to his followers and established their own "free town."

Jean-Louis Michel

Early life

Jean-Louis was born in Saint-Domingue (now part of Haiti) in 1785. In his youth, Jean Louis took part in a winner take all tournament to the death. In the final Jean-Louis, a slight man of around 5' 2", duelled for 1 whole hour with a Spanish opponent who was 6 ft tall. Then as the Spaniard lost concentration Jean-Louis finished him.

In Napoleon's Army

Jean-Louis served as a soldier in the French army under Napoleon.

He was most famous for a series of regimental duels held outside Madrid, Spain, in 1814. Italian soldiers from the 1st Regiment and French soldiers from the 32nd Regiment of the 3rd Division of the French Army quarreled. Within 40 minutes, Jean-Louis is reputed to have killed three Italian masters including the Florentine master, Giacomo Ferrari, and wounded 10 others with 27 thrusts.

On another occasion, having been subject to repeated insults, he insisted in defending himself using only a training foil against a larger opponent armed with a rapier. Jean Louis adopted the most familiar tactic of retreating until his opponent tired himself with a series of clumsy attacks, whereupon he suddenly parried strongly and riposted with a wicked slash to the face, thereby teaching him a lesson in humility.

Retirement

He refused a commission, and in 1830, he retired to Montpellier, where he opened a fencing school. In later life he taught that fencing to the death was a blight on society.

Fencing in Ancient Egypt

The history of fencing parallels the evolution of civilization, back from the days of ancient Egypt and Rome, to the barbaric Dark Ages, to the fast and elegant Rennassiance, up to the modern, increasingly popular fencing of today. Fencing has always been regarded as more than a sport; it is an art form, an ancient symbol of power and glory, and a deeply personal, individual form of expression. Fencing is and always has been an intrinsic part of life, from the dueling and battle of yore to the widely captivating movies and facets of popular culture such as Zorro and The Princess Bride.

The earliest evidence of fencing as a sport comes from a carving in Egypt, dating back to about 1200 B.C., which shows a sport fencing bout with masks, protective weapon tips, and judges.

St. Maurice

Saint Maurice (also known as Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius) was the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century during the reign of Emperor Maximian Herculius. Maximian sent an army to control an uprising of the Gauls throughout central Europe. One of the units in the army was recruited from Thebes in southern Egypt on the African continent. This legion was comprised of 6600 Christian soldiers. In order to give thanks for the success of their campaign, the soldiers were expected to offer a sacrifice to the gods. Since this included the killing of Christians, the legion of Thebes refused to comply with this order. When Maximian was unable to get the legion to obey, he ordered that they be decimated. Decimation was a military punishment where every tenth man was put to death. Saint Maurice was the legion’s leader and inspirer. When the soldiers still refused the emperor’s demands, a second decimation was ordered. Maximian threatened that if they continued then none of them would escape. Saint Maurice and the other soldiers could not renounce their God and chose to die innocent rather than live knowing they had killed other Christians. Upon hearing news of their continued resistance to obey orders, Maximian proceeded to order the slaughter of the rest of the legion. The place in Switzerland where this occurred, known as Agaunum, is now Saint Maurice-en-Valais, site of the Abbey of Saint Maurice-en-Valais. Besides Aguanum, the other sites where the soldiers were slain were Zurich, Soluthum and Zursach in Switzerland; Bergamo, Turin, Piacenza, the Cottian Alps, Pinerolo, Milan, Ventimilia in Italy; and Terier, Bonn, Cologne, and Xanten in Germany.

Saint Maurice became a patron saint of the Holy Roman Emperors. In 926, Henry I (919–936), even ceded the present Swiss canton of Aargau to the abbey, in return for the sacred lance of the Saint's. The Sword of Saint Maurice was part of the regalia used at coronations of the Austro-Hungarian Emperors until 1916. In 929, Henry I the Fowler held a royal court gathering (Reichsversammlung) at Magdeburg. At the same time the Mauritius Kloster in honor of Saint Maurice was founded. In 961, Otto I was building and enriching the cathedral at Magdeburg, which he intended for his own tomb. In the twenty-fifth year of his reign, in the presence of all of the nobility, the body of St. Maurice was conveyed to him at Regensburg along with the bodies of some of the Saint's companions. These relics were received with great honour at Magdeburg by a gathering of the entire city and of their fellow countrymen.

Saint Maurice is traditionally depicted in full armor, in Italy emblazoned with a red cross. He is often shown as a Moor, especially in the Magdeburg sculpture and other eastern German depictions. In folk culture, he has become connected with the legend of the Spear of Destiny, which he is supposed to have carried into battle. His name is engraved on the Holy Lance of Vienna, one of several relics claimed as the spear that pierced Jesus' side on the cross. Saint Maurice gives his name to the town St. Moritz as well as to numerous places called Saint-Maurice in French speaking countries. For over 500 years, a 24-hour vigil called Coptic Tasbeha has taken place in the monastery of St. Maurice in Switzerland.

Saint Maurice is also the patron saint of a Catholic parish and church in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, and including part of the town of Arabi in the St. Bernard parish. The church was constructed in 1856, making it on of the oldest churches in the area. Unfortunately, the church suffered wind damage and flood damage from Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. The church steeple was torn off and 5 feet of water entered the building; and the statue of St. Maurice was stolen by looters following the storm.

Although Saint Maurice and his companions faced imminent death, they held on to their beliefs. Over seventy European towns carry the name of Saint Maurice. Churches, statues, classical art masterpieces, and towns all over the world give homage to Saint Maurice and his faithful companions.

Fencing match between Chevalier Saint-Georges and Chevalier d'Éon

The Prince of Wales arranged a friendly fencing demonstration in London between Saint-Georges, who was 42, and a 59-year-old French woman, La chevalière d'Éon. Saint-Georges had broken an Achilles tendon at age 40, and was not as nimble as before. He could still parry and counterattack effectively. Gabriel Banat writes that on April 9, 1787 Saint-Georges was hit once by his opponent but still won the match. Pierre Bardin explains that La Chevalière hit Saint-Georges with what he calls a “coup de temps” which might be translated into English as a “time hit” or “counter time”. This action involves hitting one’s opponent on the preparation of his attack, thus reaching the target first. The chevalière was actually Charles d'Éon de Beaumont, a diplomat who dressed as a woman for many years to help him spy on foreign countries for the King of France. D'Éon was a multitalented man of letters, law, diplomacy and the military but had fallen out of favor with the royal court. He practiced fencing daily, in fear of his life.