But our story does not start there. Project 1444 reaches back before colonization’s interruption – to unearth buried memories and restore Africa’s vast, global legacy.
Created and led by Dr. Lindsay Gary – Africologist, historian, and Founder of The Re-Education Project – Project 1444 is a digital collection of essays and resources tracing the early African resistance throughout the Diaspora. It challenges the myth that African enslavement began in 1619, revealing earlier encounters and erased histories. This is history most of the world has never been taught. This is scholarship that redefines the origins of the African Diaspora – truth, finally brought to light.
To restore this continuum of memory, Project 1444 unites scholars who guide us through pivotal landscapes of African influence and survival – from North and East Africa and Mauritania to Hispaniola and Jamaica.
Different locations. One enduring lineage.
Featured Essays
“652: North and East Africa” – Dr. Tarik Richardson
In 652 CE – nearly a millennium before 1619 – Nubia and its neighbors faced Arab invasions that used Islam as a weapon of domination. This marked the rise of the Arab Slave Trade — centuries before European colonization. Africans resisted fiercely, defending their culture and sovereignty. Dr. Richardson reminds us: oppression began early — but African resistance began first.
“1444: Mauritania” – Dr. Lindsay Gary
In 1444, Portuguese forces raided Mauritania, capturing 235 Africans and bringing them to Lagos, Portugal – the first large-scale export of captives to Europe. Papal decrees soon granted Portugal control over this growing trade, spreading this from West and Central Africa to the Americas, and further entrenching systems of forced labor and altering African societies for generations. The truth is clear: African enslavement in the Americas did not begin in 1619 – it was already generations deep.
“1492: Hispaniola” – Dr. Kimoni Yaw Ajani
In 1492, the European arrival on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti) brought violence and devastation to indigenous peoples, while African men, women, and children were enslaved to replace lost labor and support colonial projects. Yet from the beginning, their knowledge and labor laid the foundations of what would become the “New World.” Africans resisted — forming maroon communities and preserving culture amidst chaos.
“1509: Jamaica” – Dr. Talawa Adodo
By 1509, as European powers deepened their colonial ambitions, Africans were enslaved in Jamaica – yet resistance rose immediately. Maroon societies became beacons of freedom, preserving African governance and identity for centuries to come.
Project 1444 is more than research. It is remembrance. Resistance. Restoration. By revealing these early histories, from Africa to the African Diaspora, Dr. Gary and her collaborators rewrite the timeline – reclaiming the brilliance and dignity of Africa’s ancestors. African enslavement did not begin in 1619 – and African resilience never ceased. Africa’s story begins with greatness… and continues with power.
This is Project 1444. And this is only the beginning.
