Francis Williams Excellence Test
London 1928. At the Victoria and Albert Museum there was a very special painting: in the painting there is a black man, with wig and Levite, surrounded by books and scientific instruments. Thus it was catalogued in the Museum: “Unique satirical portrait representing a failed experiment in the education of blacks.”
Later it was discovered that the one in the painting was Francis Williams (1690-1770), a Jamaican scientist, lawyer, art collector and poet. Williams was born a slave, but his family managed to get emancipated and, as a young man, was sent to Cambridge to study. Thanks to his ingenuity and ingenuity, he was proposed in 1716 to enter the prestigious Royal Society. But a commission made up of Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley rejected Williams’ “body” proposal. He meant that he was black.
After his father's death, he returned to Jamaica, where he gained great fame through his scientific work and his efforts for the black community. Among other things, it opened a free school for black children.
Historian and researcher Fara Dabhoiwala at Princeton University has just studied Williams' painting in detail in London. In addition to identifying the author and the date of the painting, he has found relevant information about the scientific achievements of the Jamaican.
This led to the desperation of the whites of Jamaica and those of the international scene. The philosopher David Hume considered Williams a test of white superiority: “They say that there is a black man with talent and scholarship in Jamaica, but they surely admire him for his accomplishments, as a parrot able to say a few clear words.” Edward Long, a historian and advocate of slavery, guessed that they had done an experiment with Williams, “with the right work and enrolled in school and university, to discover that a black man could achieve the ability to read as a white.”
Historian and researcher Fara Dabhoiwala at Princeton University has just studied Williams' painting in detail in London. Besides identifying the author and the date of the painting, he has found very illustrative information about the scientific achievements of the Jamaican. Williams has a book open on the table: This is the Prince of Isaac Newton, who has an open page dedicated to predicting the orbits of comets. In addition, from the window you see part of the sky and Dabhoiwala has identified a small white ball. According to his own words, this ball is the Halley comet, at the time he passed over Jamaica in 1759. Remember that Newton and Halley participated in the commission that had prevented him from entering the Royal Society.
Dabhoiwala believes that the assignment of the painting was made by Williams to reclaim his knowledge in astronomy. The painting proved to be a great astronomer and, although he was not an astrologer, he was able to read the future.
Therefore, Williams was able to accurately guess the trajectory of comet Halley, which was key to making predictions of gravity; at that time a few scientists were able to do those calculations and Newton himself acknowledged that it was very difficult to do so.
Dabhoiwala believes that the assignment of the painting was made by Williams to reclaim his knowledge in astronomy. The painting proved to be a great astronomer and, although he was not an astrologer, he was able to read the future, as he guessed that this painting would help him get the confession he was denied during his life.
Luxorren, Erregeen Haranetik gertu, hilobi garrantzitsu baten sarrera eta pasabide nagusia aurkitu zituzten 2022an. Orain, alabastrozko objektu batean Tutmosis II.aren kartutxoa topatu dute (irudian). Horrek esan nahi du hilobi hori XVIII. dinastiako faraoiarena... [+]
AEB, 1900eko azaroaren 6a. William McKinley (1843-1901) bigarrenez aukeratu zuten AEBetako presidente. Berriki, Donald Trump ere bigarrenez presidente aukeratu ondoren, McKinleyrekiko miresmen garbia agertu du.
Horregatik, AEBetako mendirik altuenari ofizialki berriro... [+]
Urruña, 1750eko martxoaren 1a. Herriko hainbat emakumek kaleak hartu zituzten Frantziako Gobernuak ezarritako tabakoaren gaineko zergaren aurka protesta egiteko. Gobernuak matxinada itzaltzeko armada bidaltzea erabaki zuen, zehazki, Arloneko destakamentu bat. Militarrek... [+]
In the Maszycka cave in Poland, remains of 18,000 years ago were found at the end of the 19th century. But recently, human bones have been studied using new technologies and found clear signs of cannibalism.
This is not the first time that a study has reached this conclusion,... [+]
Porzheim, Germany, February 23, 1945. About eight o’clock in the evening, Allied planes began bombing the city with incendiary bombs. The attack caused a terrible massacre in a short time. But what happened in Pforzheim was overshadowed by the Allied bombing of Dresden a few... [+]
Poloniar ikerlari talde batek Sevillako Italica aztarnategiko Txorien Etxea aztertu du, eta eraikinaren zoruko mosaikoak erromatar garaiko hegazti-bilduma xeheena dela ondorioztatu du.
Txorien etxean 33 hegazti daude mosaikoetan xehetasun handiz irudikatuta. Beste... [+]
Judea, 2nd century AD. In the turbulent atmosphere of the Roman province, a trial was held against Gaddaliah and Saul, accused of fraud and tax evasion. The trial was reported on a 133-line paper in Greek (pictured). Thinking that it was a Nabataean document, the papyrus was... [+]
Vietnam, February 7, 1965. The U.S. Air Force first used napalma against the civilian population. It was not the first time that gelatinous gasoline was used. It began to be launched with bombs during World War II and, in Vietnam itself, it was used during the Indochina War in... [+]
Archaeologists have discovered more than 600 engraved stones at the Vasagård site in Denmark. According to the results of the data, dating back to 4,900 years ago, it is also known that a violent eruption of a volcano occurred in Alaska at that time. The effects of this... [+]
Japan, 8th century. In the middle of the Nara Era they began to use the term furoshiki, but until the Edo Era (XVII-XIX. the 20th century) did not spread. Furoshiki is the art of collecting objects in ovens, but its etymology makes its origin clear: furo means bath and shiki... [+]
In an Egyptian mummy of 3,300 years ago, traces of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that caused the Justinian plague in the 6th century and the Black Plague in the 14th century, have just been found.
Experts until now believed that at that time the plague had spread only in... [+]
Greenland, the end of the 10th century. The first Scandinavian explorers and settlers arrived on the island. But by the 15th century these settlements had been abandoned and the original Inuit remained. But in 1721, the missionary Hans Egede organized an expedition and the... [+]
In 2017, Indonesia and the Netherlands signed an agreement to return the heritage stolen by the European country because of colonialism for three centuries. The Indonesian responsible for the return process, Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, explained that this agreement "was important in... [+]
Greece 1975. The country began the year as a republic, three weeks earlier, in the referendum on 8 December 1974, after the citizens decided on the end of the monarchy.
A decade earlier, in 1964, when King Paul I died, his son Constantine took the throne at the age of 23.
But... [+]
Copenhagen, 18 December 1974 At 12 noon a ferry arrived at the port, from where a group of about 100 Santa Claus landed. They brought a gigantic geese with them. The idea was to make a kind of “Trojan Goose” and, upon reaching the city, to pull the white beard costumes... [+]