Black British History Timeline

Black people have been part of British history for nearly 2,000 years. This timeline runs from Roman York to the present day. Every event is linked to the KS3 National Curriculum and to Britain: Migration, empires and the people, c790 to the present day.

How to use it

Filter by key stage or theme, or search for a person or place. Each event has an enquiry question you can use as a starter, a discussion point or an extended-writing prompt.

Words we use

Enslaved people, not “slaves”: people come first, not their condition.
Enslavers for those who held people in slavery.
Uprising or rebellion for organised resistance.

Big themes

Presence, Empire and trade, Resistance, War and service, Migration, Rights and activism, and Culture. They run through every era, which helps with KS4 thematic answers.

Curriculum map

The number of events linked to each part of the curriculum. Select a row to show only those events.

KS3 programme of study (2013)

GCSE AQA 8145: Migration, empires and the people

KS3 links use the strands of the 2013 National Curriculum programme of study for history. KS4 links use the four parts of the AQA GCSE History thematic study (8145). Check the current specification before planning assessments. Dates and figures come from established historical scholarship. Where historians disagree about numbers, the timeline gives rounded figures.