Free Republic

Poet laureate listed on library's dossier of people connected to slavery because of ancestor born in 1592 The British Library added a poet to its list of figures connected to slavery because his relative more than 300 years ago was involved in colonialism.

Saint of the Day - Saint Andrew Kim TaegonThe first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han...

A salvage team has just weeks left to find wrecked turtle ships deep in the mud It was probably Korea’s greatest ever naval disaster. Ten thousand Korean sailors were killed on July 16, 1597 in the seas around Chilcheon Island off the coast of South Gyeongsang when 500 Japanese warships launched a surprise attack. Korea also lost five to seven geobukseon, or turtle ships, ironclad vessels shaped like a turtle, and 160 panokseon, another type of battleship. It was Korea’s only recorded naval defeat during its seven-year-long war with the Japanese between 1592 and 1598. No authentic examples of geobukseon...