"Hume's and Kant's denial of any significant achievements by blacks ignored prominent nearby examples in Europe, such as Frances Williams, a Jamaican classicist who had excelled as a student at Cambridge and whose career was familiar to Hume. Among those less known were three closer to Kant's home... , who through his accomplishments in Holland had in 1742 become the first black minister of any Protestant church. ...[T]he West India Company and the Church would not condone his marrying an African woman, choosing... to provide him a Dutch bride... from Rotterdam. ... ...born on the Gold Coast, around 1700 ...The West India Company brought him to Amsterdam ...and presented him to the Duke of Wolfenbüttel. He was baptized... in 1707 ...[H]e was able to enter the Universities of Halle in 1727 and Wittenberg in 1730, where he became skilled in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Dutch and concentrated on philosophy. ...In 1734 he was awarded a doctorate... In his philosophical work he... devoted... attention to mathematical and medical knowledge in the context of Enlightenment thought. He became a lecturer at the University of Halle and later at the . ...[I]n Russia ...Peter the Great ...became the godfather of one of his black servant boys and provided him with the best possible education. ...Abraham Hannibal ...was ...sent to France for ...higher education in mathematics and military engineering. This adventure would... provide the... plot for a short story by his great-grandson, Alexander Pushkin. Hannibal... attained the rank of major general and... served as commandant of the city of Reval... [and] later direct major canal construction projects..."