Adolf Badin, also known as Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albert/Couschi, was born in St. Croix, Danish West Indies in 1747, and died in 1822 in Sweden.  Badin came to Sweden a slave but became a titled person in the courts of King Fredrick and Queen Ulrika during their reign (1751-1771).  Badin married twice: first to Elisabet Svart in 1782, and then to Magdelena Eleonra Norell in 1799; he had no children. Badin has been described by his many court functions: assessor, page, footman, jester, diarist, servant, chamberlain, court secretary, ballet master, book collector. However, he preferred to call himself “farmer,” as he eventually owned two small farms, one in Svartsjolandet and the other in Sorunda.

Badins real last name was Couschi, but he was christened as Badin, which signifies “prankster.” Hes also been referred to as “Morianen” which was the colloquial name for African Diasporians in Europe at that time.  

At the age of seven, Couschi was purchased in St. Croix and taken to Europe by a Danish sea captain who gave the boy to Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia (Queen of Sweden, 1751-1771) as a gift. Aristocratic ladies of that time considered it fashionable to have black pages in their palaces. Eva Engblom, a Swedish amateur scientist, who examined evidence of Moors (North and West Africans) in Europe, estimates that between 50 and 100 people of African descent were brought to Sweden during this time.

Queen Louisa Ulrika reigned during Swedens Age of Liberty (1718-1772), a period of political and scientific enlightenment.  She founded the Swedish Academy of Science, which studied provocative thinkers of this era.  Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, the major Western political and educational philosopher of the era, both captured the Queens attention.  Some say that Badin was her experiment in that she wished to prove Rousseaus theories of educational development including the then radical idea that children learned best by experiencing consequences rather than by