Transatlantic Slave Trade and Africanisms in the Americas

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, and concepts from the lecture notes on the Transatlantic slave trade, diaspora, labor systems, syncretism, and cultural persistence in the Americas.

Diaspora

Forced dispersion of a population from its homeland; in this lecture the massive forced dispersion of Africans across the Atlantic during the Transatlantic slave trade.

Transatlantic slave trade

The long-distance network moving enslaved Africans to the Americas and exchanging goods among Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Middle Passage

The brutal sea voyage that transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Triangular trade

The three-legged Atlantic exchange: European goods to Africa for enslaved people, enslaved people to the Americas for raw materials, and raw materials back to Europe.

Sao Tome plantation template

The sugar plantation system on Sao Tome using African slave labor; served as the model for later plantation slavery in the Americas.

Sugar (white gold)

Sugar’s high market value that drove enormous demand for enslaved labor on plantations; a central economic driver of the slave trade.

Chattel slavery

A modern form of slavery in which people are treated as personal property, bought and sold for life, with hereditary enslavement of descendants and race-based legal definitions.

Classical slavery

Pre-modern slavery where slaves were not defined by race and could be prisoners of war or debtors; not necessarily perpetual or hereditary.

Hereditary slavery

Slavery status passed from generation to generation, making enslaved people and their descendants property forever in many legal systems.

Mourning war

A practice (found among West African and some Native groups) of capturing enemies to replace lost kin; not inherently racial and can destabilize societies.

Fictive kinship

Social bonds among enslaved people that function like family ties, created across non-blood relationships.

Ankh

A term used to describe fictive kinship among enslaved Africans in the Americas.

Syncretism

The blending of elements from different religious or cultural traditions to form new practices or beliefs.

Voodoo

Afro-Caribbean religion blending West African beliefs with Catholicism, prominent in Haiti and Louisiana.

Candomble

Afro-Brazilian religion blending Yoruba-based beliefs with Catholic elements.

Gullah

Sea Island African American culture of South Carolina/Georgia; English-based creole language and distinctive cultural practices.

Creole (English-based creole)

A language formed from mixing English with African and other linguistic elements; exemplified by the Gullah creole.

Task system

Labor system used in South Carolina rice plantations where workers complete specific tasks and gain control of remaining time.

Gang system

Labor system common in Virginia tobacco plantations with direct overseer supervision of large groups of workers.

Maroon

Escaped enslaved people who established independent communities and resisted recapture.

Saramacca

A maroon community in Dutch Guiana; language creole with African, Dutch, English, and Indigenous influences; example of a long-lasting African heritage in the Americas.

Phyllis Wheatley

First African American woman to publish a book in British North America; celebrated poet who wrote about race and religion.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

Wheatley poem analyzing race, Christianity, and salvation; discusses notions of paganism and divine redemption.

Nat Turner

Leader of a slave rebellion in 1831, symbolizing radical resistance to slavery.

Uncle Tom

Fictional character representing accommodation and loyalty to masters; used to discuss forms of submission within slavery.

Resistance–accommodation spectrum

A framework describing the range of enslaved people's responses from open resistance to accommodation, including mild acts like sabotage or slowdowns; attributed to Butler.

Bewitching Tales

Reading selections used in class to explore slave narratives and the coded or subversive meanings within them.

Middle Passage mortality

Approximately 10% of enslaved Africans died during the Middle Passage voyage.