HIST 343: Chapter 1

Ghana

* a trading nation with a strong Muslim influence
* consolidated its power during the fourth and fifth centuries
* came to dominate west Africa for the next seven hundred years

The Kingdom of Mali

* united virtually all of west Africa
* commercial cities brought traders from the Middle East and southern Europe
* University in Timbuktu brought foreign scholars

Portuguese

* desire to trade in areas where gold was minded and interest in pepper


* this drought them to west Africa coast during the fifteenth century

The Songhai Empire

* fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
* Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, and Ivory Coast

West Africa

today, the regions of the Songhai Empire is known as this

History of slavery

* provided the American model with validation and affirmation
* successful societies such as the Greek and the Roman Empires, thrived on the slavery system

Religious misconceptions

* proponents of slavery had used to justify their stance, biblical references also


* old testaments about the existence of slaves in the age of prophets, served to rationalize the innate hierarchy of societies

Physiognomic differences

* white and non-white
* racist ideology of white supremacy
* slavery was the simple implementation of the natural hierarchy of race
* slavery is to question the natural order itself

Mental inferiority of the non-whites

* deemed unable to provide for themselves
* Slavery was thus a virtue for slaves as it provided them with food and shelter; assets that they could have not otherwise provided for their own
* had convinced slave owners that they are in fact doing their slaves a favor by enslaving harboring the

Recapitulation of the arguments justifying slavery

1) economy

2) history

3) religion

4) morality

5) race

6) pseudo-science

Economy x slavery

slavery was profitable

History x slavery

Greek and Roman societies thrived on slavery

Religion x slavery

some biblical verses were said to have alluded to slavery

Morality x slavery

slavery is altruistic because the masters provided slaves with food and shelter

Race x slavery

the white man is superior to the black man

Pseudo-science x slavery

blacks are physiognomically able to work longer hours in rigid conditions

Slave codes

* enacted legally and formally declaring slaves as properties of their masters and not as individuals
* 1793

US schools of histography

1) mainstream

2) traditionalist

3) exceptionalist

Exceptionalist school

* believes in americas moral supremacy
* John Winford

Revisionist school

* outcome of the 1960s revolutions (question everything)
* opposite of mainstream school
* “cynical, too negative”
* William Appleman Williams, Howard Zimm

The post revisionist school

* focuses on exploitations formed in the US
* combine both sides of the story (opposed to mainstream school)
* non-perfect america, not trying to destroy
* Eric Forme, Ernest May

Mainstream school

US was always in the right and only focuses on the US side of the story

American creed

* the values on which a nation is built
* built during the colonial times
* all men are built equal, egalitarian, economic freedom, hard work, heroism, patriotism

Cold war

communism vs. capitalism

Describe the moral paradoxes of colonial america

gap between theory and practice

How was slavery justified in the new world?

1. economy - slavery was profitable
2. history - Greek and Roman societies thrived on slavery
3. religion - some biblical verses were said to have alluded to slavery
4. morality - slavery is altruistic because the masters provided slaves with food and shelter
5. race - the white man is superior to the black man
6. pseudo-science - blacks are physiognomically able to work longer hours in rigid conditions

How did Africans influence the development of American culture?

By the middle of the 18th century, new beginnings had developed of a distinctive American culture; a culture shaped by the influence of Africans and Natives and by the limitations, the possibilities, and the challenges of the “New World”

Which developments led to decreasing freedoms for both enslaved and free Black people over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

In the wake of the development of the Atlantic slave trade, wealthy colonists of the new world bought masses of slaves to work in their cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, and sugar cane fields