Unit 2 (P2) Vocab

Fugitive Slave Acts

Laws created by Congress that required that runaway slaves be captured and returned to their owners, even if they now resided in a free state.

Charles Deslondes

Man who led the largest slave revolt in American history, that took place in Louisiana in 1811, by organizing enslaved people across various plantations.

German Coast Uprising

Largest slave revolt, consisting of up to 500 people, on U.S. soil.

Madison Washington

An enslaved cook who led a mutiny aboard the slave brig, Creole, in 1841. He would ultimately seize the ship and sail it to the Bahamas, because the British had ended slavery in the WestIndian colonies in 1833.

Nat Turner

United States slave and insurrectionist who in 1831 led a rebellion of slaves in Virginia

Denmark Vesey

United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822)

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slave and great black abolitionist who fought to end slavery through political action

Henry Highland Garnet

An African American who advocated the most radical solution to the slavery question. He argued, that slaves should take action themselves by rising up in revolt against their owners.

Mutual-aid societies

A institution created by Black people that provide a variety of economic and social benefits to their members helping to fund the growth of Black schools, businesses, and independent churches and supported the work of Black writers and speakers.

Maria Stewart

The first Black woman to publish a political manifesto, and one of the first American women to give a public address. Her advocacy in the 1830s would also contribute to the first wave of the feminist movement.

Ida B. Wells

Black woman journalist known most significantly for leading the fight against lynching in her "Anti-Lynching Campaign."

Great Dismal Swamp

A large swamp in the coastal plain region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, where escaped enslaved peoples established a maroon community.

Quilombo dos Palmares

Largest maroon society in Brazil, lasted nearly 100 years.

Bayano

Led a maroon community in wars against the Spanish for several years in Panama in the 16th century.

Queen Nanny of the Maroons

Leader of the Wayward Maroons in Jamaica in their fight against the English in the 18th century.

Capoeira

A martial art and dance that developed in Brazil from Angolans who were taken there by the Portuguese from Africa, combined music and call-and-response singing.

Congada

A celebration of the king of Kongo and Our Lady of the Rosary, a prime example of religious syncretism.

Manumission

A grant of legal freedom to an individual slave.

Seminoles

A Native American tribe of the Floridia region, who prided themselves on being "unconquered" and would assist and integrate with runaway formerly enslaved people who attempted to obtain there freedom.

Indigenous enslavers

Native American tribes who participated in the enslavement of Africans

Emigration

The concept of moving away from the U.S. as the best strategy for African Americans to prosper freely.

Paul Cuffee

African-American sailor and merchant who supported the American Colonization Society. He would become the first person to relocate African Americans from the United States to Africa, when 1815 he took 39 African Americans to the British Black settlement of Freetown in Sierra Leone.

Martin R. Delany

He was the first black man to become a major in the U.S. Army, also known for being a staunch Black nationalist.

Black nationalism

A belief in the Black community that promoted Black unity, pride, and self-determination.

Anti-emigrationists

People who believed abolition and racial equality reflected the nation's ideals and that they would achieve the liberation, political representation, and full integration of African Americans in American society. They saw themselves as having "birthright citizenship."

Radical resistance

Extreme forms of resistance against slavery, generally involved violent resistance, rebellions, uprisings, insurrections, etc.

Direct action

The use of strikes, demonstrations, or other public forms of protest rather than negotiation to achieve one's demands.

Moral suasion

The abolitionist strategy that sought to change the status of African Americans in American society through persuasion by appealing to a sense of morality and ethics.

Integrationists

Advocates for racial integration and equality.

Anti-slavery pamphlets

Literature that detailed the horrors of slavery and hoped that by distributing, support for abolition would increase.

Underground Railroad

A covert network of Black and White abolitionists who provided transportation, shelter, and other resources to help enslaved people fleeing the South resettle in free territories in the U.S. North, Canada, and Mexico in the 19th century.

Abolitionist Movement

The movement concentrated on ending slavery in the United States

Harriet Tubman

One of the most well-known conductors of the Underground Railroad, who after fleeing enslavement, would return to the South at least 19 times, leading about 80 enslaved African Americans to freedom.

Combahee River Raid

Military operation during the Civil War led by Harriet Tubman, where more than 700 enslaved people were liberated

Sojourner Truth

Notable woman who escaped slavery with her daughter and would go on to become a famous abolitionist and women's rights activist.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Narrative written by Harriet Jacobs in 1861, making it the first narrative published by an enslaved African American woman.

Civil War

The internal war between the United States, North and South, from 1861-1865, over the "question" of slavery.

Emancipation Proclamation

A wartime order, issued by President Lincoln in 1863, declared freedom for enslaved people held in the 11 Confederate states still at war against the Union.

13th Amendment

Amendment that secured the permanent abolition of slavery in the U.S., except as punishment for a crime.

Juneteenth

Commemorates June 19, 1865, the day that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they were free, marking the end of slavery in the last state of rebellion, Texas.

General Order No.3

Document that informed people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free and also mentioned racial equality for formerly enslaved peoples.

Freedom days

Days celebrated by Black people commemorating obtaining freedom.