AP African American Studies 2.1-2.8

Transatlantic Slave Trade

Lasted over 350 years, 1500s to 1800s

Only about 5% reached what became the U.S.

Charleston, S.C.

48% of enslaved Africans landed here.

Top Enslaving Nations

Portugal, Britain, France, Spain, Netherlands.

Senegambia and Angola

50% of enslaved people from these regions

Columbian Exchange

Global exchange of goods, people, and diseases, brought many new people to the Americas

La Florida

The Spanish name for the Southeast in the 1500s and 1600s. (FL, SC, & GA)

Spanish Colonization

Spanish expansion into the Americas for wealth.

Ladinos

First Africans in U.S., significant for colonization, familiar with Iberian culture and language.

Atlantic Creoles

African descent individuals acting as cultural mediators who have social mobility due to cultural knowledge.

Juan Garrido

First known African in North America, 1513. Born in Kongo, moved to Portugal and became a conquistador, serving Spanish military.

Estevanico (Esteban)

Enslaved African healer and translator in Texas. Killed by natives resisting Spanish colonialism.

Chattel Slavery

Race-based, inheritable, lifelong condition of enslavement where slaves are property.

Domestic Slavery

Enslaved individuals absorbed into captor's culture, could gain freedom, and their offspring were not enslaved.

Free Skilled Workers

Non-enslaved individuals providing specialized labor.

Mining and Agriculture

Primary sectors for enslaved labor in colonies.

Sugar Plantations

Enslaved Africans worked on sugar farms in Atlantic islands using Chattel Slavery

Cultural Practices

African ethnic groups combined traditions in America.

Middle Passage

Brutal journey across Atlantic lasting up to three months bringing enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Slave Ship Conditions

Enslaved Africans faced humiliation, disease, torture, and malnourishment.

15% Mortality in Middle Passage

Proportion of enslaved Africans who died during transit.

Final Passage

Captives arrived at ports and were quarantined

Resold and transported to do work

Could take as long as 1st and middle passage combined

Slaved trade caused instability in West Africa

Slave trade caused violence and instability among societies.

Costal states wealthy from trade and interior states falling apart bc of mass kidnapping for slave trade

Firearms Trade

Increased warfare due to European firearms in Africa.

Slave Narratives

Accounts detailing experiences of formerly enslaved Africans. Aimed to end slavery and demonstrate black humanity

Poetry by Enslaved Africans

Artistic expression reflecting the lives of the enslaved. Aimed to end slavery and demonstrate black humanity

Slave codes

Established in Barbados (1661)

Partially adopted by VA in 1667 and fully by SC in 1691

Defined chattel slavery as race based, inheritable, and life long

Restricted movement, congregation, possessing weapons, and wearing fine fabrics.

Code Noir

French Louisiana laws governing slaves and free blacks by allowing capital punishments.

Código Negro

Spanish colonial laws governing enslaved individuals

Maintained chances for freedom, leading to less revolts

Racial divides

Social barriers based on racial classifications.

Anti-Black laws

Regulations limiting rights of free Black individuals.

Stono Rebellion

1739, SC African Americans rose up, got weapons and killed several whites then tried to escape to S. Florida. The uprising was crushed and the participants executed.

South Carolina 1740 slave code

Legal response to Stono Rebellion, restricting enslaved rights.

Dred Scott Case

Supreme Court case which ruled that slaves are not citizens but are property, affirmed that property cannot be interfered with by Congress, slaves do not become free if they travel to free territories or states, fueled abolitionist movement, hailed as victory for the south

Three-fifths Clause

slave counted as 3/5 of a person for population in congress, giving slave states power.

Fugitive Slave Clause

slaves who escaped to free states must be returned to their owners

Electoral College

System for electing the U.S. President using points, favoring slave states.

Racial ideology

Beliefs justifying racial hierarchies in American society.

Voting restrictions

Laws preventing free Black men from voting in states.

Solomon Northup

Free Black musician captured into slavery. Twelve Years a Slave was his narrative detailing his enslavement.

Gullah creole language

Linguistic practice developed in Carolina Lowcountry.

Gang system

Group labor from sunup to sundown under overseer. Created work songs. Cotton, sugar & tobacco

Task system

Individual work until daily quota is met. Maintained more linguistic practices. Rice & Indigo

Slave ship diagrams

Illustrations showing conditions of enslaved transport. Published to gain sympathy for African Americans and bring awareness to the horrid conditions.

36,000 known voyages

Total documented journeys transporting enslaved Africans.

Commodification

Treating people as commodities for economic gain.

Deracination

Displacement from one's cultural or ethnic roots.

Economic Interdependence

North and South economies reliant on slavery.

Racial Wealth Disparities

Economic inequality based on racial lines, Africans Americans had no payment from their slavery to pass down to children.

Cotton boom

Cotton was a major part of the US economy & exports, increased by the cotton gin causing the need for more slaves to keep up with increased cotton production.

Second Middle Passage

Forced relocation of over one million African Americans.

Trail of Tears

Forced removal of Indigenous nations from their lands.

Sengbe Pieh

Captive from Sierra Leone who led a revolt of Africans on the La Amistad

Supreme court granted revolters freedom, leading to public sympathy for abolition.

Resisting Commodification and enslavement

Staging hunger strikes

Jumping Overboard

overcome linguistic differences to stage revolts

Hypodescent "one drop rule"

anyone with any amount of black ancestry as black in the eyes of the law and white society

3/4 of black people have some white history

Am I not a Woman and a Sister

Humanizing by showing that black mothers are just like white mothers and having their children taken away is horrendous.

2nd great awakening

race as a social construct

not based on biology; ignores culture; is way of grouping people that changes based on who wants do discriminate against who & justify it

phenotype

Skin color/hair type- the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment.

partus sequitur ventrum

(1662) VA legislature passed law stating the child of a slave woman would inherit its mother's status