AP African American Studies: Unit 2

Ladinos

• Free and enslaved Africans familiar with Iberian (Spanish & Portuguese) culture

• Journeyed with Europeans in their earliest explorations of the Americas

• Some of the first Africans in the US

• Part of a generation known as Atlantic Creoles

Atlantic Creoles

• Africans who worked as intermediares before chattel slavery

• Were familiar with multiple languages, cultural norms & commercial practices

• Gave them social mobility

Ladino’s Significance

• Essential to European colonial claims in the Americas

• Played a role in how Spain colonized “La Florida” (Florida, South Carolina, Georgia)

African Roles in 1400s & 1500s in America

1. Conquistadores

2. Enslaved Laborers

3. Free Skilled Workers & Artisians

Conquistadores

Helping Spain conquering indigenous land in hopes of gaining freedom

Juan Garrido

• Born in Kongo & moved to Lisbon, Portugal

• 1st known African to arrive in North America

• Explored present day Florida through a Spanish expedition in 1513

• Served in Spanish military forced participating in efforts to conquer indigenous people

  

Estevanico (Esteban)

• Enslaved African healer from Morocco

• Forced to work in 1528 as an explorer and translator in Texas and in territory that became Southwesern US

• Eventually killed by Indigenous groups who were resisting Spanish colonialism.

Number of enslaved Africans taken to the Americas

12.5 million

How long the Transatlantic Slave Trade lasted

~350 years (1526-1867)

Where most people came to the Americas from

• Africa

• More arrived from Africa than any other part of the world

Amount of slaves brought to the United States

• Only 5% of all Slaves

• ~388,000 arrived in the US

48% of slaves brought to the US landed here

• Charleston, South Carolina

  • Known as the center of slave trade in USA

Most dominating enslaving nation

Portugal

Most slaves taken during the Transatlantic slave trade were taken to this country 

Brazil 

Top 5 enslaving countries

1. Portugal

2. Great Britain 

3. France

4. Spain

5. The Netherlands

1619 Project

• A collection of essays, stories, and research first published by The New York Times in 2019

• Name comes from the year 1619, when the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia 

The Middle Passage

• Brutal, forced sea voyage, enslaved Africans endured across the Atlantic to the Americas

• 3 parts/passages

First Passage

• Africans were captured and marched to the Atlantic coast from inner states

• Africans waited in dungeons that were crowded and unsanitary

• Lasted several months

Second (Middle) Passage

• Traveling across the Atlantic Ocean aboard Slave Ships

  • This was the actual Middle Passage 

• Signified permanent separation from communites

• Horrible conditions

  • Physical violence, sexual abuse, disease & Malnourishment

• 2 million deaths (~15%)

• Up to 3 months

Third Passage

• Arrival at ports in Americas

• They were quarantined, resold and transported to servitude

• Could take as long as the First and Second parts combined 

On Board slave ships

• Enslaved people were stuffed into compartments 

  • Ceilings as low as 4.5 feet

  • Where of the voyage was spent

• Segregated by gender & age

  • Men were shackled in pairs

  • Women left unchained

  • Children moved freely 

Conditions on board slave ships

• No sanitary facilities 

  • Relive themselves where they sat

  • Created hellish conditions when combined with heat + lack of ventilation

• Illness was rampant 

• Enslaved people spent 8 hours on deck 

  • Still segregated 

• Were forced to exercise

  • Included song and dance as entertainment 

• Captives deemed disobedient were tortured and beaten 

Africans who profited from The Transatlantic Slave Trade

• African elites/rulers, merchants and middle men profited

• Most other people didn’t gain much from the trades

Destabilization of West African societies

• The Transatlantic slave trade made kidnapping and violence profitable

• Europeans traded guns for captives

  • Fueiling raids and wars between African groups

• Widened the wealth gap in Africa

  • Coastal states grew richer from the trade, while inner states became unstable under the constant threat of capture 

• Created conflict between ethnic groups as leaders sold war captives to maintain dominance and gain wealth 

• Caused long-term instability and the loss of family lines and community leaders who would have passed on traditions and stability 

What slave narratives are

• Detailed accounts from formerly enslaved Africans

  • Poetry, novels, autobiographies, etc.

• Foundational to early American writing

  • Historical accounts

  • Literary works

  • Political texts

Role of Slave Narratives

• Designed to end slavery/slave trade

  • Serve as the basis for the Abolition movement 

• Demonstrate black humanity 

• Advocate for inclusion of African Americans into American society  

Olaudah Equinao

• Captured at 11 from West Africa

• wrote the Interesting Narrative on the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) 

Phillis Wheatley

• Captured at 8 years old from Senegambia

• First AA to publish a book of poetry

  • On Being Brought from Africa to America

• Portrait by enslaved AA painter Scipio Moorhead was the first known individual portrait of an African American

Brooks Diagram

• Diagram of systematic arrangement of enslaved Africans

• Designed to maximize profit by transporting as many as possible

  • Reflects unsanitary and cramped conditions that increased disease, disability and death during a trip that could last 90 days

Information Brooks Diagram excluded

• Brooks Diagram was one of the only slave documents that many normal people were familiar with; they didn’t know a lot of important details becuase the diagram didn’t include them

• Brooks Diagram didn’t include:

  • Typically showed only half the number of enslaved people on ships

  • Guns

  • Nets (used to prevent suicide)

  • Iron instruments to force-feed those who resisted 

  • Showed Africans as an anonymous, homogenous group of “goods“ for sale

African resistance on the Middle Passage

• Africans resisted being displaced (deracination), being treated as a good (commodification), and enslavement. This was done through

  • Hunger Strikes

  • Attempting to jump overboard

  • Overcoming lingustic differences

• Made slave trade more expensive and dangerous

Rebellions on Slave Ships led to

• Changes in ship design

  • Barricades

  • Nets

  • Guns

Amistad Revolt (1839)

• 30 years after abolition of save trade

• Sengbe Pieh (Joseph Cique)

  • Méndez captive from Sierra Leone

  • Led a group of enslaved Africans in one of the most famous slave revolts

• Enslaved Africans took over the schooner La Amistad 

United States v. Amistad (1839-1841)

• Supreme Court granted Mende captives freedom

• This garnered public sympathy for abolition 

Impacts of Resistance on Abolition

• Resistance fueled antislavery activism

• Black & White antislavery activists used slave diagrams to raise awareness for the brutalities of the Middle Passage

• Black artists reclaimed/repurposed imagery of slave ships

  • Process historical trauma

  • Honors memories of ancestors

Enslavers used white supremacy to justify

• Physical, mental and spiritual assault of enslaved people

• Done through slave auctions

Consequences for enslaved people who resisted sale

• Severe punishment

• Were whipped in front of peers

AA authors & abolition

• Used many genres

  • Narratives, poetry, etc.

• Showed the physical and emotional impacts of auctions

• Sought to refute claims (from oppressors) that slavery wasn’t harmful

Solomon Northup

• Free AA musician 

• Was captured illegally 

• Sold into slavery on a cotton plantation in Louisiana

• Provides an eyewitness account in Twelve Years a Slave 

Enslaved people could be owned by

• Individuals

• Institutions

  • Churches, factories, colleges, etc.

Variety of labor

• Domestic, agricultural, and skilled labor

  • Urban & rural areas

  • Wide ranges of ages

  • Both men & women

• Sometimes, domestic & agricultural laborers were separated

• Enslaved people could be relocated depending on preferences of the enslaver

Skills brought to the Americas by Africans

• Blacksmithing

• Basket weaving

• Cultivation of rice and indigo

• Specialized skills

  • Painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, healers

• Enslavers exploited AAs skills

• AAs used these skills to survive, create culture and community

Labor systems

• Gang System

• Task System

Gang system

• Enslaved laborers worked in groups from sunup to sundown

• Under the watch and discipline of an overseer

• Grew crops like cotton, sugar, and tobacco

• Created work songs with syncopated rhythms to keep with the pace of work 

Task System

• Worked individually until they met a daily quota

• Less supervision

  • Allowed them to maintain linguistic practices

  • Gullah Creole developed in Carolinas

• Cultivated rice and indigo

Gullah people

• Came from many different ethnic groups in West Africa

  • Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, etc.

• Identity is a blend of West African, European, and Indigenous cultures

Gullah Religion

• Gullah people casted spells with herbs

• Put newspaper in shoes

• Ring shout

  • Religious dance

• Burial customs

  • Drumming

  • Covering mirrors

  • Smashing dishes over burial site so no one else would pass

  • Leaving a portion of food for those who died

Economic effects of the slave trade

• Economic interdependence between the North & the South

  • Northern cities benefited from the Slave economy, even if they didn’t participate 

• Enslaved people were integral to the American economy

• African Americans were detached from the wealth they produced

• Slavery caused wealth disparities along racial lines

• Enslaved people had no wages to pass on & no rights to attain property 

French Code Noir

• Law outlining regulations for slaves in French Colonies

  • From the King of France 

• Forbid slaves from:

  • Carrying weapons or large sticks (save for hunting)

  • Slaves of different masters from meeting up at any time or anywhere

  • Masters who allowed slaves to evade law would be fined

• Slaves were guilty even before any ruling was made on their case

Slavery in the Constitution (Article I & IV)

• Refers to slavery but doesn’t use the words “slave” or “slavery”

• “Slave” appeared in an early drafts but was removed

  • No direct mention until abolition (13th amendment)

Impact of Slave Codes

• Defined chattel slavery as race-based, inherited and life-long

• Restricted movement, meetings among slaves, possession of weapons, wearing fine fabrics, etc.

• Restrictions can be found in Code Noir (French)/Codigo Negro (Spanish) 

Harded the color line

• Made opportunities for moving up in society & protections against enslavement exclusive for white people

  • Denied opportunities for Black Americans

“Free” States

• Also denied free AAs opportunities for advancement

• Some forbid the entry of free Black people into the state

• Voting Restrictions

• Black men couldn't testify against whites in court

Voting restrictions in Free States

• Before the 15th Amendment (1870) only Wisconsin and Iowa had given Black men the right to vote

• In 1860, Black men could vote in only 5 of 6 New England States

  • Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampsire)

Slave Codes

• Created due to enslavers’ fears of slave uprisings and resistance

• After resistance, AAs were met with new, stricter regulations

South Carolina Slave Code updates after Stono Rebellion

• Classified all Black & Indigenous people as nonsubjects (unimportant, unworthy of discussion or attention)

• Prohibited enslaved people gathering, learing to read,

Race

• Not Real 

  • Not based on biology

  • A lie created to justify getting rich in immoral ways

  • More genetic differences within racial groups than between them

• Was invented to justify chattel slavery and claim their cirmes were “natural”

• Notions of race developed along side slavery

Racism

• Caused by slavery, not the other way around

• Racist laws of slavery produced hate & ignorance , not the other way around

Racial hierarchy in Europe

• During the Enlightenment Era

• Philosophers believed rationality & civilization belong to whites

• Thinkers belived Africans were less capable of reason

• Race became the cornerstone of western thought

When Black people challenged racial hierarchy

• People who benefited from the system became angry

  • Their status & view of the world was shaken and threatened 

    • Responded w/ hate

Partus sequitur ventrem

• 17th century law

• Defined a child’s legal status based on the mother’s

• Allowed slavery to be hereditary

  • ensured a woman’s child would inherit the womans staus as property

Partus sequitur ventrem’s impact

• Children inherited a status as property, witch invalidated AA’s claims to their children

• Designed to prohibit the mixed-race children of Black women from inheriting free status (the custom for english common law)

• Gave male slave owners the right to deny responsibility for children they fathered (usually through assault)

  • In order to commodify enslaved womnes reproductive rights

Hypodescent (One-drop-rule)

• One’s race was determined by this

• Stated that anyone with any degree of African descent as a Black person (of inferior status)

Phenotype

• Ones physical characteristics 

• Contributed largely to the way racial identity was seen

• During slavery, racial categories were defined by law, regardless of phentype

• Tied rights & status to race

  • enslaved, free, citizen

  • to perpetuate slavery over generations

For AA’s who had European or Indigenous ancestry

Race classification prohibited them from embracing multiracial & multiethnic heritage

Spirituals

• Blended music and faith traditions in the United States

• AKA Sorrow Songs & Jubilee Songs

• Enslaved people sang to articulate their hardship & hopes

Spirituals significance 

• Represent AA’s African heritage and American identity 

• Preserve rhythm and performance styles from West Africa and express American experiences

Spirituals purpose

• Served social, spiritual and political purposes 

  • Resist dehumanizing/unjust conditions of slavery 

  • Express creativity 

  • Communicate strategic info

    • Warnings, plans to run away, methods of escape

    • Lyrics had double meanings

• Used biblical themes of redemption and deliverance to alert enslaved people of opportunities to runaway via Underground rail road

To make up for meager rations from enslavers

Enslaved people planted their own gardens

US ban of international slave trade

• 1808

• importation of enslaved people continued illegally 

• percentage of African-born people in the AA population declined

American Colonization Society

• Founded in 1816 by white leaders

• Sought to exile growing free Black population to africa

  • Caused many Black people to reject the term “African” and instead emphasized their American identity. 

African countries never colonized by Europeans

• Ethiopia

• Liberia

Ways AAs describe themselves

• Since the 1800s, AAs describe themselves using a wide range of ethnonyms

  • Afro-American

  • African American

  • Black

Colored Conventions

• Beginning in the 1830s 

• AAs held political meetings across the US and Canada 

• Emphasized shared AA heritage

• Housed debates about identity and self-identification in AA communities  

Promotion of the use of the term African American

• Promoted by civil rights activist Reverend Jesse L. Jackson 

• 1988

• Emphasized shared cultural heritage

• Emphasized community of descendants of enslaved Africans born in the US

Haitian Revolution

• 1781-1804

• Only uprising of enslaved people that resulted in overturning a colonial slaveholding government

• Transformed European Saint-Domingue into a Black republic free of slavery (Hati)

• Created second Independent nation in the Americas

Saint-Domingue

• Highly profitable French sugar island

  • Richest colony in the world

  • Produced more sugar than all other Caribbean islands combined

• “Backside” (western side) of Spain’s Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)

Haitian Revolutions impacts on France

• France lost its most profitable colony

• Caused Napoleon to sell the Louisiana Territory to the US

  • 2x the size of the US

  • Made more land available for slavery

• Temporary abolition of slavery throughout the French Empire (1794-1802)

Haitian Revolution brought this to the US

• Influx of White Planters & enslaved Black refugees

  • Went to cities like Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia

• Increased anxieties about the spread of slave revolts

Maroons during the Haitian Revolution

• Spread information across different groups

• Organized attacks

• Many freedom fighters were former soldiers

  • Were enslaved during civil wars in the Kingdom of the Kongo and sent to Haiti

Destruction of sugar plantation systems in Haiti

Caused the sugar market to shift to the US, Cuba, and Brazil

Haitian Revolution impacts on diaspora

• For some AAs, Haiti’s independence highlighted unfulfilled promises of the American Revolution

• Inspired uprisings in other African diaspora communities like:

  • Louisiana Slave revolt

  • Male Uprising of Muslim slaves (largest revolts in Brazil)

• Had an impact on Black political thinking

  • Symbol of Black freedom and sovereignty

Haitian Constituon

• Declared all citizens of Haiti to be Black

  • Challenges colonial ideas of blackness

  • Reframed Blackness as an identity that signified citizenship and belonging

Daily forms of resistance

• Slowing work

• Breaking tools

• Stealing food

• Attempts at running away

Resistance supported this larger movment

Movement towards abolition

Religion’s role in daily forms of resistance

• Religious services/Churches became vital in fueling resistance to slavery

• Served as multifunctional sites for community gathering, celebration, mourning, sharing information

• In the North, for political organizing

Former African soldiers

• Transatlantic slave trade led to a concentration of former African soldiers

• Aided in enslaved communities’ ability to revolt

  • In some areas of the Americas

Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Rufus King

• Request for British permission to transport Black rebels from the United States to Sierra Leone

• Stated its a necessary security measure

• Direct response to Gabriel’s Rebellion (1800)

Spanish Settlement Revolt

• Earliest known slave revolts in the US

• Enslaved Africans in Santo Domingo (DR) were brought to aid Spanish exploration along the South Carolina/Georgia coastline

• Revolted and likely escaped into nearby Indigenous communities

Louisiana Revolt (1811)

• Led by Charles Deslondes

  • Organized support across local plantations and maroon communities

    • Including self-emancipated people from Hati

• Largest known slave revolt on US soil

  • 500 enslaved people

• Marched toward New orleans

• Violently suppressed

Denmark Vesey

• Inspired by religion

  • Does planning for the rebellion in an African church

• Plans to revolt, but is executed before revolt can be carried out

Nat Turner

• Inspired by religion

• Believed he was sent a sign from god to rebel

• Leads a crowd in Virginia of ~750 slaves

• Kills ~60 whites (including women & children)

Creole Mutiny

• Led by Madison Washington

  • Enslaved cook

  • Seized ship and sailed it to Bahamas

    • British owned which had abolished slavery in West Indies in 1833

• Rebellion on a slave brig (ship) the Creole

  • Transported enslaved people from Virginia to New Orleans

• Very successful

  • ~130 AAs gained freedom in Bahamas

Great Awakenings (nice to know; not needed)

• Religious revivals

• Four Great awakenings

  • First (1730-1755)

  • Second (1790-1840)

  • Third (1855-1930)

  • Fourth (1960-1980; controversial)

Ideas in Why Sit Ye Here and Die by Maria W. Stewart

• Demands African Americans reject passivity

• Calls for immediate action to fight for social economic and educational equality

Free black populations

• Late 1700s & early 1800s, free black populations grew

• 12% of free people were Black by 1860

• More free black people in the South than in the north, but their numbers were smaller in comparison to the enslaved population

Free Black people building community

• Within cities like Philly, NY, New Orleans

• Mutual aid societies

  • Funded the growth of Black schools, businesses, and independent churches

  • Supported Black writers & speakers

Calling attention to Black women’s experiences (1800s)

Black women used speeches & publications to call attention to Black women’s experiences within antislavery discussions

Maria W. Stewart

• 1st Black woman to publish a political manifesto

• 1st American woman to give a public address

• Advocacy in 1830s contributed to the first wave of the feminist movement

Importance of Black Women

• Called attention to the intersections of race and gender discrimination

• Fought for abolition and women’s rights

  • Paved the way for women’s suffrage movement

• Highlights connection between race, gender, and class in their experiences

• Women anticipated political debates that remain central to AA politics