african american history

What was one possible effect of the map depicting Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca?

inspired Europeans to seek gold in west sub Saharan Africa

manumission

the legal process of freeing an enslaved person

Why has ancient Egyptian History been the subject of fierce controversy among thinkers in Europe and America?

Debates about the race of the ancient Egyptians have been linked to arguments over the relative accomplishments of blacks and whites

Asiento

Direct shipping of slaves to the new world

Preffered term current African Scholars and Dr. Black recommend for the slave trade

European Slave Trade

Hominins

People evolved in Africa

Term Dr. Black said to remember at the end of his lecture of Wed. September 3rd

BlackHistory

What was a former major African Trade center of trade and universities before the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Timbuktu

Third largest producer of film in the world

Nollywood- Nigeria

Where did a majority of Africans go after the middle pasage

What was the biggest killer on ships during the Middle Pasage

What is the term for those who were required to work for four to seven years

Indentured servents

Difference between slave and enslaved

Slave objectifies people, Enslaved shows the condition of the people

What forms of resistance does Robert Hayden touch on in his poem "Middle Passage"?

Mutiny and escape

What is at issue in this quote: "abominable mixture and spurious issue which hereafter may encrease in this dominion?"

miscenagation

manumission

a legal process in which slaves get freedom from a slave owner

trans-saharan trade

routes that began to connect west Africa with north Africa and Mediterranean starting in the 6th century

hominins

members of the primate group, diverged from chimps 6 or 7 million years ago

Diaspora

the movement of Africans out of Africa and their decendants, in this context includes the return of them back to africa

encomienda system

a labor system used by the spainish in their colonization of the Americas; granted colonists control over a number of native americans they could use for labor

elimina castle

major slave trading center in present day ghana

asiento

trade agreements, authorized European merchants to ship enslaved Africans directly from Africa to new spain 

atlantic triangle trade

European markets gave manufactured goods for > enslaved africans who were shipped to > the Americas to exchange new world commodities where were shipped back to > european markets

Middle Passage

slave ships transported enslaved blacks from the west african coast to slave ports of the new world

maroons 

slaves who escaped 

indentured servants

white servant, temporary enslavement from 4 to 7 years to pay the costs of their transportation and maintenance

chattel slavery

system of slavery; African slaves were legally equivalent to other forms of chattel like domestic animals or future; had no rights of any kind or legal authority over anyone even their children

creole

forms of communication, blend of english and several african languages

mulatto

mixed-race children born from a slave and white parent 

task system

had a black driver or bondman oversee enslaved laborers, given daily tasks that they would have to complete

black driver

a bondman chosen to oversee the work of other slaves

code noir

black code, slaves who ran away three times were subject to capital punishment

stono rebellion

slave rebellion in south carolina, led by slaves rebels killed about twenty whites before captured and subdued 

conjure

mixing of the african spirituality and beliefs along with the native american knowledge of natural rememdies

Gullah

a creole language composed of english and west african languages

Great awakening

a wave of religous revivals that began in new england in mid 1730’s and spread south during the revolutionary era

freedom suits

law suits from slaves petitioning for freedom in british and american courts

somerset case 1772: 

freed american slave james somerset in 1772, tried to escape but got caught and was imprisoned on a ship bound for jamaica, habeus corpus (you should have the body) requested a trial and the court ruled his freedom

Lord Drunmor’s Proclamation 1775

offered slaves freedom if they joined the loyalists and beared arms for the british

southern strategy

British attempt to crush the rebellion by retaking the south which had more loyalists; failed because the British would never have enough troops to defend the areas they conquered

Northwest ordinance

Banned slavery in certain territories (indiana michigan ohio wisconsin) allowed institutions to specify that slaves who fled there need to be reclaimed and given to their owners

fugitive slave clause

forbidding all states from shelter or emancipating fugitive slaves; reinforced by fugitive slave act 1799 established the legal mechanisms of how they would be returned 

three fifths comprimise

three fifths of each states population would be counted determining each state’s tax burden and representation

haitian revolution

 took place right after the French revolution. Slave rebels (100,000) burned down their plantations, executed their owners and shut down sugar production in Haiti

• France never gained control over Haiti again

lousiana purchase

doubled the size of the United states and fostered the spread of slavery in what Jefferson called the empire for liberty. 

• Spurred new waves of westward migration and offered new markets for the slave trade

Garbiel’s rebellion

• abortive slave plot that took place in Richmond, Virginia. Led by an enslaved man known as prosis gabriel 

Black laws

 required all free blacks to supply proof of their free status and post a 500 dollar bond to guarantee their good behavior

naturalization act of 1790

 instituted residence and racial requirements for potential citizens; naturalization was given to free white people after 2 years of residence but blacks were not seen as full citizens  

• Didn't get federal mail, couldn't join the military and had no protection against discrimination 

• Created “white people”

mutual aid society

members of the free african society pledged to support one another, in sickness and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children

colonization

schemes designed to send african americans back to africa

Missouri compromise (1820)

an agreement balancing the admission of Missouri as a slave state with the admission of Maine as a free state, prohibiting slavery in the North

Indian Removal Act (1830)

forced indians living east of the Mississippi river to relocate to the indian territory (present day oklahoma)

When was the first documented importation of africans to what would become the united states

1619

What was different about slavery in the united states in contrast to slavery in africa 

slavery was based on race 

Who is the author of this quote “Mistery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry”

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Banneker

• Self taught well accomplished mathematician, astronomer and almanac author

• Created first wooden striking clock

• Became a prominent voice against slavery in 1791 letter to Thomas Jefferson 

Which of the following was first?

Mansa Musas pilgramage to mecca

For this class, what is diaspora?

The dispersal of africans beyond africa and connection or reconnection to africa

creole insurrection

an 1841 slave insurrection aboard the creole, a ship carrying 135 slaves from Virginia to lousiana

Amistad case

1839 slave insurrection aboard the Amistad, Spanish ship. Became widely publicized abolitionist cause which ultimately reached the supreme court and the rebels were freed in 1841

black convention movement

a series of national, regional, and local conventions starting in 1830 where black leader addressed the concerns of free and enslaved blacks

North Star

The star Polaris that always points north, used by escaped slaves to navigate their way to freedom

underground railroad

a network of antislavery activists who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and Canada

invisible church

a term used of African American slaves who met in secret for Christian worship

Moral suasion

casted slavery as a sin, if you weren’t actively participating in the abolition movement you’re going to hell

1848 Roberts v city of Boston

Massachusetts became the first state to prohibit the segregation of public schools on the basis of race

Abolition movement

a loose coalition of organizations with black and white members that worked in various ways to end slavery immediately 

Compromise of 1850

consisted of a series of separate bills, but neither side got all it wanted. California entered the union as a free state, northerners abolished the slave trade in the district of Columbia, while southerners prevented the abolition of slavery there. The new territories of new Mexico and Utah was left to people living there to decide whether they were a free or slave state

popular sovereignty

an approach to resolving the question of whether to allow slavery in new states by letting residents of the territories decide

Fugitive slave act of 1850

made it easier for fugitive slaves to be captured and returned to their owners by strengthening federal authority over to capture and return slaves

civil disobedience

the refusal to obey a law that one believes is unjust

Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852

white evangelical author writes a novel that potrays the horrors of slavery, boosting the abolition causes and angered the proslavery south

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

the people who settled in these territories would vote to determine whether they would be slave or free states. Resulting in a series of violent confrontations between proslavery and antislavery settlers

Dredscot vs Sanford (1857)

Even if you weren’t born a slave or are a free person, you are the decedent of a slave. They had no rights which the white man was bound to respect

John Brown’s raid (1859)

an unsuccessful attempt by the white abolitionist John brown to seize the federal arsenal and incite a slave insurrection

Confederate States of America

Nation built on the God given right to keep negroes as slaves

contraband

slaves were “contraband of war” or confiscated confederate property, and were not freed if they escaped to the north

First Confiscation Act of 1861

Authorized the confiscation of slaves as confederate property, including slaves employed in the rebellion

Port Royal Experiment

efforts to assistant sea island freedman

Second Confiscation Act of 1862

declared freedom for all slaves employed in the rebellion and for refugee slaves able to make it to union controlled territory

• freed all slaves who had been deserted by their confederate owners

U.S Colored Troops

The official designation for the division of black units that joined the U.S army beginning in 1863

NYC draft riots 1863

for four days, white mobs including criminals and working class man turned to ransacking black neighborhoods. Burned down colored orphan asylum to the ground, thousands were homeless, dozens were lynched and some murdered in their homes

Thirteenth Amendment 

slavery is prohibited except as punishment for a crime for which you have been duly convicted

Historically Black College or University (HBCU)

seperate institutions of higher learning for African Americans, most founded in the post-emancipation era

Special Order 15

forty acres and a mule; order by William T sherman granted people land that had been abandoned by confederate plantation owners

Freeden’s Bureau

a new government agency charged with enabling the former slaves’ transition to freedom, assisting them with food, clothing and shelter

sharecropping

farmers worked the land for a share of the crop, typically one third or one half. if a cropper had his own mule and plow he might warrant a larger share of the crop

crop linen-convict lease

crop linen is an agricultural system in which a farmer borrows against his anticipated crop for the seed and supplies he needs and settles his debt after the crop is harvested,

convict lease is a penal system in which convict labor is hired out to landowners or businesses to generate income for the state

black codes

state legislatures passing laws that regulate the labor and behavior of freed people passed by southern states in the immediate aftermath of emancipation, laws were overturned by the civil rights act of 1866

Black reconstruction

The revolutionary political period from 1867 to 1877 when for the first time ever black men actively participated in the mainstream politics of the reconstructed southern states

fourteenth amendment

amendment that defined U.S citizenship to include blacks and guaranteed citizens due process and equal protection of the law

fifteenth amendment

the right of united states citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or by any state on the account of race or color.

civil rights act of 1875

required equal treatment in public accommodations and or public conveyances regardless of race

force acts

two laws providing federal protection of black’s civil rights in the face of white terrorist activities

slaughterhouse cases

U.S supreme court ruling limiting the authority of the 14th amendment, expanded to scope of state-level citizenship at the expense of U.S citizenship

buffalo soilders

black soldiers who served in the U.S army units in the west

Exodusters

black migrants who left the south to settle on federal land in kansas

NAACP

Founded in 1909, the leading advocacy group for black civil rights up to the present

• Partially founded in attempts to stop lynching, they defined lynching as what white Americans used to terrorize and control Black people, also defined it as not in due process (fair treatment)

Juneteenth

the June 19th holiday that celebrates the effective end of slavery in the united states