Pre-Transatlantic Africa & the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Flashcards of key vocabulary, people, places and events from lecture notes on Pre-Transatlantic Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Jim Crow

Laws and practices enforcing racial segregation and discrimination, prevalent in the late 1800s until the mid-1960s.

Poll Taxes

A tax levied as a qualification for voting, used to disenfranchise African Americans.

Literacy Laws

Laws requiring voters to demonstrate literacy, often used to prevent African Americans from voting.

Sweatt v. Painter 1950

Supreme Court case in 1950 challenging segregation in higher education.

Brown v. Board of Education 1954

Supreme Court case in 1954 that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional.

Timbuktu

A major center of Islamic learning in the Mali Empire.

Mansa Musa

Wealthy Muslim ruler of the Mali Empire who expanded trade (gold, salt).

Kingdom of Kongo

Central African state that traded with Portugal; Queen Nzinga resisted Portuguese colonialism.

Great Zimbabwe

Stone city, evidence of advanced trade networks in Southern Africa.

Ancient Egypt (Kemet)

African origins of Egyptian civilization.

Pharaoh Piye

Nubian ruler who conquered Egypt.

Nubia (Kush)

Ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty.

Meroë

Iron production & independent rule after Egypt’s fall.

Axum

Christian kingdom in Ethiopia (300s CE); King Ezana’s conversion.

Ghana (Wagadu, 300–1200 CE)

Gold-salt trade; taxed trans-Saharan routes.

Griot Tradition

Oral historians/musicians preserving history.

Bantu Migrations (1000 BCE–500 CE)

Spread of languages/cultures across sub-Saharan Africa.

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade (7th–16th centuries)

Arab traders enslaved Africans.

Indian Ocean Trade

Swahili Coast city-states traded with Arabia/Asia.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Initiated African coastal raids.

Elmina Castle (1482)

First European slave-trading post in West Africa.

Stono Rebellion (1739, South Carolina)

Largest slave revolt in British colonies.

Maroon Communities

Escaped slaves who formed independent settlements.

Olaudah Equiano

Former enslaved man who wrote an autobiography.

Phillis Wheatley

First published Black female poet in America.

Chattel Slavery

System treating enslaved people as property.

Gullah/Geechee culture

African linguistic and cultural traditions preserved in the Sea Islands (SC/GA).

Vodun (Voodoo)

Blend of West African religions and Catholicism

1739 Stono Rebellion (SC)

Enslaved Africans seized weapons, marched toward Florida.

Toussaint Louverture

Led the only successful slave revolt, creating the first Black republic.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

The forced transportation of ~12.5 million Africans to the Americas during the 15th–19th centuries.

Middle Passage

Brutal journey across the Atlantic, with high mortality rates.

Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)

Successful slave rebellion led by Toussaint Louverture & Jean-Jacques Dessalines in Haiti.

Maroon Communities

Settlements of escaped enslaved people who resisted recapture.

Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)

Former enslaved person who wrote The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, exposing the horrors of slavery.

Toussaint Louverture (1743–1803)

Leader of the Haitian Revolution.

Harriet Tubman (c. 1822–1913)

Escaped slavery and led many to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)

Abolitionist, writer (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass), and speaker.

Language & Religion

Gullah/Geechee culture (coastal SC/GA) preserved African linguistic roots.

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

Accelerated the shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery.

3/5 Compromise (1787)

Counted enslaved people as 3/5 of a person for congressional representation.

Fugitive Slave Laws (1793, 1850)

Required escaped enslaved people to be returned, even from free states.

Cotton Gin (1793, Eli Whitney)

Increased demand for enslaved labor in the Deep South.

Richard Allen

Founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

David Walker

Wrote Walker’s Appeal (1829), urging enslaved people to rebel.

"Belinda’s Petition" (1782)

Formerly enslaved woman’s legal fight for reparations.

Queen Nanny

Jamaican Maroon leader who resisted British colonialism.