Afam Midterm Vocab

Rice Coast

The coastal region of West Africa, stretching from modern day Senegal to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Enslavers from the American colonies sought out enslaved Africans from this region due to their extensive knowledge in growing, harvesting, and processing rice

Hispaniola

An island in the Caribbean divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, known for its historical significance in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial exploitation.

Quakers

A religious group known for their commitment to pacifism, equality, and social justice, many of whom actively opposed slavery and worked to promote abolition during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Portugal

A European nation that was heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade during the 15th to 19th centuries. Established many colonies in Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean, resulting in significant wealth and influence.

Cotton Gin

A machine that rapidly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, making the preparation of cotton for textile production more efficient than manual labor. Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, the machine uses rotating cylinders with teeth to pull fibers through a grate too small for seeds to pass through

Harriet Tubman

An American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, she went on 13 missions to rescue around 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the Underground Railroad

Brazil

The largest recipient of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas, with over 5 million people forcibly brought to the country between the 16th and 19th centuries. Slavery was legal in this country until 1888, being abolished by the ‘Golden Law’

Quilombo

A settlement or community established by escaped enslaved people in colonial Brazil. These communities were often located in remote areas, and served as centers of resistance against slavery, populated by descendants of Africans who fled plantations to build their own societies

Palmares

One of the largest and most well-known fugitive slave settlement (quilombo) in Brazil, an autonomous community that resisted Portuguese colonizers for over a century in the 17th and 18th centuries

Triangle Trade

A historical Atlantic system connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries, involving the exchange of goods and enslaved people

Assimilation

the process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas.

Acculturation

the process where groups of people or individuals from different cultures come into contact and, as a result, change their cultural patterns by adopting traits, beliefs, or behaviors of the other group

Syncretism

the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought. the merging of different inflectional varieties of a word during the development of a language.

Richard Allen

founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first independent African American denomination in the United States.

Candombole

an Afro-Brazilian syncretic religion with origins in the beliefs and rituals of West African slaves brought to Brazil, particularly the Yoruba people

Nat Turner

an enslaved Black carpenter and preacher who led a four-day rebellion of both enslaved and free Black people in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831

Slave Drivers

enslaved individuals chosen by plantation owners or overseers to supervise other enslaved people in the Americas and Caribbean, acting as intermediaries in the brutal labor system

Underground Railroad

a clandestine network of people and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape from the American South to freedom in the North and Canada between the late 18th century and the Civil War

Drapetomania

a pseudoscientific term coined in 1851 by Samuel A. Cartwright, a physician from Louisiana, to describe a supposed mental illness that caused enslaved African Americans to run away from their owners and that it could be cured by whipping, amputation, or other punishments

African Methodist Episcopal Church

a historically Black Protestant denomination founded in 1816 in Philadelphia by Richard Allen and other African American Methodists who left St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church due to racial discriminationfu

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

guaranteed a right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

a stringent federal law mandating the return of escaped enslaved people to their enslavers, even in free states

Haitian Revolution

the overthrow of the French regime in Haiti by the Africans and their descendants who had been enslaved by the French and the establishment of an independent country founded and governed by former slaves

New York City Rebellion

a group of enslaved Africans armed themselves and attacked white colonists, killing nine people

Stono Rebellion

a major 1739 slave uprising in South Carolina, led by Jemmy, where enslaved Africans marched to Spanish Florida seeking freedom

Denmark Vesey

a free Black man and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who was accused and convicted of planning a major slave revolt in 1822

Gabriel Prosser

the leader of an unsuccessful slave revolt in Richmond, Virginia in 1800

Phillis Wheatley

an American writer who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry

Benjamin Banneker

best known for his role in surveying the original boundaries of Washington, D.C., publishing a series of widely read almanacs from 1792 to 1797, and his self-taught genius in mathematics and astronomy

Dred Scott

Supreme Court case (1857), which ruled that Black people, whether free or enslaved, could not be U.S. citizens and therefore could not sue in federal court

Three-Fifths Compromise

an agreement during the 1787 Constitutional Convention where three-fifths of the enslaved population in Southern states was counted for both legislative representation in Congress and for taxation purposes

Missouri Compromise

a legislative agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state to maintain a balance of power in the U.S. Senate

Toussaint L’Ouverture

known for leading the only successful slave revolt in modern history, the Haitian Revolution, which resulted in the creation of the independent nation of Haiti

Age of Revolution

a historical period of significant social and political upheaval in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, roughly from the 1760s to the 1820s or 1849. It marked the decline of monarchies and empires, the rise of democratic-republican ideals

Olaudah Equiano

an African writer and abolitionist who chronicled his harrowing experiences with slavery in his influential autobiography. Born around 1745 in what is now Nigeria, he was kidnapped, sold into slavery, and transported across the Atlantic before purchasing his freedom in 1766

Free African Union Society

considered the first all-male, free Black mutual aid society established in America

Free African Society

a mutual aid society founded in Philadelphia in 1787 by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, establishing itself as the first autonomous organization for African Americans in the U.S

Paul Cuffe

a wealthy free Black sea captain, entrepreneur, and philanthropist famous for leading the first Black-initiated "back to Africa" movement, which involved financing and leading a voyage of 38 free blacks to Sierra Leone in 1815 to promote trade instead of slavery.