UNIT 2: FREEDOM, ENSLAVEMENT,

Ladinos

Africans acculturated to Iberian customs who served as intermediaries, explorers, and early settlers in the Americas.

Atlantic Creoles

Africans with knowledge of European languages, trade, and customs who often gained limited social mobility before slavery became rigid.

Spanish colonization

Africans helped claim Indigenous lands for Spain, participated in expeditions, and sometimes gained freedom through military service.

Juan Garrido

Free African conquistador who helped conquer parts of the Caribbean and Florida, planting the first wheat in Mexico.

Estevanico

Enslaved Moroccan who served as a guide and translator in Texas and the Southwest before being killed by Indigenous people.

Transatlantic slave trade

Lasted over 350 years, forcibly transporting over 12.5 million Africans, with only 5% sent directly to the U.S.

Charleston, South Carolina

Port that received the most enslaved Africans in the U.S., accounting for nearly half of U.S.-bound enslaved Africans.

Originating regions of U.S. enslaved people

Senegambia, Angola, Nigeria, and the Gold Coast; nearly half from Senegambia and Angola.

Cultural effects of diverse African origins

Led to blending of languages, religions, and customs that shaped African American culture.

Top slave-trading nations

Portugal, Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Three stages of the transatlantic slave journey

Capture and march to the coast, Middle Passage across the Atlantic, and final transport to labor destinations.

Middle Passage conditions

Captives faced starvation, disease, and abuse, with about 15% dying during the voyage.

Final stage of the slave trade

Survivors were quarantined, resold, and transported within the Americas, often far from their port of arrival.

Impact of the slave trade on West African societies

Increased warfare, weakened communities, and long-term instability by removing generations of leaders and kin.

Slave narratives

Autobiographical writings by formerly enslaved people documenting their experiences and supporting abolition.

Resistance tactics aboard slave ships

Included hunger strikes, suicide attempts, revolts, and sabotaging the ship’s crew or structure.

Amistad revolt

In 1839, rebellion led by Sengbe Pieh on La Amistad, with survivors winning a Supreme Court case to secure their freedom.

Impact of resistance on the slave trade

Led to increased security on ships and higher risks and costs for slavers.

Slave ship diagrams

Illustrated tightly packed human cargo and inhumane conditions, used by abolitionists to expose slavery’s brutality.

Art and visual culture in abolition

Artists used symbols of slave ships and African suffering to honor the past and push for justice.

Second Middle Passage

Forced migration of over one million African Americans from the upper to the lower South to meet cotton labor demands.

Cotton boom's effect on slavery

Increased the value of enslaved labor and fueled westward expansion of slavery.

Experience at slave auctions

Enslaved people were inspected, separated from families, and sold under degrading and violent conditions.

African American authors on auctions

Described emotional trauma and countered myths of slavery’s benevolence in their narratives and poetry.

Types of labor performed by enslaved people

Included agriculture, skilled trades, domestic service, and institutions like churches and colleges.

Gang system of labor

Controlled system where enslaved people worked from dawn to dusk under overseers, mainly in cotton and tobacco.

Task system of labor

Laborers had daily quotas and some autonomy, often used in rice cultivation, allowing cultural retention.

Enslaved people's influence on the U.S. economy

Generated wealth for enslavers and built infrastructure while being denied wages and property rights.

African skills in American culture

Included basket-weaving, rice farming, music, carpentry, blacksmithing, and herbal medicine.

Slave codes

Laws defining slavery as lifelong, inheritable, and race-based, restricting mobility and rights of enslaved people.

Constitution's address of slavery

Avoided the word ‘slavery’ but included clauses like the 3/5 compromise and fugitive slave return law.

Dred Scott decision

Supreme Court ruling that Black people were not U.S. citizens and had no legal standing, even if free.

Partus sequitur ventrem

Law ensuring children's legal status followed that of their mother, reinforcing hereditary slavery.

One-drop rule

Racial classification system where any African ancestry defined a person as Black.

African American art and crafts

Quilts, pottery, and baskets created to express culture and preserve stories and heritage.

Instruments developed by African Americans

Adapted West African instruments like drums, banjos, and rattles using local materials.

Gullah

A creole language combining African and English elements developed among enslaved communities in the Carolina lowcountry.

Spirituals creation by African Americans

Combined Christian themes with African rhythms and call-and-response singing to express hope and resistance.

Impact of African music on U.S. music

Laid the foundation for gospel, blues, and later American genres through syncopation and improvisation.

19th-century Black identity terms

Included African, Negro, Colored, Afro-American, and later African American to reflect pride and political beliefs.

Colored Conventions

Political meetings held by African Americans to discuss civil rights, education, and collective identity.

Rejection of the term ‘African’

To emphasize American identity in response to colonization efforts and exclusion from national life.

Fort Mose

Free Black settlement in Spanish Florida established in 1738, offering asylum to escaped enslaved people.

Stono Rebellion

Enslaved Africans in South Carolina rebelled in 1739, inspired by freedom promises in Spanish Florida.

Results of the Stono Rebellion

Dozens killed and stricter slave codes passed in South Carolina to suppress future uprisings.

Haitian Revolution

Successful revolt (1791–1804) by enslaved people in Saint-Domingue establishing Haiti as the first Black republic.

Haitian Revolution's impact on the U.S.

Inspired slave revolts and increased fear among U.S. enslavers, influencing the Louisiana Purchase.

Maroons in Haiti

Escaped enslaved people who formed independent communities and led resistance during the Haitian Revolution.

Long-term effects of the Haitian Revolution

Shaped Black political thought and became a symbol of Black freedom and resistance.

Daily resistance tactics by enslaved people

Included slowing work, breaking tools, feigning illness, and escaping to resist slavery’s control.

German Coast Uprising

Major 1811 revolt in Louisiana led by Charles Deslondes toward New Orleans.

Creole revolt

1841 shipboard mutiny led by Madison Washington freeing 130 enslaved people.

Religious inspiration for revolts

Leaders like Nat Turner used religious visions and scripture to justify rebellion.

Free Black community organization in the North

Formed mutual aid societies, schools, churches, and supported abolitionist literature and speakers.

Maria W. Stewart

Pioneering Black female activist who published essays advocating abolition and women's rights.

Significance of Black women’s activism

Highlighted intersections of race, gender, and class, laying foundation for later civil and women’s rights movements.

Maroon communities

Groups of escaped enslaved people forming self-sustaining settlements, preserving African cultures.

Locations of maroon societies

Formed in swamps, mountains, and forests across the Americas, including Brazil, Jamaica, and U.S. regions.

Maroon wars

Armed conflicts between maroons and colonial forces to defend their freedom.

Brazilian slavery vs. U.S. slavery

Brazil received more Africans, had greater manumission rates, and allowed more cultural retention.

Capoeira

Martial art developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil combining combat, music, and dance.

Ending slavery in Brazil

Gradually through manumissions and legal reforms, culminated in 1888 with the emancipation of remaining enslaved.

Black Seminoles

African Americans who found refuge among the Seminole people and fought against U.S. forces.

Impact of slavery on Black-Indigenous relations

Slavery laws hardened racial lines, reducing recognition of Black-Indigenous kinship.

John Horse

Black Seminole leader who fought for freedom and relocated his community to Mexico for safety.

Black emigrationists' belief

Supported relocating to Africa or Latin America to escape U.S. racism and achieve self-determination.

Paul Cuffee

Free Black sea captain who led the first African American resettlement in Sierra Leone in 1815.

Anti-emigrationists' argument

African Americans had a right to stay and claim full citizenship in the U.S., rejecting ideas of exile.

David Walker’s Appeal

Called for African Americans to resist slavery and exposed the hypocrisy of Christian enslavers.

Henry Highland Garnet

Abolitionist who urged enslaved people to rise up against slavery and supported Black emigration to Africa.

Radical resistance

Promoted direct action and rebellion rather than relying solely on appeals to morality.

Underground Railroad

Secret network of safe houses and guides helping enslaved people escape to the North and Canada.

Harriet Tubman

Escaped enslaved woman who led others to freedom and served as a spy during the Civil War.

Fugitive Slave Acts

Laws allowing the capture and return of escapees even in free states.

Importance of photography for Black leaders

Countered racist stereotypes and presented them as dignified citizens worthy of rights.

Sojourner Truth

Abolitionist who used her portrait photographs to support her speaking tours and promote justice.

Bisa Butler's art

Quilted portraits blending African American traditions with historical symbolism.

Enslaved women's resistance to sexual violence

Included self-defense, escape, abortifacients, and protecting their children from slavery.

Women’s slave narratives' uniqueness

Emphasized family, vulnerability, and sexual exploitation, contrasting with male narratives.

Harriet Jacobs

Author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, who hid for seven years to escape her enslaver.

African Americans' support of the Union

Men served as soldiers and laborers; women worked as nurses, cooks, and spies.

Black men in the Civil War

Around 200,000, most of whom had been enslaved before the war.

Discrimination faced by Black soldiers

Included lower pay, harsher punishments, and risk of re-enslavement if captured.

Juneteenth

Celebration of June 19, 1865, when Union troops announced emancipation in Texas.

General Order No. 3

Military order declaring all enslaved people free following the Civil War.

Importance of Freedom Day celebrations

Honored Black resilience and commemorated emancipation and the legacy of resistance.