African American Experience Through Reconstruction (Quizzes)

Archaeologists suggest that the origin of humankind in East Africa. Based on this view, we have what is termed the ______ Theory.

Out of Africa

The people who would populate Ancient Egypt derived from the south from a place called_____.

Nubia

(True/False) Recent scholars have suggested that the religion and language of ancient Egypt highlights the importance of distinguishing it from other cultures in the rest of Africa.

False

Herodotus described the ancient Egyptians as having ____skin and ____ hair.

black, wooly

As far as their economy, the people of the Kingdom of Ghana were pioneers in what trade?

Gold

Who was the most significant king in the Kingdom of Mali?

Mansa Musa

Describe the major event that took place during this King’s life that made him well known.

The major event that took place during this King’s life that made him well known is the Haj that he performed to cleanse himself of his sins, specifically the sin of him accidentally killing his mother. The Haj is a Muslim religious pilgrimage.

What West African Kingdom followed Mali and subsumed its land?

Songhai

In the year ____ the Portuguese began their quest to seize islands off the northern part of West Africa.

1417

(True/False) Sugar cane was the crash crop that they realized grew exceptionally well on these islands off the West Coast of Africa. 

True

The system they found best suited to extract this wealth was one that included:

a) large land holdings 

b) gangs of forced/slave labor 

c) cash crop

What role did the Catholic Priest, Bartolome de Las Casas, play in the construction of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?

He said that Europeans should start enslaving Africans and stop doing it to Native Americans for religious and moral reasons.

The Human Manufacturing Process - Merchants

made orders for Africans, wanted prime slaves (young, healthy, strong, male)

The Human Manufacturing Process - Ship Captains

get orders from merchants about what they were looking for, hire crew to carry out desire of merchants, appeal to African rules with gifts so that they can gain access to captive people to purchase

The Human Manufacturing Process - Ship Surgeons

made sure Africans were healthy and fit before buying them, diagnose and restore their health, look at teeth and gums to see age, assess reproductive ability

The Human Manufacturing Process - Coastal Retailers 

had connections to people inside Africa to get more slaves and use gun incentives

The Human Manufacturing Process - Interior Traders/Captures

bring slaves to coast and capture them

What aspect of being in a confined space made captive Africans more vulnerable to illness and physical decline?

continual exposure to others’ bodily fluids, the foul and damp air

What threats did the captives face regarding the food they were provided?

mold, spoiling, excess salt (causes dehydration and health issues), lack of nutrients, vermin infested

How did captives use the opportunities for exercise to their own advantage?

use dance to connect to their culture which empowers them to rebel and provides them with mental and physical stability, being on top of the ship was used as an opportunity to jump off the ship and commit suicide (underwater railroad)

Three ways sex functioned during the Middle Passage:

rape, personal favors, business transactions

(True/False) Both African men and women were bound by shackles at the bottom of the slave ship

False

Define what Gynecological Resistance

A woman damaging her own reproductive system to prevent getting pregnant, use herbs to terminate pregnancy or use objects

Describe ways sailors sought to prevent extreme despair among their captives

violence, games, dance, wrestle, beat despair out of them

How were ships constructed to prevent suicides among the captives?

Nets and rails on the sides to keep slaves from falling into the water

How did the captives view suicide? How did their previous beliefs shape their relationship to the question of suicide?

Captives viewed suicide as a way to go back to their homeland when they died. Suicide was a means of escape for them.

Mustakeem described the choice of some to jump overboard as the underwater ____.

Railroad

Two diseases that were common on slave ships were

scurvy, flux

(True/False) Slave auctions would take place both on and off slaveships.

True

(True/False)There were Africans who came along on Columbus’ voyages to the Americas.

True

Explain how the Middle Passage shaped the identity of the captives who would arrive in the Americas.

Fictive kinship = from being on the ship and experiencing the Middle Passage together.

The overarching paradigm that Mustakeem used to describe the Middle Passage is the ____ ____ Process.

Human Manufacturing

(True/ False) There were Africans who assisted the Spanish in raiding indigenous communities on the Caribbean islands.

True

Refuse Captives

killed because if they were let free other slaves would also come across as unhealthy and were difficult to keep on the ship

Role of Violence

torture ( for amusement or show power), herbal resistance (poison), gynecological resistance ( abortions and other ways to ward off sexual assault)

Suicide

jumping overboard, hanging (women and children would do this because they had a bit more freedom to go up to the top of the ship), huger strike

Physical Health Care Compromised

ship surgeons lied about their medical knowledge/experience to get paid jobs, African American bodies were used as cadavers to experiment on and get data from, ship surgeons learned their craft from experimenting on African Americans, language barriers (translators sometimes used but difficult to communicate)

Term Slavery

enslaved for a certain period of time and then you would gain your freedom (old world slavery)

Africans in Early Virginia

• 1619 is when Dutch ships come and sell 20 Africans to settlers in Jamestown

• blurred racial relations because africans would testify in court, farm, get married, and gain freedom

• in the mid 17th century, there would be free black communities popping up around Chesapeake Bay

• some cases of black men and white women marrying

Bacons Rebellion

• In 1675, Nathaniel Bacon developed an army of poor Whites and free/runaway Blacks, rich whites gave poor whites whiteness, dangerous unity between oppressed state (white poor + black people), to disrupt the unity of oppressed they gave the poor whites a way identifying themselves that distinguished them from the people below them (gave the whiteness)

• legislating race/racism (3 people commit same crime: white people light punishment, black person: life time slavery → slow movement away from old world slavery

• “condition of the mother” (1662): white men enslave their own children, slavery can now be inherited

• 1667: Virginia argues that baptism frees your spirit not your body

Africans in the Early New Netherland (NY)

1650 largest slave import in NA, 1664 English capture and make into New York, within a year legislation was passed for lifelong slavery for enslaved Africans

Africans in Early California

• Charleston was the largest mainland slave market

• most slaves were already catholic and practices Christianity since they were from North Africa

• death penalty for any White servant who ran away with an African

• if a white women gave birth to a child she had with a black man → years of servitude for 7 years (law constructing race)

  • the child, if female, would have to serve for 18 years

  • the child, if male, would have to serve for 21 years

Africans in Early Florida

• Spanish different from English

• Spanish conduct old world slavery

• 1693: King Charleston granted liberty to any runaway slave who came to Florida

Slavery in America

lifelong, herditary, race based

Africans in Bondage

1) rapid increase in enslaved population in North America

2) skilled enslaved population

3) enslaved resistance

Economic Resistance 

faking sick, intentionally doing a job slower, dropping dishes, harvesting carelessly

Pretending Ignorance 

if an enslaved person learned how to read they would pretend they didn’t 

Running Away Temporary/Permanent

• Maroons: communities of formerly enslaved black people that decided themselves that they were free

• ran away to wilderness and swamp areas

• men ran away more than women because women would either have to leave their children or take their children with them

• 1728 Mose (Florida): swore allegiance to the Spanish crown and defend Catholicism, have fortifications, move to Cuba after English gained possession of Floride  

Violent Resistance

• some bond men and bond women murdered their masters

• Saltwater Africans: Africans born on African continent and brought to the Americas, more likely to rebel because they know freedom unlike the Africans born in the Americas

• 1739 Stono Rebellion: Jemmy lead enslaved black people, went to Florida, came from Kongo

• Kongo Catholicism = Mary associated with military warfare