aas

Orishas

West African deities (Yoruba); represent nature & life forces like Ogun (iron) and Yemoja (water). Show African spirituality that survived in the Americas.

African Slavery (pre-Atlantic)

Enslaved were mostly war captives; not racial or lifelong. Europeans later turned it into racial chattel slavery.

Madeira, Canary, Azores, Cape Verde Islands

Early Portuguese/Spanish sugar colonies; first plantation-slave labor model used later in the Americas.

Native American Slavery

Enslavement of Indigenous peoples before African slavery; created early racial labor hierarchies.

Social Death

Orlando Patterson’s idea: enslaved people stripped of identity & rights; resistance rebuilt social life.

Banjo

African-derived instrument showing survival of African music & culture in slavery.

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

Poor whites & enslaved Africans rebelled in VA; elites hardened racial laws afterward → racial slavery.

1619

First recorded Africans arrived in English VA; start of African American history in English colonies.

Tobacco

First cash crop (VA/MD); drove demand for enslaved labor.

Cotton

Cotton gin (1793) made it profitable → slavery expanded across the South (“King Cotton”).

Sugar

Main early plantation crop (Caribbean/Brazil); model for brutal slave labor.

Virginia’s Black Codes (1705)

Laws making slavery lifelong, hereditary, and race-based.

Polygyny

African family system of multiple wives; shows patriarchal order in pre-colonial Africa.

Enslaved Healers

Africans using herbal & spiritual medicine; preserved health knowledge and autonomy.

Smallpox Variolation

African inoculation practice (ex. Onesimus 1721 Boston) proving African scientific knowledge.

Gumbo

Blend of African, Indigenous, and European foods → cultural survival through cooking.

Plantation Hospitals

Sites of surveillance, not care; doctors served enslavers, not patients.

Drapetomania

Fake 1850 “disease” claiming runaways were mentally ill; racist pseudoscience defending slavery.

J. Marion Sims & Mothers of Gynecology

“Father of Gynecology”; experimented on enslaved women (Anarcha, Betsy, Lucy) without anesthesia.

Maroons / Saramaka

Communities of escaped enslaved; maintained African traditions & independence.

Everyday Resistance

Subtle acts like slow work, tool breaking, secret worship; preserved dignity.

Olaudah Equiano

Author of The Interesting Narrative (1789); firsthand Middle Passage account fueling abolition.

Frederick Douglass

Former slave; wrote “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” exposing U.S. hypocrisy.

Harriet Jacobs

Author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861); revealed gendered slavery trauma.

Zong Massacre (1781)

British crew drowned 130 enslaved Africans for insurance; fueled abolitionist outrage.

3/5 Compromise (1787)

Counted enslaved as 3/5 for representation; protected slavery in the Constitution.

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Required return of runaways; expanded slavery’s reach into free states.

David Walker’s Appeal (1829)

Radical pamphlet urging Black resistance & pride; early abolition text.

The Liberator (1831)

Abolitionist paper by William Lloyd Garrison; demanded immediate emancipation.

German Coast Uprising (1811)

Largest U.S. slave revolt (Louisiana); inspired by Haitian Revolution.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)

Slave revolt in VA killing 55 whites; led to stricter slave codes.

John Brown (1859)

White abolitionist who raided Harpers Ferry; heightened tensions before Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas (1854–59)

Violent conflict over slavery’s expansion west; preview of Civil War.

Interstate Slave Trade

Domestic trade moving enslaved from Upper South to Deep South after 1808 import ban.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary & Martin Delany

Black nationalist leaders; promoted education, migration, self-determination.

Colored Conventions (1840s–70s)

Black political meetings pushing for rights and education.