AAS IDS Exam #1

The Age of Revolutions

the late 18th and early 19th century wave of revolutions in the United States, France, and Haiti. These revolutions spread Enlightenment ideas of liberty, equality, and rights, and put slavery and abolition at the center of Atlantic politics. It is significant because the Haitian Revolution showed enslaved people could claim those rights for themselves.

American Colonization Society (ACS)

founded in 1816-17 by southern politicians and slaveholders such as Henry Clay, with supporters like Madison and Monroe, to send free Black Americans to Africa. It founded Liberia, but only about 15,000 people emigrated by 1892. It is significant because Black abolitionists like David Walker and Martin Delany attacked it as a plot to remove free Blacks and keep slavery secure.

Angola

region of West Central Africa whose port of Loanda was the main embarkation point for captives sent to Pernambuco, Brazil. It is significant because many enslaved Brazilians were Central African, and Palmares drew on Central African political models.

The Brookes

a British slave ship whose 1787 diagram showed 609 captives packed into the hold in spaces about 10 inches high. Thomas Clarkson and abolitionists copied it widely. It is significant because it made the horror of the Middle Passage real to the British public and helped end the slave trade.

Candomblé

an Afro-Brazilian syncretic religion that developed in 19th century Bahia, blending Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu religions with Roman Catholicism. It is organized around autonomous terreiros led by a mãe or pai de santo and venerates orixás linked to Catholic saints. It is significant because it shows African gods persisting "in exile" in Brazil.

Cape Coast Castle

one of about 40 slave castles on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), begun as a Portuguese trading post in 1555 and later held by the Swedes and British. Its dungeons held up to 1,000 captives awaiting shipment, making it the "gate of no return." It is significant as the last stop in Africa before the Middle Passage.

Church Missionary Society (CMS)

a British Anglican missionary organization, founded in 1799, that ran missions in West Africa. It trained and employed Africans like Samuel Crowther. It is significant because it tied Christianity and Western education to the "redemption" of Africa, a major theme of early pan-Africanism.

Samuel Crowther

a Yoruba man who became a leading Anglican missionary and later a bishop in West Africa. In 1859 he introduced Martin Delany to Yoruba elites in Lagos and witnessed Delany's treaty with the King of Abeokuta. He is significant because his approach linked schools, faith, and civilization and shows African Christian agency.

Martin Delany

(1812-1885) was a free-born abolitionist, physician, journalist, and soldier, often called the first proponent of black nationalism. He coined "Africa for the Africans," co-edited the North Star with Douglass, and supported emigration after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He is significant as a founder of pan-Africanism and the first Black field officer in the Union Army.

Denmark Vesey

a free Black carpenter in Charleston, South Carolina, who bought his freedom in 1799 and planned an insurrection for 1822 modeled on the Haitian Revolution. The plot was betrayed and 35 men were hanged, including Vesey. He is significant because his conspiracy shows slave resistance and the influence of Haiti, and it led to tighter controls on Black people.

Diaspora[s]

comes from the Greek word for "scattering" and describes communities of African descent dispersed by forced and voluntary migration, mainly the Atlantic slave trade. Gaines stresses that there are many overlapping diasporas, constantly reshuffled by migration. It is significant because it frames the course's African-centered story of how the modern world was made.

Frederick Douglass

(1818-1895) was an escaped slave, orator, and journalist who became the most prominent African American leader of the 19th century. His 1845 Narrative became the model slave narrative, and he escaped with help from Anna Murray's Underground Railroad aid. He is significant as a Black abolitionist who adopted immediate abolitionism and opposed emigration even after 1850.

Emigration

a Black-led movement to relocate to Africa, in contrast to colonization, which was run by whites. Martin Delany, Edward Blyden, and Alexander Crummell supported it as a way to build up Africa and escape U.S. racism, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. It is significant because it links black nationalism and early pan-Africanism, though Douglass opposed it.

The Enlightenment

the 18th century European intellectual movement emphasizing reason, natural rights, and liberty. It inspired the revolutions and antislavery arguments of the Age of Revolutions, yet its ideas were also used for scientific racism. It is significant because Walker attacked white Americans' hypocrisy in calling themselves "enlightened and Christian" while enslaving others.

Ethiopianism

a popular ideology among literate Black people that predicted Africa's future greatness, based on Psalms 68:31, "Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God." Walker invoked it in his Appeal. It is significant because it gave Black Americans pride, a providential hope, and a link to Africa.

Gradual emancipation

the moderate approach of ending slavery slowly over time. It was the dominant antislavery position before Walker's Appeal in 1829. It is significant because Walker's Appeal radicalized the movement toward immediate abolitionism.

Griot

a West African oral historian, praise singer, storyteller, and musician, often from a hereditary family, such as Malian singer Kandia Kouyaté. Griots preserve history and values without writing and often advise royalty. They are significant because they show the strength of African oral tradition in empires like Mali.

The Haitian Revolution

(1791-1804) was the only successful revolution of enslaved people in history. It produced a constitution recognizing all citizens as free, equal, and Black and abolished slavery in 1803. It is significant because it terrified slaveholders across the Americas, inspired revolts like Gabriel's and Vesey's, and helped push Britain to end its slave trade in 1807.

Immediate abolitionism

the demand to end slavery at once rather than gradually. William Lloyd Garrison and Black abolitionists like Frederick Douglass adopted it after David Walker's Appeal. It is significant because it transformed the U.S. antislavery movement into a radical force.

Liberia

founded in the 1820s by the American Colonization Society as a settlement for freed Black Americans on the West African coast. Americo-Liberian settlers often thought themselves superior to indigenous Africans. It is significant because as one of only two independent African states it became a symbol of hope for pan-Africanists like Blyden and Delany.

Mali Empire

(c. 1240-1645) was founded by Sundiata Keita and controlled the gold-rich trans-Saharan trade. Its wealth, justice, and Islamic learning centered on Timbuktu astonished Europe and the Arab world. It is significant because it shows Africa was a wealthy, connected part of the Mediterranean world long before the slave trade.

Mansa Musa

the 14th century emperor of Mali who made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 with a huge caravan and so much gold that he caused inflation in Cairo. The Catalan Atlas pictures him holding a gold nugget. He is significant because he spread knowledge of Mali's wealth, which drew European interest in West Africa.

Middle Passage

the forced, one-way Atlantic voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas, in cramped ships nicknamed "floating tombs." Captives resisted through hunger strikes, suicide, and shipboard revolts (55 recorded 1699-1845) and formed "shipmate" bonds. It is significant because it was the heart of the largest forced migration in history, peaking from 1700 to 1808.

Nat Turner

a slave preacher who led a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, killing about 61 white people before being hanged on November 11. At least 120 Black people were killed in retaliation. He is significant because the revolt, with Walker's Appeal, led to harsher slave codes banning Black literacy, assembly, and preaching.

New World Slavery

racialized chattel slavery in the Americas, where slaves were Black and owners white, lifelong and hereditary, and based on plantation labor. In Old World slavery, people were distinguished by ethnicity, language, culture, or religion rather than modern race. It is significant because Walker argued it was worse than any earlier slavery.

Creole

refers to people and cultures formed by blending African and European elements, as in Brazilian Portuguese and Jamaican English. In Brazil, crioulos were Brazilian-born Africans. It is significant as one of the scholarly terms, with syncretism and transculturation, for diaspora cultural change.

Olaudah Equiano

an Igbo man enslaved as a child who bought his freedom in 1766 and wrote the 1789 Interesting Narrative, an early slave narrative describing the Middle Passage. He portrayed his African community as normal and petitioned Queen Charlotte. He is significant as a Black abolitionist who helped move Parliament toward ending the slave trade.

Orisha

the lesser divinities in Yoruba religion who serve the creator god Olodumaré. In Candomblé and Santería they are linked to Catholic saints, such as Shango with Saint Barbara. They are significant because they show how African beliefs survived through syncretism.

Palmares

the largest Brazilian quilombo, in Pernambuco from about 1605 to 1694, with an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people, fortified settlements, farming, and a king, Ganga-Zumba. It drew on Central African political models and resisted Portugal for almost a century until Domingos Jorge Velho destroyed it. It is significant as the greatest maroon society, and its military leader Zumbi became a symbol of Black resistance in Brazil.

Peter Salem

a formerly enslaved Massachusetts man who fought in the American Revolution, including at Concord and Bunker Hill. He is significant as an example of Black participation in the Age of Revolutions and of Black people pursuing freedom through service.

Phillis Wheatley

an enslaved woman in Boston who published a book of poetry in 1773, becoming the first African American woman published. Her work countered claims that Black people were intellectually inferior. She is significant as an early Black voice in the Atlantic antislavery argument.

Plantation

a large agricultural estate producing crops like sugar, tobacco, and cotton with enslaved labor. In Brazil and the Caribbean plantations held hundreds of enslaved Africans under a few Europeans, while North American holdings were smaller (average about 12 enslaved). It is significant because plantation scale and supervision explain regional differences in resistance and religion.

Pro-slavery ideology

the set of arguments defending slavery, including states' rights, slavery as a "positive good" more benevolent than wage labor, and scientific racism that invented diseases like "drapetomania" for running away. It is significant because Walker and other Black abolitionists attacked these claims as hypocrisy.

Queen Nanny

an 18th century leader of Jamaica's Windward Maroons who led guerrilla warfare in the First Maroon War. Britain signed a 1740 treaty granting the Maroons freedom and 500 acres. She is significant as Jamaica's only female national hero and a symbol of maroon resistance.

Quilombo

the Portuguese term for a fugitive slave settlement in Brazil, of which Palmares was the most famous. Quilombos were forms of marronage and protest against slavery and plantations. They are significant as sites of African political and cultural survival that are still commemorated in Brazil.

Return movements

migrations of people of African descent back to Africa, including Black Loyalists and Jamaican Maroons to Freetown in the 1790s, ACS settlers to Liberia, Afro-Brazilian "Agudas," and "Bombay Africans" to East Africa. Joseph Harris mapped them. They are significant because they show the diaspora is a two-way story of "remaking" and link to pan-Africanism.

Underground Railroad

the network of secret routes and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape to freedom in the North and Canada. Black conductors and helpers like Anna Murray Douglass and David Ruggles played central roles. It is significant because it shows Black agency in abolition and resistance.

Saint-Domingue

the wealthy French sugar colony in Hispaniola that became Haiti. The Code Noir of 1685 required Catholic baptism, but the enslaved used Christianity to hide African beliefs, and Mackandal's plot (1757) and the Bois Caïman ceremony (1791) began there. It is significant as the site of the Haitian Revolution.

"Slave societies"

societies where slavery is central to the economy and social structure, not merely present, such as Brazil, the Caribbean, and the U.S. South. It is significant because the scale of slavery shaped race, law, religion, and resistance, in contrast to Old World societies where slaves were one group among many.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

a formerly enslaved general who became the leading figure of the Haitian Revolution. Gabriel took the title of general in 1800 to follow Washington and Louverture, and Delany named his son after him. He is significant as a symbol of Black self-liberation.

Trans-Saharan Trade

(c. 750-1500) was caravan trade by camel across the Sahara, exchanging West African gold, ivory, and slaves for salt and copper. It spread Islam and made Ghana, Mali, and Songhai wealthy. It is significant because it shows Africa's integration into the Mediterranean world and that slavery existed before the Atlantic trade.

Triangle Trade

the Atlantic circuit linking Europe (manufactured goods), Africa (enslaved people), and the Americas (sugar, tobacco, cotton). The Middle Passage was its middle leg. It is significant because it enriched Europe and built the New World economy on African labor.

Yoruba

a West African people of present-day Nigeria and Benin, known for states like Oyo, the Ife bronze heads, and divine kings called obas. Many were enslaved in the 1800s and carried their religion to the Americas. They are significant because Yoruba religion shaped Candomblé, Santería, and Shango, and Samuel Crowther and Delany's Abeokuta treaty involved Yoruba elites.

David Walker

(1785-1830) was a free Black Bostonian whose 1829 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World called for armed resistance, attacked colonization and white Christian hypocrisy, and invoked Ethiopianism. Sailors smuggled it South, and southern states banned it. He is significant because the Appeal radicalized the antislavery movement toward immediate abolitionism.

Syncretism

the blending of religious practices, such as African, indigenous, and European beliefs. It explains Candomblé, Vodou, and Santería, where orishas are tied to Catholic saints. It is significant because it helped the enslaved hide worship, adapt, and resist.