AfAm Midterm

1450

The Portugese arrive on the West Coast of Africa

1470

A few hundred Africans are traded to Portugal and Spain

1518

4000 Africans are sent to Spain

1607

Jamestown is founded

1619

The first Africans arrive in Virginia, the ship was Portugese, but the British pirated it 

Elmina

erected in 1482, built by the Portuguese on the Gold Coast → modern day Ghana

1655

England captures Jamaica 

1712

New York Slave Revolt → resulted in the colony passing more restrive laws on the movements of Black people; notably gathering in groups, owning firearms, & gambling. New York slave codes, slaves found guilty of murder, rape, arson, or assault would be punished by death

1741

New York Uprising → major fire plotted v by slaves and poor whites

1776

The Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed, beginning of the American Revolution; also, when the Ethiopian Regiment was formed

1791

Bill of Rights was ratified & Haitian Revolution

1793

Cotten Gin invented by Eli Whitney, Whiskey Rebellion (farmers in PA protesting new taxes), & first Fugitive Slave Laws

Gold Coast

Coastal region modern day Ghana named for European trade of gold before slave trade. Importent for slave trade in 17th and 18th century 10% of enslaved people exported → 28 forts here including castle of Elmina and Cape Coast Castle

Ivory Coast

region of West African coastline, providing relativly less enslaved people however enslaved folk supplied from the interior via the ivory coast by islamic trade networks in the Senegambia region, people were also imported to Barbados from the coast

Slave Coast

Bight of Benin east of the Gold cost → 2nd in volume of enslaved people. The port of Ouidah was major center in 18th century with fortresses from many euro powers and the Kingdom of Dahomey which used warfare to capture people, many imported to Barbados

Grain Coast

Sierra Leon, Liberia, source of rice and grains with those brought to Chesapeake and lowcountry of South Caroilna to work on rice plantations from here bringing knowledge of rice cultivation. within Upper Guinea region— Gulf of Guinea

Benin

Kingdom and coastal region of West Africa— modern day Nigeria., powerful kingdom, wealthy, cultivation of soil, large number warlike disposition of inhabited. Engaging in territorial expansion and war captives and the Portuguese purchasing ivory, timber, cloth and pepper. Equiano born in providence called Eboe. Bight of Benin/Slave Coast is the wider coastal area of Benin and accounted for 19.7% of all documented transatlantic slave exports

San Tome

island off the coast of West Africa stolen in 1486 and transformed into a base of Portuguese sugar production and Atlantic trade. served as a transit point in transatlantic trade esp in earlier trade. 18th cen Italian noted racial stereotype that people from Sao tome were “weaker” while the Dutch West India Company enslaved people here in the 17th cen.

Quilombo

example of a maroon society preserved heritage and ritual practices, languages, self-governing communities of people who escaped slavery in Brazil- Portuguese word

1786

Northwest Ordinance → establsihed formal procedures for making territories into states in the area nroth of the Ohio River. Included a Bill of Rights gurantees freedom of religion, right to trial by jury, public education and a ban on slavery in the region.

1685

Code Noir: French laws governing slavery and slave relations 

1661

Barbadian Slave Codes

Low Country

South Carolina and Georgia → known for rice cultivation

Creole

person of mixed Black and European ancestry

Chesapeake

Virginia & Maryland → known for tobacco cultivation

1730

Montgomerie’s Act → a result of the NY fires, prohibits slaves to own weapons, meet in groups, & gave a curfew

1775

Lord Dunmore issues his proclamation freeing all people in bondage in Virginia if they’d fight for the crown 

Ottobah Cugoano

African born abolitionist writer born in 1757 on the Gold Coast who was enslaved in Grenada. he was kidnapped in 1770 by Africans and imprisioned at Cape Coast Castle, plotting a revolt on the slave ship believing death preferable, he documented his story in a published narrative

1800

Gabriel Prosser was supposed to leas his slave revolution

1792

Benjamin Bannekcer publishes the first book of science by an African American 

Prince Hall

African American Masonic leadeer and Rev war veteren. Born in Barbados in 1735, received charter to England in 1787 to establish first African American Masonic lodge in the US. 1797 address he encouraged brother Masons to respect one one another and work towards ending slavery

What crops did enslaved people grow in colonial North America and where?

Chesapeake Region (Virgina and Maryland) and North Carolina

• Tobacco— labor intensive transitioned to corn and grains in late 18th cen

Coastal Low country (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida)

• Rice emerges in SC 1695 and expanded with many enslaved people coming from Sierra Leon (grain coast) and comprising of mainly enslaved Black women

Lower South and Southwest (interior of GA, SC, AL, MI, LA, AK, and TX)

• cotton— introduced in 1780s handpicked as many as 200 pounds daily

• expanded after the into of the cotton gin

Grew their own provisions— corn, grains, yams, beans, potatoes, plantains, cabbages, pumpkins, okra

Give 3 definitions of slavery

1. Slavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be, or treated as, the property of others

2. the state of being under the control of another person

3. an “other” in the society where the “free” did not regard him or her as a “person” and not as an equal

Four types of modern slavery

1. CHATTEL SLAVERY is closest to the slavery that prevailed in early American history. Chattel slaves are considered their masters’ property

2. DEBT BONDAGE, or bonded labor, is the most widely practiced form of slavery around the world..

3. SEX SLAVERY finds women and children forced into prostitution. An estimated two million women and children are sold into sex slavery around the world every year.

4. FORCED LABOR often results when individuals are lured by the promise of a good job but instead find themselves subjected to slaving conditions — working without payment and enduring physical abuse, often in harsh and hazardous conditions.

Name 2 major African ethnic groups that came to colonial British North America, list where they came from in Africa and where they were most populous in colonial British North America.

1. Igbo group— from the Bight of Biafra (southeastern Nigeria), were highly concentrated in Virginia and Maryland during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, sometimes making up 40% of the enslaved population in Virginia

2. Congo to South Carolina (70% before 1739) also to Georgia the low country

List 5 laws regarding slavery in Massachusetts before the American Revolution.

1. could not trade at markets;

2. could not carry any weapons, including a cane or a street;

3. could not be on the streets after night without permission from owners;

4. could not raise or sell hogs;

5. Ship captains are not allowed to let Black people on or sail with them

Describe the labor of enslaved people in middle and northern colonies?the 

1. Northern Colonies— urban skilled and unskilled workers, including artisans, tradesmen (tailors, shoemakers, bakers, butchers, carpenters), dockers, domestic service, practice of hiring out was common in cities in the North— allowed for more manumission, shipbuilding, and ancillary industries (tanners, sailmakers, etc). The northern colonies actually used the largest numbers of slave trade ships during the period. Middle Colonies— rural and agricultural labor. In Maryland cultivation of tobacco was labor-intensive,,

2. The labor was less concentrated than in plantation societies - unlike sugar plantations that required "hundreds of acres, and you have 10s, if not hundreds" of workers, northern operations typically involved smaller numbers of enslaved people per household or business which meant that there was less stuff, the people who are tobacco farms etc you didn't have to travel at night, travel on a day off to meet with people, to connect to form families.”

Why did some enslavers specify the exact ethnicity of the captives they wanted to purchase?

• relied on long-lasting stereotypes and preconceived notions about the expected labor capabilities, physical hardiness, and temperament associated with specific African regions

• ex, Angola → “less susecptable to disease and fatigue of hard labor”

• Gold Coast Africans were considered strong but “docile”

• Africans from Cape Verde and Sao Tine perceived as weaker