Topic 2.1: African Explorers in the Americas

Early 16th century

• free and enslaved Africans familiar with Iberian culture journeyed with Europeans in their earliest explorations of the Americas

• the first Africans in the territory that came into the USA were known as Ladinos

Ladinos

• part of a generation known as “Atlantic Creoles.”

  • worked as intermediaries before the predominance of chattel slavery.

  • familiar with multiple languages, cultural norms, and commercial practices as a measure of social mobility

• essential to the efforts of European powers

  • Black participation in America’s colonization resulted from Spain’s early role in the slave trade and the presence of enslaved and free Africans

    • ex: Florida, South Carolina, Georgia

Roles of Africans during Colonization

• conquistadors- in hopes of gaining their freedom, participated in conquest

• enslaved laborers- mining and agricultural

• free skilled workers/artisans

Juan Garrido

• conquistador born in the Kingdom of Kongo

• became the first known African who traveled to North America in 1513 as a free man

• served in Spanish military forces to conquer indigenous populations

• 

Estevanico (Esteban)

• enslaved African healer from Morocco

  • forced to work in 1528 as an explorer and translator in Texas

  • eventually killed by Indigenous

  • groups resisting Spanish colonialism

Topic 2.2 Departure Zones in Africa and the Slave Trade to the United States

Scope of Transatlantic Slave Trade

• people arrived in the Americas from Africa than from any other region in the world.

• lasted over 350 years & more than 12.5 million enslaved Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas.

• only about 5 percent of those who survived came directly from Africa to the US

• Charleston, South Carolina, was the center of United States slave trading.

• Portugal, Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands were the top nations involved

Slave-trading zones in Africa

• nine contemporary African regions: Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Angola, and Mozambique.

  • Over half of the captives brought to mainland North America were from Senegambia and Angola.

Distribution of African ethnic groups

• cultural contributions varied based on place of origin

  • multiple combinations of African-based cultural practices, languages, and belief systems within African American communities were created

• Nearly half of those who arrived in the United States came from societies in Muslim or Christian regions of Africa.

• came from numerous West and Central African ethnic groups, such as the Wolof, Akan, Igbo, and Yoruba.

Topic 2.3 Capture and the Impact of the Slave Trade on West African Societies

Three-Part Journey

• First part: Africans were captured and marched from interior states to the Atlantic coast

  • waited in crowded, unsanitary dungeons.

• Second Part-middle passage: traveling across the Atlantic Ocean lasted 3 months. People were separated permanently from their communities.

  • humiliated, beaten, tortured, and raped

  • widespread disease and malnourishment

  • 15 percent of captive Africans perished

• Final part:

  • quarantined, resold, and transported domestically to distant locations

Destabilization of West African societies

• increased monetary incentives to use violence and enslave communities

• wars between kingdoms were exacerbated by firearm trade with Europeans

• coastal states became wealthy from trade and inferior states were unstable

• African leaders sold soldiers and war captives from opposing ethnic groups

• instability and loss of kin

  • traditions, communities, and families were lost

Key Features of Narratives

• detailed their experiences in poetry and a genre known as slave narratives.

  • slave narratives- foundational to early American writing.

    • serve as historical accounts, literary works, and political texts

    • designed to end slavery and the slave trade

    • black humanity and inclusion of African people in American Society

Topic 2.4 African Resistance on Slave Ships and the Antislavery Movement

Methods Africans Used to Resist Enslavement

• staging hunger strikes, attempting to jump overboard to resist slavery, overcoming linguistic differences

• the slave trade became expensive and dangerous

• led to changes in the design of slave ships

  • barricades, nets, guns

• Sengbe Pieh- a captive from Sierra Leone led a revolt on a slave ship in 1839. Mende captives were later granted freedom by the Supreme Court. led to public sympathy

Features of Slave Ship Diagrams

• diagrams only show half the number of slaves that people used to maximize profit

• unsanitary and cramped conditions led to death and disease

• guns, nets, and force-feeding prevented resistance

Slave ships effect on Abolitionists and Black Artists

• antislavery activism became prominent.

  • people circulated diagrams to raise awareness of the

  • visual and performance

  • conditions slaves had to go through

• Black visual and performance artists showed the slave ships to honor the memory of the people who died

• 

TOPIC 2.5 Slave Auctions and the Domestic Slave Trade

Nature of Slave Auctions

• power of law and white supremacy

  • led to assault on body, mind, spirit

  • punished by whipping in front of families

African American Authors

• wrote literature genres like narratives and poetry

• emphasized physical and emotional effects when being sold

• claim that slavery was a benign institution to advance the cause of abolition.

Cotton industry

• the enslaved population grew through childbirth to meet the demand

• South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were the main regions

  • slaves became commodities

• slaves were relocated to the upper South during the cotton boom

• families were displaced during the Second Middle Passage forced migrations

TOPIC 2.6 Labor, Culture, and Economy

Roles of Slaves

• agricultural, domestic, and skilled labor in urban areas

• some were bound to people’s churches and factories

• black-smithing, basketweaving, and the cultivation of rice and indigo.

  • many became painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers and developed a culture

Effect on Musical and Linguistic Practices

• gang system

  • slaves worked under groups under an overseer to cultivate cotton, sugar, and tobacco. they created work songs to keep pace with the work

• task system- rice and indigo

  • worked until they met a daily quota

  • maintained linguistic practices, such as the Gullah Creole language

    • Carolina Lowcountry

Methods Africans Used to Resist Enslavement

Economic effects

• economic interdependence between the North and South and benefitted cities

• were alienated from the wealth they produced

• no wages to pass down and no rights to accumulate property

TOPIC 2.7 Slavery and American Law: Slave Codes and Landmark Cases

Effect of American Law

• Article I and Article IV of the United States don’t refer to terms like slave and slavery

• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery

• slave codes defined slavery as life-long and inheritability

  • law prevented congregation, from possessing weapons and wearing fine fabrics, among other activities.

  • Code Noir and Código Negro

• Slave codes and other laws- reserved opportunity and protection from white people

• some states banned the entry of free Blacks

• laws enacted restrictions such as vote and testifying

  • before 1879 only Wisconsin and Iowa gave Black the right to vote

Slave Codes

• South Carolina’s 1740 slave code- updated in response to the Stono rebellion of 1740

  • defined slaves as nonsubjects

  • prohibited gathering, drumming, learning to read, rebelling, running away, or moving abroad, including to other colonial territories

    • some got condemned to death

  • Dred Scott’s freedom suit (1857)- African Americans are enslaved, free, and could never be citizens

TOPIC 2.8 The Social Construction of Race and the Reproduction of Status

Partus Sequitur Ventrem

• In the 17th century, a law determined a child's legal status based on their mother's status, impacting enslaved African Americans greatly.

• In the United States, hereditary racial slavery was established.

  • ensured that enslaved African American women's children would also be considered property.

    • led African Americans to lose their right to claim their children.

• prohibit the mixed-race children of Black women from inheriting the free status

• gave male enslavers the right to deny responsibility for the children

Racial Concepts and Classifications

• considered socially constructed, not based on clear biological distinctions

  • genetic diversity exists everywhere

• emerged in tandem with systems of enslavement and oppression.

• Phenotype- perceptions of racial identity. some laws were defined regardless and tied to rights to perpetuate slavery

• pre-civil war differed on the percentage of ancestry that defined a person as white or Black

  • one drop rule- classified a person with any degree of African descent as part of a singular, inferior status.

• classification prohibited multiracial and multiethnic heritage embracement

TOPIC 2.9 Creating African American Culture

Forms of Self-expression

• drew upon blended influences from African ancestors, community members, and local European and Indigenous cultures.

• aesthetic influences, pottery, and quilt-making for storytelling and memory

• instruments such as rattles from gourds, the banjo, and drums similar to West Africa

• lingua franca- a common language to communicate across languages with elements from West African and European languages to create a Creole language like Gullah

Musical Elements

• Christian hymns combined with rhythmic and performative elements from Africa

  • clapping, improvisation, and syncopation

  • biblical themes

  • all created a distinct genre that later evolved into gospel and blues

• came from Senegambians and West Central Africans in Louisiana

  • influenced American blues, which has the same Fodet musical system in Senegambia

• 

Significance of spirituals

• Music and Fait combined into spirituals- sorrow songs and jubilee songs

  • sang to articulate hardships and hopes

• social spiritual and political

  • to resist dehumanizing conditions and injustice of enslavement

  • express their creativity, and communicate strategic information

    • warnings, plans to run away, and methods of escape.

• lyrics had meanings of biblical themes but also to alert people to escape via the Underground Railroad.

• reflected African American heritage and identity

  • preserve rhythms and performance, connecting culture from West Africa to American experiences

TOPIC 2.10 Black Pride, Identity, and the Question of Naming

Changing Demographics

• ban of international slave trading in 1808

  • percentage of African-born people in the African American population declined

• American Colonization Society

  • formed to exile the free Black population

  • Black people responded by rejecting the term African to emphasize Americanism

• African Americans described themselves through multiple ethnonyms- ethnic groups and nationalities

  • Afro-American, African American, and Black.

TOPIC 2.11 The Stono Rebellion and Fort Mose

Key Effects of the Asylum offered by Spanish

• St Agustine 17th century

  • enslaved refugees fled to seek asylum. freedom was granted to those who turned Catholic

• 1738 the governor of Spanish Florida

  • Fort Mose- fortified settlement and refuge. first free black town

    • Francisco Menéndez- enslaved Senegambian who fought against the English in the Yamasee War

• offered emancipation to those fleeing British

  • inspired Stono rebellion- 100 slaves set fire to plantations and marched to Spanish Florida

  • South Carolina passed the slave code in 1740 in response

    • fort Mose was soon destroyed

TOPIC 2.12 Legacies of the Haitian Revolution

Global Impacts of the Haitian Revolution

• resulted in a colonial, enslaving government to a Black republic without slavery

• prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the US, which led to more slavery

• led to opportunities for sugar production

• led to relocation to US cities but also anxiety about slave revolts- which led to the passage of Alien and Sedition acts

• Haiti’s growth was hindered by reparations needed to be paid to France

Maroons

• these were Black people who escaped slavery to establish free communities

• disseminated information and organized attacks for the Haitian revolution

  • former soldiers in the Kingdom of Kongo civil wars

diasporic communities and Black political thought

• highlighted the unfulfilled promises of the American Revolution

• inspired Louisiana Slave Revolt (1811) and the Malê Uprising of Muslim slaves (1835) in Brazil

• symbol of Black freedom and sovereignty.

TOPIC 2.13 Resistance and Revolts in the United States

Daily forms of resistance

• slowing work, breaking tools, stealing food, attempting to run away

  • sustained abolition movement

  • religious services and churches functioned as sites for gathering, mourning, and organization for abolition

Revolts and Abolitionist Effort

• former African soldiers aided the ability to revolt

• Santo Domingo 1526

  • slaves in the Dominican Republic aided Spanish Exploration and led a slave revolt in US territory, thereafter escaping to indigenous communities

• Charles Deslondes German Coast Uprising, or the Louisiana Revolt of 1811

  • led 500 slaves to the largest revolt in the US

  • brought support from local plantations and maroons to New Orleans

• Madison Washington 1851

  • led a rebellion on the brig creole by seizing the ship to a region where slavery was ended in the Bahamas

• Religion led to resistance through rebellion and activism

  • ex: Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Maria Stewart, Henry Highland Garnet

TOPIC 2.14 Black Organizing in the North: Freedom, Women’s Rights, and Education

Organization in Communities

• 1860- 12% of black people were free

• thrived in urban cities and created mutual-aid societies

  • funded schools, businesses, and churches

Black women activists

• used speeches and publications about antislavery

• Maria W. Stewart- the first black woman to publish a political manifesto and give a public address in the 1830s. This led to the feminist movement

Significance of Black Women Activists

• called to attention race and gender discrimination

• fought for abolitionism and rights, which later contributed to suffrage

• central to African American politics

TOPIC 2.15 Maroon Societies and Autonomous Black Communities

Maroon communities

• emerged throughout the African diaspora in hidden environments

• self-emancipated people were free in this community where African culture prevailed and people were protected

• formed within indigenous communities and areas like Great Dismal Swamp

Maroon wars

• Maroons staged wars against colonial governments, advocating freedom

• some made treaties and in turn extinguished slave rebellions

• Bayono- led the war against the Spanish in Panama

• queen nanny- led wars in Jamaica against English

TOPIC 2.16 Diasporic Connections: Slavery and Freedom in Brazil

Brazilian enslavement

• more embarked in Brazil than anywhere else. Many came from the Middle Passage and were forced to work in sugar plantations, gold mines, coffee plantations, cattle ranching, and the production of food and textiles for domestic consumption.

• Lived in cultural communities

  • capoeira- martial art by slaves that combines music and singing

  • congada- a celebration of King of Kongo’s birth

Number in Brazil vs US

• 19th century- The enslaved population decreased due to release from slavery

  • result of Catholic and Iberian influence

  • became the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery

• In the US, enslaved Africans increased throughout the 19th century because of children born in slavery (about 4 million)

TOPIC 2.17 African Americans in Indigenous Territory

Slavery’s affect on relations

• Maroons found refuge with Seminoles in Florida. Fought together in resistance to Second Seminole War

• Some Indigenous enslavers were removed from their lands by the government and took African Americans with them

  • Indigenous nations adopted slave codes, created slave patrols, and assisted in recapturing enslaved Black people

    • hardened racial lines

    • created conflict

    • redefined Black communities as outsiders

TOPIC 2.18 Debates About Emigration, Colonization, and Belonging in America

Freedom and Self-determination

• Due to abolitionism, emigrationists built communities outside the US to avoid slavery and discrimination

  • Dred Scott Case- effect of this

• locations in Latin America, the Caribbean, and West Africa

  • allowed for culture, Afro-descendants, and a favorable climate

• Paul Cuffee and Martin R. Delany- abolitionists who supported emigration, and promoted unity, pride, and Black nationalism

  • Cuffee was the first to relocate from the US to Africa in 1815. Took Black people to Freetown in Sierra Leone

Effect of Transatlantic Abolitionism

• led to belonging to American ideals through abolition, freedom, representation, and racial equality

  • believed in birthright citizenship

• Frederick Douglass- famous abolitionist but not protected from recapture

  • some found refuge in other nations

• anti-emigrationists- celebrated independence but believed in exploitation based on race

  • contradictory

TOPIC 2.19 Black Political Thought: Radical Resistance

Black Activist radical resistance strategies

• embraced action through revolts, violence, and urgency

• some opposed moral suasion- appealing to morality and ethics

• leveraged publications that detailed the horror of slavery.

  • some were smuggled as a resistance tactic

TOPIC 2.20 Race to the Promised Land: Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad

Role of the Underground Railroad

• network of black and white abolitionists

  • provided transportation, shelter, and resources to those fleeing the South to the North, Canada, and Mexico

  • around 30000 African Americans reached freedom

• Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850- slaves were encouraged to be kidnaped and whoever escaped had to be returned

Significance of Harriet Tubman

• returned to the South 19 times and led 80 to Freedom

  • sang spirituals to alert slaves about plans to leave

• used geographic knowledge and social network

  • served as a spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War

• Combahee River Raid- Tubman became the first American woman to lead a military operation like this

TOPIC 2.21 Legacies of Resistance in African American Art and Photography

Significance of Visual Depictions

• African Americans embraced photography to counter stereotypes

  • displaced as equal and worthy of dignity

• Sojourner Truth- sold carte-de-visites to raise money, participated in tours, and recruited for the Union Army

  • photos showcased leadership and freedom

• Frederick Douglass- extremely photographed, represented black achievement through freedom

• used black aesthetic traditions for religious and cultural perspectives.

  • preserves the legacy of leaders

• 

TOPIC 2.22 Gender and Resistance in Slave Narratives

Methods of resistance against sexual violence

• rape laws did not apply to Black women.

• resisted through fighting attackers, abortion drugs, infanticide, and running away with children

Gender Effect

• narratives described suffering, escape, and how some acquired literacy

  • focused on humanity and advancing abolition

• black women reflected on gender norms

  • modesty, vulnerability to violence, domestic violence

  • men- focused on Mahood and autonomy

TOPIC 2.23 The Civil War and Black Communities

Contributions during the Civil War

• free and enslaved black communities join the Union side to advance abolition and citizenship

• men worked as soldiers while women worked as cooks, nurses, and spies

• some fled the South and supported the North.

  • free Black people raised money for refugees, established schools, and offered medical care

  • most of the people who fought were formerly enslaved

Motivations and Inequities

• wanted to view themselves as citizens

• permitted to join due to labor shortage, despite unequal conditions with slavery and the risk of enslavement by Confederates

Effect on Black Communities

• free Black communities suffered from violence by those who opposed activism and equality with Blacks

  • some white communities resented being drafted to fight against Black neighborhoods

• soldiers took pride in their role in ending slavery- even if not celebrated

  • poetry and photographs serve as evidence and prove sacrifice

TOPIC 2.24 Freedom Days: Commemorating the Ongoing Struggle for Freedom

Ending enslavement

• 1863 Emancipation Proclamation- declared freedom for enslaved people in Confederate states as a wartime order

  • after the war, slavery continued in some areas until 13h Amendment

• Thirteenth Amendment- secured permanent abolition of slavery except as a punishment

  • freed 4 million slaves and took steps towards freedom and justice

  • did not apply to slaves in Indigenous nations

    • The US had to negotiate treaties to end slavery here in 1866

      • but didn’t guarantee all rights

Ending enslavement

• Juneteenth- end slavery in the last state (Texas) in 1865

  • slaves in Galveston Texas were free with the Union reading of General Order 3

    • this was the first document to mention racial equality

  • African Americans commemorated freedom days since abolition in NY (1827)

  • becomes a federal holiday in 2021

  • celebrations including singing spirituals and clothing that symbolizes freedom

  • This along with Emancipation Day and other freedom days celebrate:

    • struggles to end enslavement

    • embracing freedom even with ongoing struggles

    • commitment to joy and validation among themselves