Unit 1: Origins of the African Diaspora

TOPIC 1.1 What is African American Studies

African American studies

• An interdisciplinary field that combines the rigors of scholarly inquiry with a community-centered approach to analyzing the history, culture, and politics of people of African descent in the U.S. and throughout the African diaspora. 

  • examines the development of ideas about Africa’s history and the continent’s ongoing relationship to communities of the African diaspora

• Perceptions of Africa have shifted over time, ranging from misleading notions of a primitive continent with no history to recognition of Africa as the homeland of powerful societies and leaders that made enduring contributions to humanity.

• Interdisciplinary analysis in African American studies dispels notions of Africa as a place with an undocumented or unknowable history, 

  • Africa is a diverse continent with complex societies that were globally connected well before the onset of the Atlantic slave trade

• African American Studies emerged from Black artistic, intellectual, and political endeavors that predate its formalization as a field of study. The discipline offers a lens for understanding contemporary Black freedom struggles within and beyond the academy

• Africa- birthplace of humanity and the ancestral home of African Americans. African American Studies examines developments in early African societies in fields including the arts, architecture, technology, politics, religion, and music. The long history of these innovations informs African Americans’ experiences and identities.

• Paleoanthropologists believe human origins come from African savanna

  • 5-10 million years ago- humans and apes descend from common ancestor

  • 4.5 million- earlest upright hominds

  • 3.5 million- began using tools

  • 2.5 million- Homo habilis: fire, shelter, hunter-gatherer societies

  • Spread of homo habilis: Caucusus (SE Europe)

  • Homo erectus- Asia (crossed water, spoke)

  • Homo sapien- 200,000 years ago

  • Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis- Single African woman birth of mankind

Black Campus movement (1965-1972)

• Hundreds of thousands of Black students and Latino, Asian, and white collaborators led protests at over 1000 colleges nationwide, demanding culturally relevant learning opportunities and greater support for Black students, teachers, and administrators.

• At the end of the civil rights movement and in the midst of the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s, Black students entered colleges in large numbers for the first time in American history. Black students called for greater opportunities to study the history and experiences of Black people and greater support for underrepresented students, faculty, and administrators.

TOPIC 1.2 The African Continent: A Varied Landscape:

Climate Zones

• As the second-largest continent in the world, Africa is geographically diverse with five primary climate zones:

• Africa is bordered by seas and oceans

  • Red Sea (East)

  • Indian Ocean (East)

  • Atlantic Ocean (West)

  • Climate zones (five):

  • Desert: Sahara (North), Kalahari (South)

  • Semiarid (Central) Sahel

  • Savanna (Central, South) grasslands

  • Rainforest (West, Central)

  • Mediterranean (North)

  • 2nd largest continent (only to Asia)

• five major rivers (Niger River, Congo River, Zambezi River, Orange River, and Nile River) connecting regions throughout the interior of the continent. 

• The proximity of the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean to the African continent supported the emergence of early societies and fostered early global connections beyond the continent.

Desert, Savanna/Rainforest, Population Centers,

• Desert

  • Mediterranean Coast- fertile strip

  • Sahara Desert- nearly uninhabitable, takes up Northern 1/3 of African continent

  • Nile River Valley- agriculturally rich

  • Limited contact w/ sub-Saharan Africa for thousands of years

  • Sahel- semiarid land, perfect for raising camels, connected desert w/ savanna

  • Commerce- trade of livestock

  • Kalahari Desert- Southern Africa between savanna and coastal strip

• Savanna/rainforest

  • Major water routes (oceans, rivers) helped people, goods move throghout

  • Fertile land supported agriculture/ animal domestication

  • Bilad es Sudan- "land of the black people"

  • Most of the habitable part of Africa

  • Rainforest- from Atlantic coast to Central

  • Diversity of climate led to trade opportunity

  • Savanna- grasslands stretching from Ethiopia to Atlantic Ocean

• Population centers emerged in the Sahel and the savannah grasslands of Africa for three important reasons

  • Fertile land supported the expansion of agriculture and the domestication of animals.

  • The Sahel and savannah grasslands connected trade between communities in the Sahara to the north and in the tropical regions to the south. 

  • Major water routes facilitated the movement of people and goods through trade.

• Variations in climate facilitated diverse opportunities for trade in Africa.

  • In the Sahel, people traded livestock.

  • In the savannah grasslands, people cultivated grain crops

  • In the tropical rainforests, people grew kola trees and yams, and traded gold.

  • In desert and semiarid areas, herders were often nomadic, moving in search of food and water, with some trading salt.  

TOPIC 1.3 Population Growth and Ethnolinguistic Diversity

Technological Innovations

• Technological innovations (e.g., the development of tools*) and agricultural innovations (e.g., the cultivation of bananas, yams, and grains) contributed to the population growth of West and Central African peoples. 

  • Cattle herding in North Africa

  • Mostly isolated from one another until Bantu migration as early as 2000 BCE

  • Culture can spread through tech./ ideas, language spreads w/ people moving

Culture

• This population growth triggered a series of migrations of people who spoke Bantu languages throughout the continent from 1500 BCE to 500 CE, called the Bantu expansion.

  • Migration Theory- W. African Bantu moved, using tech. to claim territory

  • Diffusion Theory- W. African Bantu families moved alongside new people

  • Adoption Theory- Bantu language/ tech. moved, people stayed put

• Bantu-speaking peoples’ linguistic influences spread throughout the continent. Today, the Bantu linguistic family contains hundreds of languages that are spoken throughout West, Central, and Southern Africa (e.g., Xhosa, Swahili, Kikongo, and Zulu). 

  • Majority of genetic ancestry of African Americans derives from Bantu speakers

  • This movement of languages and culture led to complex, large-scale societies throughout Africa

• Africa is the home of thousands of ethnic groups and languages. A large portion of the genetic ancestry of African Americans derives from communities in West and Central Africa that speak languages belonging to the Bantu linguistic family.

TOPIC 1.4 Africa’s Ancient Societies

Egyptian Society

• Egypt and Nubia emerged along the Nile River around 3000 BCE. Nubia was the source of Egypt’s gold and luxury trade items, which created conflict between the two societies.

  • Egypt

    • Nile River- annual flooding irrigated banks (allowed growing wheat/ barley, herding sheep/ cattle, etc.)

    • Pharaohs (1550-1100 BCE)- presided over growing empire across N. Africa/ SW Asia

    • Invasions (1100 BCE)- Alexander the Great (Greece) led to long decline up to 30 BCE (Roman conquering)

    • Hierarchical society- classes of warriors, priests, merchants, artisans, peasants

    • Patrilineal/ patriarchal- male-ruled society, women did achieve much (Pharaohs, owned property, etc)

    • Polytheism- many gods, Re (Sun), Osiris (Nile); pyramids tombs for Pharaohs

Nubia/kush

• Nubia (3000 BCE)- south of Epypt (modern day Sudan), possibly passed on grain production/ monarchy ideas

• Egypt (2000 BCE) larger population colonized Nubia for copper/ gold, ivory/ pelts, took slaves

• Kush (750 BCE)- Nubian King Piankhy added lower (north) after already controlling Upper (south) Egypt (25th Dynasty of Black Pharaohs) until Assyria

• Meroe- capital built into industrial center from iron smelting (trade made powerful until fall of Rome)

• Axum- 1st Christian sub-Saharan African state in modern Ethiopia

• Nubia emerged in present-day Egypt and Sudan. Meroë developed its own system of writing. 

• Around 750 BCE, Nubia defeated Egypt and established the twenty-fifth dynasty of the Black Pharaohs, who ruled Egypt for a century

  • Afrocentrists- Egypt influenced later African civilizations AND Greece/ Rome

The Aksumite Empire and Nok Society

• Akusumite Empire- present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia) emerged in eastern Africa around 100 BCE.

• The Red Sea connected the empire to major maritime trade networks from the Mediterranean and the Roman Empire to India, and its strategic location contributed to its rise and expansion.

• Aksum developed its own currency and script (Ge’ez). 

• The Nok society- Present-day Nigeria had an ironworking society in West Africa around 500 BCE. Skilled in pottery, they created terracotta sculptures of animals and people with intricate hairstyles and jewelry, along with stone instruments. These artifacts are the oldest evidence of a complex society in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Archaeological research in the 1940s revealed the history of the Nok society. Nok sculptures bear resemblance to Ife Yoruba and Benin terracotta works, indicating a possible ancestral connection.

• Aksum became the first African society to adopt Christianity under the leadership of King Ezana. Ge’ez, its script, is still used as the main liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. 

• The Aksumite Empire exemplifies African societies that adopted Christianity on their own terms, beyond the influence of colonialism or the later transatlantic slave trade. 

• From the late eighteenth century onward, African American writers emphasized the significance of ancient Africa in their sacred and secular texts.

• Examples from ancient Africa countered racist stereotypes that characterized African societies as without government or culture. These texts formed part of the early canon of African American Studies.

• In the mid-twentieth century, research demonstrating the complexity and contributions of Africa’s ancient societies underpinned Africans’ political claims for self-rule and independence from European colonialism.

TOPIC 1.5 The Sudanic Empires: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai:

Sudanic Empires

• The Sudanic empires, also known as the Sahelian empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, emerged and flourished from the seventh to the sixteenth century. Each reached their height at a different time and expanded from the decline of the previous empire: Ghana flourished in the seventh to thirteenth centuries; Mali flourished in the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries; and Songhai flourished in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. 

• Ancient Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were renowned for their gold mines and strategic location at the nexus of multiple trade routes, connecting trade from the Sahara (toward Europe) to sub-Saharan Africa.

• Trans-Saharan commerce brought North African traders, scholars, and administrators who introduced Islam to the region and facilitated its spread throughout West Africa.

• Songhai- last and the largest of the Sudanic empires. Following Portuguese exploration along the western coast of Africa, trade routes shifted from trans-Saharan to Atlantic trade, diminishing Songhai’s wealth.

  • Songhai (1375)- seceded from Mali, built largest W. African Empire under Muslim Sunni Ali

  •  Sunni Ali- believed to have magical powers, allowed conquered people to run affairs if tribute paid

  • Askia Muhammad Toure (1492)- expanded into Mali/ Sahara, expanded Islam, recruited Muslims to mosque at Timbuktu (95% though were peasants who practiced indigenous religion)

• Askia Daud (1549-82)- failed to adapt to European influence, firearms, Songhai falls

• Mali empire: In the fourteenth century, the Mali Empire was ruled by the wealthy and influential Mansa Musa, who established the empire as a center for trade, learning, and cultural exchange.

  • Mansa Musa (r. 1312-37)- wealthiest ruler in world history

  • Expanded Mali's wealth and land during his reign

  • Mali was home to more than half of the world's salt and gold

  • Hajj to Mecca (1324)- entourage of 60,000, 100 elephants, handed out gold to anyone he met

  • Mali’s wealth and Mansa Musa’s hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1324 attracted the interest of merchants and cartographers across the eastern Mediterranean to southern Europe, prompting plans to trade manufactured goods for gold. 

  • Mali’s wealth and access to trans-Saharan trade routes enabled its leaders to crossbreed powerful North African horses and purchase steel weapons, which contributed to the empire’s ability to extend power over neighboring groups. 

    • Administering the vast empire- rulers relied on family ties w local chiefs

    • Commerce, scholarship held 1500 mile empire together

    • Timbuktu (13th century)- hub of trade in gold, salt, slaves

    • Cosmopolitan- center of Islamic learning (150 schools), hub for Mediterranean merchants, law school, book dealers

    • Irony- enslaved war captives/ traded slaves but "abhorred injustice"

  • The title “Mansa” refers to a ruler or king among Mande speakers. 

  • The Catalan Atlas details the wealth and influence of the ruler Mansa Musa and the Mali Empire based on the perspective of a cartographer from Spain. Mansa Musa is adorned with a gold crown and orb. The Catalan Atlas conveys the influence of Islam on West African societies and the function of Mali as a center for trade and

  • Trade (including gold)- among themselves/ Sahara Desert led to interaction w/ sub-Saharan/ Islamic people

Western Africa and Forest Regions

• Ancient Ghana was located in present-day Mauritania and Mali, not in the territory of the present-day Republic of Ghana, which embraced the name of the ancient empire when it achieved independence from colonial rule in 1957. 

  • Cultural exchange.

  • Diverse environment- savannah and forest- home to variety of cultures/ languages (cultivated crops, domesticated animals

  • Soninke people (4th-8th century) could wage constant warfare with iron weapons

  • Trade- camels could travel long distances w/ little food/ water across Sahara

  • Imports- silk, cotton, glass, horses, SALT; exports- pepper, slaves, gold (which they taxed, mined to the SW of Ghana)

  • Partners- 1st Rome, then Arabs settled in Saleh (impressive capital), many converts

  • Decline- competition for Saharan trade from Islamic Berbers led to conquering

• Fall of Ghana

  • Mandinka people (led by Sundiata) forged Empire of Mali in 1235

  • Similar politically/ economically to Ghana (further South, greater rainfall for crops)

  • Larger than Ghana (stretched 1500 miles from Atlantic to Niger River)

  • Sundiata controlled gold mines of Wangara, making Mali wealthier

  • Population 8 million at its peak

• Forest region

  • Many were both slave traders and victims of them

  • Senegambia- NW Atlantic, hierarchical farming society (royalty down to slaves)

  • Akan States- used mined gold to purchase slaves to clear forests (later to purchase Eu. guns to expand)

  • Yoruba- traded nuts/ cloth, known for sculptures, women in business (later Atlantic slave trade)

  • Benin (S. Nigeria)- Benin City home to skilled artisans, wealthy elite (prosperity later depended on slave trade)

  • Igbo- stateless W. African society, many enslaved

• In West Africa stretched from Senegambia to present-day Côte d’Ivoire and included regions of Nigeria. The majority of enslaved Africans transported directly to North America descended from societies in two regions: West Africa and West Central Africa.

  • Migration (1000 CE)- dry W. Sudanese climate caused increase

  • Diversity- many languages, economies, political systems, traditions

  • Agriculture- challenging in thick forest, dominant by 16th century

  • Kings- semidivine, secret, elaborate rituals (never as large as Sudanese, but still powerful)

TOPIC 1.6 Learning Traditions:

Literature

• West African empires housed centers of learning in their trading cities. In Mali, a book trade, university, and learning community flourished in Tombouctou, which drew astronomers, mathematicians, architects, and jurists to the city. 

• Literature- passed oral traditions from generation to generation (served kings/ nobles, but told stories of common people

  • Culture and history passed through Griots, who were prestigious historians, storytellers, and musicians who maintained and shared a community’s history, traditions, and cultural practices.

    • Gender played an important role in the griot tradition. Griots included African women and men who preserved knowledge of a community’s births, deaths, and marriages in their stories

  • Human characters- subjects ranged from creation, death, success, and love (involved magic/ potions)

    • Animal tales- to entertain/ teach lessons (tricksters struggled against beasts)

    • Heroes- the mouse, spider, hare always outsmart the snake, leopard, hyena (presented in human settings w/ human emotions)

Technology and Tradition

• Court poets- used memory to recall historical events/ genealogies (remembered births, deaths, marriages)

• Women- joined men in folk literature, work songs, lullabies (call-and-response)

• Sculpture- sought to preserve ancestors (terra-cotta, bronze, brass, woodcarvings)

  • Wooden masks- represented ancestral spirits/ gods

  • "Fetishes"- charms, wodden/ terra-cotta figurines having magical powers (used in medicine, funerals, rituals)

  • Bronze sculptures (Benin)- portrayed political figures (kings, nobles)

  • Music- drums, xylophones, bells, flutes

  • Styles- call-and-response, full-throated vocals, sophisticated rhythms

• West African tech.- iron refining, textile production, architecture, rice cultivation

  • Iron- smelting turned ore into metal, blacksmiths (supernatural status) agriculture tools, weapons (war/ hunting), staffs (helped develop cities/ kingdoms)

  • Architecture- savanna featured Islamic elements, forest more indigenous (stone, mud, wood), mosques could hold 3000 people

  • Textiles- hand looms 1000's years old, eventually cotton/ wool traded w/ Muslims

  • Rice- methods of flooding used in W. Africa later brought to Southern U.S.

TOPIC 1.7 Indigenous Cosmologies and Religious Syncretism

Types of Religious Practices

• The adoption of Islam or of Christianity (e.g., in Kongo) by leaders of some African societies often resulted in their subjects blending aspects of these introduced faiths with Indigenous spiritual beliefs and cosmologies.

  • Islam adapted in Mali and Songhai, brought to West Africa (introduced by Arab traders)

    • More prevalent in savanna (in cities filled w/ merchants & bureaucrats)

    • Brought monotheism, Arabic literacy, Islamic learning, mosque building with it

    • Christianity- adopted in Kongo (blended w/ indigenous spiritual beliefs)

• Africans who blended local spiritual practices with Christianity and Islam brought their syncretic religious and cultural practices from Africa to the Americas.

  • About one-quarter of the enslaved Africans who arrived in North America came from Christian societies in Africa, and about one-quarter came from Muslim societies in Africa.

• Spiritual practices that can be traced to West and West Central Africa,

  • The Koshe Shango, a ceremonial wand among the Yoruba in Nigeria, is a core element of dances honoring the orisha (deity) Shango. Shango is the orisha of thunder, fire, and lightning, and a deified ancestor—a monarch of the Oyo kingdom. Oshe Shango wands include three features: a handle, two stone axes (characteristic of Shango’s lightning bolts), and a female figure, typically carrying the axes on her head. 

• Veneration of the ancestors, divination, healing practices, and collective singing and dancing, have survived in African diasporic religions*, such as Louisiana Voodoo.

• Africans and their descendants who were later enslaved in the Americas often performed spiritual ceremonies of these syncretic faiths to strengthen themselves before leading revolts.

• Polytheistic- all-knowing creator b/w lesser gods representing forces of nature

• Animistic- belief that inanimate objects have spiritual atributes (mountains, rivers, trees, rocks)

• Ancestors- because creator was unapproachable, turned to spirits to influence lives

• Clergy- rare, most rituals done by family in home

More examples

• Haitian Vodun- loose collection of spirits under creator Bondye, sacrifices made at altars (families or secret societies)

• Cuban Regla de Ocha-Ifa (formerly Santeria)- each human has a diety who influences personality (myths, offerings, animal sacrifice)

• Osain del Monte is an Afro-Cuban performance group whose performances illustrate the syncretism of Afro-Cuban religions. 

• The Black Madonna statue of Our Lady of Regla in Cuba is associated with Yemayá, the Yoruba deity of the sea and motherhood. Our Lady of Regla holds a Christ child and symbolizes the syncretism of African spiritual practices with Christianity in the Americas. 

• “Owner of nature”, a saint of the Yoruba religion.

• These are spiritual songs worshipping the diety “Osain”: “Used in ceremonies of consecration and purification. The songs invoke his presence to purify the herbs used in healings.

•  The painting Oya’s Betrayal depicts African spiritual practices through a visual syncretism that combines Yoruba oral traditions with Renaissance style. It features a war among the orishas Oya, Ogun, and Shango

TOPIC 1.8 Culture and Trade in Southern and East Africa  

Great Zimbabwe

• The Kingdom of Zimbabwe and its capital city, Great Zimbabwe, flourished in Southern Africa from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

  • The kingdom was linked to trade on the Swahili Coast, and its inhabitants, the Shona people,

  • Became wealthy from its gold, ivory, and cattle resources

  • Southern Africa (12th-15th century)- flourished, centered around capital Great Zimbabwe

  • Abandoned in the 15th century- Shona people migrated elsewhere (exhaustion of resources/ overpopulation)

• Great Zimbabwe is best known for its large stone architecture, which offered military defense and served as a hub for long distance trade.

  • The Great Enclosure was a site for religious and administrative activities, and the conical tower likely served as a granary.

    • (no mortar, had to be perfectly shaped) offered military defense, long distance trade

  • The stone ruins remain an important symbol of the prominence, autonomy, and agricultural advancements of the Shona kings and early African societies such as the kingdom of Zimbabwe.

  • Racism- Europeans assumed these to be Phoenician built (too sophisticated)

  • Hill Complex- structural ruins atop steepest hill (religious site)

  • Valley Ruins- series of houses made of mud-brick (indicates population of 10-20,000 people)

    • Agricultural achievements- conical tower, large population indicate advancement

East:

• The Swahili Coast (named from sawahil, the Arabic word for coasts) stretches from Somalia to Mozambique.

  • The coastal location of its city-states linked Africa’s interior to Arab, Persian, Indian, and Chinese trading communities. 

  • Mogadishu (Somalia), Malindi/ Mombasa (Kenya), Zanzibar/ Kilwa (Tanzania), Mozambique/ Sofala (Mozambique) connected to India, SE Asia, Arabia, Indonesia

• Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, the Swahili Coast city-states were united by their shared language (Swahili, a Bantu lingua franca) and shared religion (Islam).

  • The strength of the Swahili Coast trading states garnered the attention of the Portuguese, who invaded major city-states and established settlements in the sixteenth century to control Indian Ocean trade.

  • Loanwords- Arabic (15%), Portuguese, English, German dating back to era of Arab slave traders and African Bantu inhabitants

• Arab traders brought Islam, and converted Bantu people as early as 8th century

  • Permanent residents- led to more detailed historical records (Shirazi- Persian settlers arrived in 12th century)

  • Sultanates (11th-15th centuries)- independent city-states ("stone towns") governed by Islamic traditions

  • Kilwa- stone mosque still remains today

  • Traded across Indian Ocean for pottery, silks, glassware

• Portuguese- invaded city-states in 16th century to control Indian Ocean trade

  • Vasco da Gama (1497)- led expedition around Cape of Good Hope up E. African coast

  • Established naval bases at Sofala, Mombasa, Mozambique Island to brutally control trade

  • This trade deficit led to decline of most city-states of the Swahili Coast

TOPIC 1.9 West Central Africa: The Kingdom of Kongo

Kongo Nobility

• In 1491, King Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I) and his son Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I) voluntarily converted the powerful West Central African Kingdom of Kongo to Roman Catholicism

  • To gain access to Portuguese musketeers to put down rebellion 

  • The Kingdom of Kongo’s conversion to Christianity strengthened its trade relationship with Portugal, leading to Kongo’s increased wealth. Ivory, salt, copper, and textiles were the primary goods of trade.

• The nobility’s voluntary conversion allowed Christianity to gain mass acceptance, as the presence of the Church was not tied to foreign colonial occupation. A distinct form of African Catholicism emerged that incorporated elements of Christianity and local aesthetic and cultural traditions.

• As a result of the Kingdom of Kongo’s conversion to Christianity and subsequent political ties with Portugal, the King of Portugal demanded access to the trade of enslaved people in exchange for military assistance.

  • Put too much faith in Portuguese (exempted from most laws), whose priests traded in slaves, and later supported neighboring states

• Kongo nobles participated in the transatlantic slave trade, but they were unable to limit the number of captives sold to European powers. 

Kongo History

• Kongo, along with the greater region of West Central Africa, became the largest source of enslaved people in the history of the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas. 

• About a quarter of enslaved Africans directly transported to what became the United States hailed from West Central Africa. Many West Central Africans were Christians before they arrived in the Americas.

• In Kongo, the practice of naming children after saints or according to the day of the week on which they were born (“day names”) was common before the rise of the transatlantic slave trade. As a result, Christian names among early African Americans (in Iberian and English versions, such as Juan, João, and John) also have African origins and exemplify ways that ideas and practices around kinship and lineage endured across the Atlantic. 

  • 1/4 of slaves transported to U.S. originated in West Central Africa (many were Christians)

  • Portuguese arrived in Kongo/ Angola chiefly looking for slaves

  • Nzinga Knuwu welcomed intruders more than most African rulers

• Congo River- fertile valleys, abundant fish allowed for population to sustain

  • Kongo- wealth derived from salt/ iron, trade w/ interior African states

  • Politics- villages of extended families, divided labor by gender, kings semidivine

  • Decline- unrest from Afonso I handing power to Europeans, greed, slave trade undermined royal authority led to breakup of kingdom

TOPIC 1.10 Kinship and Political Leadership  

Matrilineal Society

• Social rank/ property passed through female (village chief succeeded by sister's son)

• Many early West and Central African societies were composed of family groups held together by extended kinship ties, and kinship often formed the basis for political alliances.

  • Lineage- W. African clan in which members claim descent from single ancestor (+ a mythical personage), one per village

  • Women played many roles in West and Central African societies, including as spiritual leaders, political advisors, market traders, educators, and agriculturalists

    • West Africa- men generally dominated (could hold multiple wives, women were their legal property)

    • Rights- some could hold gov't positions/ property (while themselves BEING property)

    • Sexual freedom- much greater than Europe/ Asia (could have male friends)

    • Sande- secret society initiated girls into adulthood, sex education, emphasized female virtue

    • Family- nuclear or polygynous exists in broader family community (husband/ wife separate houses), strict incest taboos

    • Farming (by gender)- men cleared fields, women tended fields, harvested, cared for children, prepared meals

Queen Idia and Queen Njinga

• In the early seventeenth century, when people from the kingdom of Ndongo became the first large group of enslaved Africans to arrive in the American colonies, Queen Njinga became queen of the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba (present-day Angola). 

• Both Queen Idia and Queen Njinga led armies into battle. Queen Idia relied on spiritual power and medicinal knowledge to bring victories to Benin. 

• Queen Njinga engaged in 30 years of guerilla warfare against the Portuguese to maintain sovereignty and control of her kingdom. She participated in the slave trade to amass wealth and political influence, and expanded Matamba’s military by offering sanctuary for those who escaped Portuguese enslavement and joined her forces.

  • Queen Njinga’s reign solidified her legacy as a skilled political and military leader throughout the African diaspora. The strength of her example led to nearly 100 more years of women rulers in Matamba.

• Queen Idia became an iconic symbol of Black women’s leadership throughout the African diaspora in 1977, when an ivory mask of her face was adopted as the symbol for FESTAC (Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture).

  The sixteenth-century ivory mask of Queen Idia was designed as a pendant to be worn to inspire Benin’s warriors. It includes features that express the significance of Queen Idia’s leadership. Faces adorn the top of Queen Idia’s head, representing her skill in diplomacy and trade with the Portuguese. Her forehead features scarifications made from iron, which identify her as a warrior. The beads above her face depict Afro-textured hair, valorizing the beauty of her natural features.

• In the late fifteenth century, Queen Idia became the first iyoba (queen mother) in the Kingdom of Benin (present-day Nigeria). She served as a political advisor to her son, the king.

  • West Africa- most lived in hierarchical societies under monarchs w/ nobles, warriors, bureaucrats, peasants

    Slaves- since ancient times, war captives w/o rights more common in savanna (children had legal protections- could not be sold away from land)

• Islamic regions- masters responsible for slaves' religious well-being (guardian for a ward)

• Royal court- could own property, exercise power over free people

• Slaves of peasant farmer shared standard of living w/ master

• Assimilation- low social status, but children could gain employment/ privileges

Global Africans 

• 15th century-trade between West African kingdoms and Portugal for gold, goods, and enslaved people grew steadily, bypassing the trans-Saharan trade routes. African kingdoms increased their wealth and power through slave trading, which was a common feature of hierarchical West African societies

  • Slave trade- increased wealth/ power of African kingdoms (common in hierarchical W. African societies)

  • Increased presence of Europeans in W. Africa/ Africans in Lisbon, Portugal/ Seville, Spain

  • Because of the wind and currents, ships often came along Cabo Verde (stopover to store supplies and carry out work on the ships)

• Portuguese and West African trade-increased the presence of Europeans in West Africa and the population of sub-Saharan Africans in Iberian port cities like Lisbon and Seville. 

• African elites, including ambassadors and the children of rulers, traveled to Mediterranean port cities for diplomatic, educational, and religious reasons. In these cities, free and enslaved Africans also served in roles ranging from domestic labor to boatmen, guards, entertainers, vendors, and knights.

• Chafariz d'El Ray- depicts Joao de Sa Panasco, African Portuguese knight w/ two African noblemen (equality between African/European societies pre-slave trade

• Mid-fifteenth century-  the Portuguese colonized the Atlantic islands of Cabo Verde and São Tomé, where they established cotton, indigo, and sugar plantations using the labor of enslaved Africans. 

  • By 1500, about 50,000 enslaved Africans had been removed from the continent to work on Portuguese-colonized Atlantic islands and in Europe. These plantations became a model for slave labor-based economies in the Americas

Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance

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

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

Unit 3: The Practice of Freedom

TOPIC 3.1 The Reconstruction Amendments

Impact on Standards of Citizenship

• During this period (1865-1877)

  • Government-integrated Confederate states

  • Establish/protect the rights of formerly enslaved African Americans

    • Granted citizenship, equal rights, political representation

• 13th Amendment- abolished slavery and involuntary servitude (except for crime)

• 14th Amendment (1868)- defined birthright citizenship

  • Overturned Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) and state-level Black codes

• 15th Amendment (1870) prohibited Federal government denying citizen right to vote

  • On account of race, color, and previous condition of servitude

15th Amendment Impact on Politics

• Black men access to right to vote

  • Enabled participation of thousands and formerly enslaved

• Around 2000 black Americans served public office on the local and Senate level

  • Jim Crow laws interfered with this and had to fight until 1960s to reclaim rights

TOPIC 3.2 Social Life: Reuniting Black Families and the Freedmen’s Bureau

Purpose of Freedmen’s Bureau

• The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

  • Established in 1865-1872

• Responsible for managing abandoned and confiscated property of the civil war

  • Assisted formerly enslaved people becoming citizens

  • Assistance, clothing, food, legalizing marriages, and establishing schools were all in effect

African Americans: Strengthening of Family Bonds

• Centuries of slavery dispersed African American families and changed names by enslavers.

  • African Americans had to learn how to create kinship bonds and family traditions after slavery

• Post-emancipation

  • African Americans searched for kin through newspapers, word of mouth and Freedmen’s Bureau

• Marriages

  • Black Marriages not considered legally binding but some tried to consecrate their unions legally.

    • Also adopted a new name that established free status and freedom to express identity

• Family reunions

  • Established through long-lost relatives

  • Preserve history, resilience, music, and culinary traditions

TOPIC 3.3 Black Codes, Land, and Labor

Effect of Black Codes

• State governments established Black codes in 1865-1866

  • Restricted newly gained legal rights

  • Controlled movement and labor

  • Attempted to restore social controls of previous slave codes

  • Restricted advancement by limiting property ownership and requiring entry to labor contracts

    • Offered little pay

    • Those that tried to escape could be whipped, fined, or imprisoned for vagrancy

• Created rules that even forced black children to serve unpaid apprenticeships without parental consent

New Labor Practices

• Special Field Orders No. 15- 1865 order by Union General William T. Sherman- that redistributed 400k acres of land from SC to Florida to freed African American families

  • Revoked by President Andrew Johnson, who confiscated plantations and returned to previous owners or purchased by northern investors

    • Black Americans evicted or shifted to Sharecropping contracts

• Sharecropping

  • Landowners gave land and equipment to formerly enslaved

    • Required to exchange large share of crops to land owner- prevented economic advancement

• Crop liens

  • Poor farmers received food and supplies on credit against future harvest

  • Not enough money to repay debt and accumulated it

• Convict leasing

  • In the past, Southern prisons profited by leasing African American male prisoners, who were jailed for debt, false arrest, or minor crimes, to landowners and companies. These prisoners endured harsh conditions resembling slavery and were not compensated for their work.

TOPIC 3.4 The Defeat of Reconstruction

Dismantling of Reconstruction-era Reforms

• State constitutions began to include de jure segregation laws after the 1876 election and the Compromise of 1877

• Black voting was suppressed through various methods such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses.

• Racial violence- lynching by former Confederates, political terrorist groups (Ku Klux Klan), and others who embraced white supremacy

• Plessy v Ferguson 1896- upheld Louisiana law mandating segregater passenger seats for railroad transportation

  • Separate but equal

  • Legal basis for separation and unequal resources, facilities, and rights

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 3.5 Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow laws

• Power of law and white supremacy

  • Led to assault on body, mind, spirit

  • Punished by whipping in front of families

African American Activism during the Nadir

• Nadir- period between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Second World War

  • Lowest point of race relations

  • Acts of racism (lynching and mob violence)

• Black journalists highlighted racism at the core of Southern lynch laws

• Responded to attacks on freedom with trolley boycotts, sympathetic writers, and press to publicize mistreatment and murder

TOPIC 3.6 White Supremacist Violence and the Red Summer

Causes of Racial Violence- 20th century

• Red summer- racial violence by white supremacy in 1917 and 1921

• Summer of 1919 global flu pandemic, competition, racial discrimination against Black veterans

  • Contributed to hate crimes and urban race riots

• 1921 Tulsa race massacre- white residents and city officials destroyed homes and business in Greenwood aka black wall street which was a prominent African American Community in the businesses

• racial violence prevented African Americans from passing wealth and property

Response to Racist Attacks

• African Americans resisted white supremacy through activism , published accounts, and armed self defense

• Great Migration- racial discrimination, violence, and economic disadvantage led to this

TOPIC 3.7 The Color Line and Double Consciousness in American Society

Effect of Black writing

• Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask and “the Veil”- represent Black struggle for self improvement due to discrimination

• Color line- metaphor for racial discrimination and legalized segregation that remained after slavery

• Double consciousness- struggle of subordinated groups in opressive society. a way to examine unequal realities of American life

  • Resulted from social alienation through racism and discrimination.

    • Also fostered adaption and resistance

TOPIC 3.8 Lifting as We Climb: Uplift Ideologies and Black Women’s Rights and Leadership

Strategies for racial uplift

• Booker T Washington- leader who advocated for industrial education, training, economic advancement, and independence

  • The Atlanta Exposition Address- suggested that Black americans should remain intthe south, gain education for industrial before political rights

• Du Bois- promoted a liberal arts education and a civil rights agenda.

• Educators and activists- promoted women education, suffrage, and inclusion

  • Nannie Helen Burroughs- Make Shorter: She was a suffragist, church leader, and daughter of enslaved people. She helped establish the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 and founded a school for women and girls in Washington, D.C. in 1909.

• Literature poetry and music encouraged pride, heritage, and cultural acheivement

  • James Weldon Johnson- created “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” that widely became known as the Black National Anthem

Black Women Promoted Advancement

• Advocated for rights during Suffrage movement in the 20th century

• Black women’s leadership- rebuilt communities and generations after slavery

  • Entered the workforce, organized labor unions, and supported families

  • Became leaders as Churchwomen and in denomination organizations countering race and gender stereotypes to exemplify the dignity, beauty, and strength

TOPIC 3.9 Black Organizations and Institutions

Promoting Economic Stability and Well-Being in the early 20th century

• Created businesses organizations that catered and improved black communities’ independence

• Black Press- provided local and national news, documented aspects of community life, served as a vehicle for protesting discrimination

• Methodist Episcopal Churchs - AME was found in 1816 as first Black Christin denomination and soon Black Churches transformed Christian worship greatly throughout the country

  • Churches served as safe spaces for organization, worship, and culture

  • Developed activists, musicians, and leaders

• Madam CJ Walker- first woman millionaire who highlighted the beauty of Black advancement and supported community iniatives

TOPIC 3.10 HBCUs, Black Greek Letter Organizations, and Black Education

Historical Black College or University

• Discrimination and segregation led African Americans to create their colleges

• The first were private colleges created by white philanthropists.

• Wilberforce University- founded by AME and first fully owned by African Americans

• Second Morrill Act (1890)- states must either create separate black universities or race wasn’t a determining factor in admissions.

  • Led to more federal funding for HBCUs

• Emphasized liberal arts and vocational industrial model

  • Ex Fisk U and Tuskegee Institute respectively

• Primary providers of postsecondary education for Blacks

Impact on educational and professional lives of African Americans nationally and internationally

• Transformed access to education, training, and economic development

• Spaces for cultural pride, scholarship and addressing racial equity gaps in higher education

• BGLOs- Black Greek-letter organizations were mostly white institutions

  • Black Americans found spaces for support for self-improvement, educational excellence, leadership, and lifelong community service.

• Fisk Jubilee Singers- student choir at Fisk University that introduced religious/musical tradition of African American spirituals on global stage

TOPIC 3.11 The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance

Self-definition, racial pride, and cultural innovation

• Encouraged defining personal identity and political advocation during times of nadir

• Black aesthetic- reflected artistic and cultural achievements of Black creators

• Innovations in musc- blues, jazz, art, and literature

  • Artistic innovations countered racial stereotypes, reflecting African American migrations from South to urban North and Midwest.

• Encompassed cultural and political movements

  • Harlem Renaissance- was a cultural revolution in the 1920s and 1930s that brought about a flourishing of Black literary, artistic, and intellectual life in the United States.

TOPIC 3.12 Photography and Social Change

Use of visual media

• Black scholars, artists, and activists used photography to counter racist representations used during Jim Crow laws

• Photographers focused on history, folk culture, and pride in an African heritage

  • Ex. James Van Der Zee- change perceptions of African Americans by showcasing the qualities of the "new negro." They depicted Black life in different aspects like work, leisure, education, religion, and home, highlighting the free-spiritedness, beauty, and dignity of Black individuals.

TOPIC 3.13 Envisioning Africa in Harlem Renaissance Poetry

Explanation

• Writers and artists during this period explored African heritage instead of colonialism and slavery

  • Incorporated Africa and African American identity and heritage for personal reflection

• Used imagery to counter stereotypes about African people and landscapes

TOPIC 3.14 Symphony in Black: Black Performance in Music, Theater, and Film

Contributions to American music in the 1930s and 1940s

• During Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age- opportunities for record labels, musicians, and vocalists appeared and also became popular

  • Radio allowed people to listen to blues, gospel, and jazz nationwide

• Black music

  • Roots in slavery

  • Acoustic music from the south

  • Electric version from the North during Great Migration

    • Themes such as despair and hope, love, and loss, using repetition, call and response, and vernacular language

• Jazz

  • Described as a distinctive contribution to the arts

  • Developed in New Orleans

  • New styles followed migration to north, midwest, and west

  • Continues to evolve today.

Contributions to American theater and film in the 1930s and 1940s.

• Flourished in cabarets on broadway and film

• Ethel Waters- first African American to start in own television show 1930s

• All black musicals- ex Cabin in the Sky (1943)

  • Black actors and dancers

  • Ethel Waters

TOPIC 3.15 Black History Education and African American Studies

Effort to research and disseminate Black history to Black students.

• New Negro movement writers believed that US promoted the idea that Blacks had no cultural contributions

  • Led to feeling inferior

  • In response, Black Americans were urged to study history, experience, and own education

• The New Negro movement challenged the idea that African Americans had no history or culture.

  • Created literature and educational materials

  • Getting Black history taught in schools- all Black students could learn about the movement.

Aims of the Black intellectual tradition

• Started 250 years ago

• Emerged through work of Black activists, writers, educatiors, and archivists

• African Free School- 18th century provided education to enslaved andfree Blacks in NY

  • Prepare black abolitionists

• NY public libarary- basis for Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

• W.E.B. Du Bois’s- also contributed research and writings for sociological surveys

• Zora Neale Hurston- anthropologist who documented culture and linguistic expression of Black Americans

• Carter Godwin Woodson- founded Black history month, published works on Black perspectives in history

TOPIC 3.16 The Great Migration

Causes

• One of the largest migrationtions in US history from south to North, Midwest, and western during 1910-1970

• Labor shortages during WWI and WII led to Black people seeking jobs in Industrial areas in the North

• Environmental factors- floods, boll weevils, and spoiled crops led to migration

• Dangers of lynching and racial violence posed a threat in the Jim Crow South

• railway system and Black press allowed for migration

  • Trains offered travel and press offered instruction and support

Impact on America

• Transformed American cities, black culture, and black communities

• African American culture spread to New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles

• Shift from rural to urban dwelling

  • New connections with the north and environment

• Increasing racial tensions

  • Some employers arrested black americans before they could leave

• National Urban league- was an interracial organization in 1910 that helped migrating black americans from south to northern urban life. Helped acclimation through secure housing and jobs. Later supported March on washington and worked with Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Civil Rights movement

TOPIC 3.17 Afro-Caribbean Migration

Reasons for migration- 20th century

• Decline of Carribean economies during WWI

• Expansion of US political and economic interests

  • Panama canal acquisition 1903- led to black people seeking opportunities for economic, political, and education

Effects of migration

• More than 140000 migrants and most settled in NY and Florida from 1899-1937

• Sparked tensions but created blends of black culture in the US

• Increased religious and linguistic diversity in African American communities

  • Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, non-english speaking

• Radicalization of black thought, black empowerment, autonomy, social movements

TOPIC 3.18 The Universal Negro Improvement Association

UNIA- Universal Negro Improvement Association

• Marcus Garvey- led largest pan-african movement in Black American history

  • Through UNIA aimed to unite black people, maintained thousands of members internationally

  • Popularized phrase “Africa for the Africans” through back to africa movement

  • Founded Black Star Line- a steamship company focused on repatriating African Americans to Africa

  • Outlined objective of UNIA for Black liberation from colonialism in African diaspora

    • Became model for nationalist movement for African Americans

    • The UNIA's red, black, and green flag remains a symbol of Black solidarity and freedom globally.

• This association helped African Americans who were discriminated

  • Helped embrace african heritage

  • Industrial, political, and educational advancement and self-determination

  • separatist Black institutions

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

Unit 4: Movements and Databases

4.4: Major Civil Rights Organizations

American Race Relations

• The crisis in American race relations is caused by resistance to segregation in public schools and a radical change in the Negro's perception of himself. The first Negroes arrived in the US as slaves and were treated inhumanely. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 made the Negro a depersonalized cog in a plantation machine. After emancipation in 1863, the Negro faced oppression and inequality. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 established the doctrine of “separate but equal,” which ended up plunging the Negro into exploitation. Today, there is a modern version of the Ku Klux Klan in respectable white citizens' councils.

  • Negroes lost faith in themselves under conditions of subservience and exploitation, leading to racial peace. True peace is the presence of positive forces like justice, goodwill, and brotherhood. As circumstances changed, the Negro migrated to urban areas, improved his economic life, and gained a new sense of self-respect and dignity. This undermined the South's negative peace as the white man refused to accept the change. The current tension in race relations can be explained by this revolutionary change in the Negro's evaluation of himself and determination to struggle for justice.

• The determination of Negro Americans to win freedom from oppression stems from the same longing as oppressed peoples worldwide. The struggle for freedom has developed slowly and is not going to end suddenly. When oppressed people rise against oppression, there is no stopping point short of full freedom. There are two possible answers to the struggle against injustice: resorting to physical violence and corroding hatred. Violence solves no social problems and creates new and more complicated ones. If the American Negro and other victims of oppression succumb to the temptation of using violence, their legacy will be an endless reign of chaos.

4.5: Black Women’s Leadership in the Civil Rights Movement

Empowerment

• Staff was involved in crucial constitutional revisions at the Atlanta staff meeting in October. A large committee was appointed to present revisions to the staff. The committee was all men.

  • Two organizers were working together to form a farmers’ league. Without asking any questions, the male organizer immediately assigned the clerical work to the female organizer although both had had equal experience in organizing campaigns.

• Although some women in Mississippi projects have been
  working as long as some of the men, the leadership group in COFO is all men.

  • A woman in a field office wondered why she was held responsible for day-to-day decisions, only to find out later that she had been appointed project director but not told.

  • A fall 1964 personnel and resources report on Mississippi projects lists the number of people on each project. The section on Laurel, however, lists not the number of persons, but "three girls."

• One of SNCC's main administrative officers apologizes for the appointment of a woman as interim project director in a key Mississippi project area.

  • A veteran of two years' work for SNCC in two states spends her day typing and doing clerical work for other people in her project.

  • Any woman in SNCC, no matter what her position or experience, has been asked to take minutes in a meeting when she and other women are outnumbered by men.

• The names of several new attorneys entering a state project this past summer were posted in a central movement office. The first initial and last name of each lawyer was listed. Next to their names was written: (girl) to identify their gender

  • Capable, responsible, and experienced women who are in leadership positions can expect to have to defer to a man on their project for final decision-making.

  • A session at the recent October staff meeting in Atlanta was the first meeting in the past couple of years where a woman was asked to chair.