Key terms 1
What are maroons?
a group of formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants who gained their freedom by fleeing chattel enslavement and running to the safety and cover of the remote mountains or the dense overgrown tropical terrains near the plantations.
What is manumission?
The act of freeing enslaved people from their bondage. In the British colonies this could be done either after the enslaved person was able to purchase their freedom or if the slave owner set them free normally in a will after the owner’s death
What is chattel slavery?
Chattel Slavery means that one person has total ownership of another. There are two basic forms of chattel, domestic chattel, with menial household duties and productive chattel, working in the fields or mines. This would the how slavery would begin to develop in the new world. It also included the fact that slavery was passed down from mother to child.
What does Juneteenth commemorate?
The emancipation of enslaved Africans in the United States.
Who was Mansa Musa?
Mansa Musa was the leader of the Kingdom of Mali. He reigned during a time period in which Mali was one of the richest Kingdoms in Africa as they set up trading hubs in cities like Timbuktu.
What is significant about Jamestown, Virginia?
The first successful British settlement in North America. Initially the settlement struggled because the first settlers were not prepared for the rigors of early colonial life including the work demands and the interactions with Native peoples. Once they were able to focus on growing cash crops like tobacco the colony became very prosperous.
Who was John Punch Case?
John Punch as a Black indentured servant who ran away from his owner along with 2 other indentured servants who were white. When they were all finally captured, the white servants were only punished with more time served on their indenture, John Punch was sentenced to life as a slave. This would be the first time that a black person was sentenced to servitude for life
What group launched the Freedom Rides in 1961?
Why is 1619 significant?
The year the first enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of the British/American colonies. This would be the beginning of enslaved Africans being brought to North America.
What are cash crops?
Crops like sugar, tobacco and cotton were grown in the colonies (and in the Caribbean). These crops were grown for the sole purpose of exporting to England and Europe for a profit. The harvesting of these crops was very labor intensive and so as the demand increased so did the need for more labor. Eventually, that labor moved from white indentured servants to solely enslaved Africans.
What were slave codes?
The slave codes were laws relating to slavery and enslaved people, specifically regarding the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas. Most slave codes were concerned with the rights and duties of free people in regards to enslaved people.
Which influential authors became the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?
Toni Morrison in 1993
What was the Bantu Migration?
The Bantu Migration was the movement of people from West Africa specifically Eastern Nigeria and Southern Cameroon. The Bantu Migration impacted Africa economically, politically , and socially with the Kongo- Niger language group creating many of the native African languages we hear today.
What is the transatlantic slave trade?
The kidnapping and transporting of over 12 millions Africans to the New World. The vast majority of these Africans went to the Caribbean and South America. Started as a part of the so-called “Columbian Exchange,” millions of Africans were stolen from their homeland and forced into chattel slavery in the Americans.
What was Bacon's rebellion?
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1675 to 1676. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley. It was the first rebellion in which poor whites, poor blacks and enslaved blacks fought together on the same side. As a result of this event, the Virginia legislature would pass laws that would socially separate races with the hopes that they would never unite again against the rich elites.
Before elected 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama served as a U.S. senator in which state?
Illinois
What is the meaning of codified in the context of slavery?
When laws become arranged into a systematic code. Slavery became codified in Virginia when they began to make laws that were specifically for people of African descent. This was a significant change from previous laws which may have pertained to both black and white indentured servants equally.
Who were indentured servants?
Young European men who could not afford to pay for passage across the Atlantic would agree to serve as an indentured servant for a predetermined amount of time. Normally the time was 4-7 years. At the end of the indenture, they would be given land and tools to begin their lives. Indentured servants were treated as badly as slaves during the time period and if a indentured servant committed a crime or attempted to escape, more time could be added to their indenture.
Who was Bartolomé de Las Casas and what impact did he have on the institution of slavery?
a 15th century explorer turned Catholic priest who witnessed the terrible and horrible treatment of Indegenious people in the New World at the hands of his fellow Spanairds. After witnessing the torture of the Natives, De Las Casas suggested that the Spanish crown consider using Africans for slave labor instead of the Natives. This suggestion was made because De Las Casas knew that the Africans were more immune to European diseases and his understanding of slavery as it existed in Spain was significantly different than what he witnessed in the New World. The version of slavery that existed in the old world was far less dehumanizing and protected a portion of the dignity of the enslaved person and even allowed them certain rights and privileges.
In 1968, she became the first African American woman (from BROOKLYN!) to be elected into Congress
Shirley Chisholm, who represented the 12th district of NY in the House from 1969 to 1983 and ran for president in 1972.