Early Black History Exam #1

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Middle Passage

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The middle segment of the triangular trade in which slaves were brought from Africa to the West Indies

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Triangular Trade

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The trade relationship between Europe, Africa, and America that lasted over 300 years and was responsible for all Africans reaching the New World. It started with manufactured goods being brought from Europe to America, which were then exchanged for slaves from Africa that had been brought to America, where they were purchased in exchange for raw materials in the West Indies.

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Bartholomeu Dias

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He sailed around southernmost tip (Cape of Good Hope) of Africa in 1487 and was the first European to have done so.

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Vasco de Gama

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He commanded ships sailing from Europe to India around the coast of Africa (Cape of Good Hope) in 1497

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Factories

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Slave fortresses on the West African coast that held slaves that had been marched across the Sahara. Where many slaves saw the ocean for the first time (thought that was where dead went)

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Elmina

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First slave fortress that also had military purposes. Slaves were kept underground in poorly ventilated, disease-spreading dungeons that caused many casualties

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Coasting

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continuing to trade along the coast before heading to the West Indies; more profitable in the short term, but killed more potential slaves

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Loose Packing

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hope to decrease mortality so less slaves were packed onto a ship than was prescribed

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Tight Packing

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hope to offset mortality through sheer numbers, so more slaves were packed onto a ship than was called for

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Scramble

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once the ships arrived, slaves were placed in pens with separate prices for men, women and children and then voyeurs selected the ones they wanted

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Seasoning

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process of acculturating free people to being slaves (e.g. how to complete the necessary tasks)
1. learning native language
2. learning tasks/jobs
3. eating the local food
4. submitting to their fate as slaves

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Creoles

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people born into slavery in the West Indies; the most valuable slaves because they did not need to be seasoned, had fewer health problems, and were less likely to revolt

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Old & New Africans

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Old: came over on the ship previously and were already seasoned. New: just off the boat, unseasoned

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Pidgin

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hybrids of the English & French languages that were more readily used by slaves (e.g. Gola and Geechee, the latter of which was used in the sea islands of Georgia)

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Gang System

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agricultural slaves split up, with strongest adult males taking the most difficult tasks

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Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and William Wilberforce

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Leaders of the late 1700s English abolitionist movement that was a religiously oriented moral crusade against slavery and the slave trade

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Miscegenation

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interracial sexual relationships that resulted in children (Mulattos), brings integration

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Creolization

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blending of two or more cultures to create a third; how languages became blended (e.g. creole)

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Fictive Kin

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Africans coming across middle passage/losing relative to trade chose friends to replace family members & fill roles

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Ring Shout

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African circle dance performed by Black Americans at funerals

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Great Awakening

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first moment of religious interaction between whites and blacks. A religious revival among white protestants as an attempt to reach god more easily. More feeling and emotion in religion. First time that white Evangelists reached out to blacks for conversion. Blacks embraced practices as they were similar to many of their own rituals. Whites were moved by Black emotions and reactions during religious experiences.

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Jonathan Edwards

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preacher that started Great Awakening in Mass in 1730s

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George Whitefield

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Evangelist from England, most responsible for the spread of the Great Awakening

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Call and Response

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the music of choice for blacks. Idea of no passive observers, a collective effort. Polyrhythmic and syncopated

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Maroons

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runaway slaves that created colonies. Maroon colonies in the Caribbean were more successful due to the climate, and they grew large and formed militias.

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Stono Rebellion

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1739 rebellion in South Carolina in which many slaves walked away but were intercepted by militia, some hung, many killed, few survived

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John Cabot

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Italian navigator and explorer who discovered parts of North America in 1497 and established England's claim to the land

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Jamestown

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founded in 1607 in an attempt to find gold/silver/etc. and was quickly overcome by disease, poverty, warfare, starvation and cannibalism and burnt down by Native Americans

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John Rolfe

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English settler who ran a tobacco plantation in North Virginia, also grew coffee and sugar = crop trifecta. Used indentured servitude after Native Americans proved too hard to enslave

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Indentured Servitude

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when free persons agreed to sign a contract of indenture and worked in exchange for something (aka land) followed by freedom. A way of poor improving lives in America post servitude

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Bacon's Rebellion

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1675, whole appeal of indentured servitude was the promise of land, but as the East Coast became overcrowded, former indentured servants are forced to move west in which they meet Native Americans and are over matched. Nathanial Bacon plans attack of Jamestown & dies of dysentery prior to attack; lesson learned = slavery is preferable because indentured servitude is expensive, socially abrasive

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Absentee Owners

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slave masters that had little interaction with their slaves, tended to be plantation owners rather than farm owners, hired overseers to interact with slaves. Don’t want to be in south for fear of disease

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Task System

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slaves could be done by the afternoon when it was hottest so there were more culture sharing opportunities; certain amount of tasks rather than certain amount of hours

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Mulattos

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half-black half-white people, often product of miscegenation, there was a large mulatto population in the low country. This was a result of the low white female population and large black female population. As a result, lighter skinned blacks became more privileged and and source of interracial tension

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French and Indian War

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1758, all out British military offensive results in victory. France & Britain are perpetual enemies. Fighting over the Ohio Rivier Valley, French Canada, and west of the Appalachian mountains. Victory allows Westward expansion, which makes the colonists happy. Britain racks up a lot of debt and expects the colonists to pay via taxes, yet the colonists disagree

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Proclamation Line of 1763

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Britain bans settlement to the West of it. Parliament did not want any more battles with the Indians, and the colonists saw that as oppressive.

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Sugar Act of 1764

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colonists hated this tax because it was not directed at regulating trade but at raising revenue, therefore stripping colonial power. According to them, only the colonies should be taxing colonists.

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Stamp Act of 1765

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tax on all paper products with a stamp as proof. Far more extensive and aggravating for colonists

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Stamp Act Congress

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colonies united by anger agree to an embargo on British goods. Britain subsequently repeals the stamp act

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Townshend Acts

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taxes on teas and other products (glass, led, paint, paper) imported to the colonies from Britain

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Boston Massacre

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5 Bostonians killed by British troops during a protest

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Crispus Attucks

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first one killed in Boston Massacre, also a mulatto. Public trial ends with soldiers exoneration

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Sons of Liberty

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radical Boston group that in December 1773 dumped a shipload of tea into the harbor

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Boston Tea Party

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response to Britain’s decision to maintain the tea tax and the monopoly given to the East India company. Dumping of shipload of tea into the Boston harbor. “Secret Tax” = forced to buy more tea. Brings strong response from King George III, namely punishing the city economically. Results in more quartering of soldiers and the shut down of Massachusetts legislature

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Battle of Bunker Hill

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begins revolutionary war in 1775, bloody in Boston

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Enlightenment

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European philosophical and political movement that promoted reason over emotion and religion. Mechanistic universe = universe operates like a machine with rules as a society, the key idea being Locke’s Natural Rights

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John Locke

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Natural Rights = personal freedoms, and the theory increases in appeal. Colonists begin questioning relationship with England and, in turn, slaves. Both the beginning of the abolitionist movement and the decline of slavery in the North and expansion in the South.

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Commonwealthmen

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black person in Britain OR highly outspoken British protestant, religious, political, and economic reformers during the early 18th century. Had a great influence on republicanism in the U.S.

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Phillis Wheatley

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wrote poems on various subjects, religious and moral. One of the first examples of assimilation. Showed black potential, first black woman and second American woman to have a book published

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Benjamin Banneker

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mathematician and astronomer. World renowned and best known for his almanac.

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Loyalists

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colonists that sided with the British. In the South, most slaves became loyalists because the British were more likely to give them their freedom

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Battle of Saratoga

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took place in Canada, John Burgoyne, British general, surrendered his entire army to the revolutionary army. Major turning point, as it convinces the rest of Europe, mainly France, that America was legitimate and deserved economic and military support.

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Yorktown

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battle that ends the war. General Cornwallis is trapped and surrenders to George Washington. War officially ends in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris

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Dunmore Proclamation

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November 1775, Lord Dunmore claims that all blacks serving in the British army would earn their freedom. Thomas Jefferson estimated that there were 30,000 Virginia runaways. Blacks were generally used as laborers, not soldiers & after the war they were mostly sent to the West Indies & Jamaica, and re-enslaved

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Peter Salem

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black man that fought for the patriots at the Battle of Bunker Hill, thought to have shot a British officer

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Salem Poor

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black man that became a junior officer in the patriot army

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Prince Hall

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founder of “Black Freemasonry -- Prince Hall Masons,” the first organized African lodge, and was a prominent lobbyist for education.

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Emancipation

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an effort to obtain political rights & equality; after the war, slavery decline in the North and was weakened overall, but did not end

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Quakers

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part of the emancipation movement. Friend society based on “inner light”, consisting of pacifists that were considered to be radicals in Europe. Dominated in the North, freeing their own slaves and leading the abolitionist movement

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John Woolman

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Quaker from southern New Jersey, convinced the friends society’s 1758 annual meeting to condemn slavery and the slave trade

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Anthony Benezet

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Philadelphia teacher who worked with Woolman (see above)

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Gradual Emancipation

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by 1784 all Northern states except for New York and & New Jersey had passed gradual abolition legislation

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Elizabeth Freeman

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sued for her freedom based on the Massachusetts state constitution of 1780 that declared that all men are born free and equal and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and won

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Quok Walker

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after punching master, used constitution to gain freedom as well, and was granted freedom in 1783 by Massachusetts supreme court

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Paul Cuffe

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1780, free black who lived in Dartmouth protested with 6 other free black men to the state legislature that they were being taxed without representation. 1783, courts decided that African American men that paid tax in Massachusetts could vote there

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Northwest Ordinances

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1784, divided Western land into an organized geographical grid & set up territories w/ governments, and banned slavery from Appalachian mountains to Mississippi river, and from Canada to Florida, but ordinance failed by 1 vote, and then passed in 1787 & includes a different slavery provision with it only banned down to the Ohio River

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PA Abolition Society

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renamed in 1787, promoted abolition of slavery. President = Benjamin Franklin. Spread throughout country (except deep south), called for gradual & compensated emancipation, & for colonisation in Liberia. Feared miscegenation

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Manumission

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deep south, individual master frees individual slave

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Self-Purchase

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slaves made money by cultivating crops & subsequently bought freedom

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Articles of Confederation

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drafted by Continental Congress in 1777, formally ratified by all 13 states in 1781, it was the first constitution & was too weak to tax or regulate congress & suppress uprisings

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3/5 Compromise

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compromise between Northern & Southern reached during Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that made blacks worth ⅗ of a free person in determining a state’s representation in the house and electoral collage

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Fugitive Slave Law (1793)

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allowed master or agents to pursue slaves across state lines, capture them, and take them before a magistrate

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Eli Whitney

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invented the cotton gin in 1793 which coincided with the cotton trade expandion, and provided an easy and fast way to remove seeds, allowing the expansion and prolonging of slavery, which was used to pick cotton to accommodate the increased need

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Richard Allen

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along with Absalom Jones, founded the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, which was the first unaffiliated black church

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Absalom Jones

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Established Free African Society in Philadelphia. Joined Richard Allen's congregation, yet their shared faith that Methodist egalitarianism would prevail over discrimination undermined their efforts to create a separate Black Methodist Church

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Free African Society

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founded by Richard Allen & Absalom Jones, a mutual aid society based in Philadelphia. Equivalent of a modern day insurance company & transformed into a self-improvement society as well

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Brown Fellowship Society

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mutual aid society in the South that included only high ranking & lighter skinned mulattos. Used the “paper bag test” (if skin is darker than paper bag, no admittance)

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A.M.E. Church

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stands for African Methodist Episcopal church, founded to escape racism in white churches, birthplace was Mother Bethel in 1816 with Richard Allen becoming its first bishop & then quickly spread to other cities in the North and South

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First African Baptist Church

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Savannah, Georgia, first black only church that was white affiliated

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Augustine School

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founded in 1818, taught, funded and created by blacks. Affiliated with the Mother Bethel/A.M.E. Church, and was continually financially threatened

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Migration

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movement by black Americans to avoid white oppression by returning to Africa or at least leaving America

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James Forten

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Philadelphia born African-American abolitionist and businessman. Had many occupations (dentist, minuteman, carpentor, pastor). Born to free parents in 1766 & was a patriot during the War for Independence & became a business owner in 1798

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Gabriel's Rebellion

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1800 planned revolt by Gabriel Prossner in Richmond Virginia that was stopped by the militia after two slaves informed their masters. Gabriel escaped, but was betrayed and then hung with his two brothers. Bit off the ear of a white neighbor

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Toussaint L'Ouverture

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led the enslaved black people of Haiti to freedom & independence in 1804 and helped provide the intellectual foundation for Gabriel and Deslondes

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Henry Clay

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formulated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which temporarily quited discord

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Missouri Compromise of 1820

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permitted Missouri to become a slave state and maintain a sectional and political balance by admitting Maine, which had been part of Massachusetts as a free state & also banned slavery North of the 36-30 line of latitude in the Old Louisiana territory

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Trail of Tears

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the Western expansion of the cotton industry forced a walking migration of the Native Americans to reservations in Oklahoma in which thousands died and families were broken up

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Overseer

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plantation manager, gave reports to the master/owner & became a professional class in the South

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Driver

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slaves that held the whip & received benefits for greater production & were representative of the overseer in the fields; mostly men

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Term Slavery

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urban masters often let their slaves purchase their freedom over a term of years to keep them from leaving