A History Ignored

African Diaspora, Afro-Caribbeans, ancestors, captured Africans, descendants of slaves, Slave economy, slave ports, transatlantic slave trade

On St. Croix in the U.S Virgin Islands, both residents and visitors daily enjoy a visual paradise and few are aware of the history and people who created this beauty. From the Cay in the Christiansted Harbor, the view of Fort Christiansvaern, with its manicured lawns, lush green hills in the background and the crystal blue waters of the bay in the foreground produces a striking image in the perfect Read More

Digging Up the Story

African Diaspora, African ethnic groups, captured Africans, Middle Passage, slave ships, slavery, Tom Feelings, transatlantic slave trade

Four years ago (2008) archeologists began to excavate a portion of an African burial ground in preparation for building a road to a new airport financed by the British government. This site is just uphill from the capital city, Jamestown. This is not Jamestown, Virginia but on St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic. Ironically it involves the same people, same story – British settlers and African slaves. The cemetery Read More

Terminology: Slave, Servant, Commodity, Property

African American History, African Diaspora, American legal system, captured Africans, descendants of slaves, slavery

Recently there has been an attempt to “soften” history as the story of African slavery is broadly re-told and shared. If left unchecked the transatlantic slave trade, at least in Texas, will be known as the ‘triangular trade.” Abraham Lincoln will have freed servants rather than slaves. We say, “Stop It!” Soft pedaling does not provide an accurate description of the facts. We find it offensive to rely on one Read More

One in Every Home: The African American Presence, a Measure of Success

African American History, African Diaspora, Slave economy, slavery

The pervasiveness of Africans and their enslavement in the Americas is not yet realized. We can present statistics such as seventy-seven percent of the immigrants to the “New World” were African until the 1820’s when European immigration began to be strongly encouraged but that still remains an abstraction. The reality of America does not conform to the myth of a majority European-predominant presence. The United States of American was not Read More

Saltwater Africans

African American History, African Diaspora, captured Africans, Middle Passage, slave ports, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

The term “saltwater African” is not familiar to many. It specifically refers to Africans who survived the Middle Passage. They had come across the ocean, the salt water. For the first two hundred years in the Americas there was a continuous supply of this population. Until Africans in the Diaspora were able to maintain fertility rates that lessened the demand to import, a majority of the black population, particularly in Read More

Source Documents for Blog Visitors, February 2012

African American History, African American music, African Diaspora, African ethnic groups, Afro-Latinos, burial ceremonies, captured Africans, descendants of slaves, enslaved women, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans, oral history, Slave economy, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

This project is committed to getting out information to those who are interested. We pledged to provide readers quarterly with materials that we base the posts upon, so here are the second quarter’s materials as promised by category with annotation. Articles: African Burial Ground Project: paradigm for cooperation? by Michael Blakey (Museum International, UNESCO, 2010). Professor Blakey is on our project’s advisory board and worked continuously on the Manhattan African Burial Ground Project. Read More

Where Did They Go? The African Diaspora

African Diaspora, Middle Passage, slave ports

The African Diaspora that resulted from the transatlantic slave trade is referenced frequently in our blog posts. Our particular project relates to the two to six million Africans who did not survive the ocean voyage, and placing markers in their honor at primary Middle Passage ports where Africans arrived. The widespread dispersal of these captured people is illustrated as we survey the history of specific regions: North America, Central America, Read More

Into Heaven but Not Out of Hell

African American History, African Diaspora, slavery

Visiting Williamsburg, VA during October to foster an academic affiliation, members of the project’s board continuously confronted contradictions that people faced, ignored and rationalized historically to create the United States of America and the New World. Presently several candidates priming to run for the presidential office have continued in that tradition, proudly proclaiming that the United States of America is a country based on Christian ideals blessed by God. In fact, Read More

Music and Song

African American music, African Diaspora, Middle Passage

A vital life force in Africa and throughout the Diaspora is music. Historian Marcus Redeker in his work, The Slave Ship: A Human History, states that music was a primary means of communication and support among captives during the Middle Passage. The cultural fact of musical expression throughout the history of Africans in the Western Hemisphere has served to ground, sustain, and strengthen a strong sense of identity and community. Read More

Not One or the Other

African American History, African Diaspora, slavery

Frequently we are encouraged to focus on one thing or the other. In terms of action or response we often are advised to keep it simple but that is not always appropriate. Because the abolitionist movement, particularly in the early 19th century, effectively concentrated on the Middle Passage as a means to graphically dramatize the terrors of the transatlantic slave trade some historians are now dismissive. They contend that the Middle Read More