Myths of Creation

In the British Virginia Colony during the summer of 1619, two events took place within weeks of each other that would shape the United States of America in profoundly contradictory ways.  One event was the initial legislative assembly of Englishmen meeting in Jamestowne from July 30 to August 4. The other event was the arrival at Point Comfort of a Dutch slaver during the third week in August, when according Read More

A History Ignored

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

Saltwater Africans

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

Where Did They Go? The African Diaspora

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

Human Wastage: The Price of Doing Business

In researching this project, I have started reading The Slave Ship: A Human History by Marcus Rediker (2008). He argues that the African transatlantic slave trade was the first rung in the ladder of global capitalism, or what we know now as a global economy that all governments, many businesses and people are attempting to understand, modify or control. One sentence in the introduction struck a chord because it directly relates to Read More