Why History?

adinkra symbols, African American History, African Diaspora, American legal system, American politics, ethnic studies, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

During the past several weeks, board members of the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project have found themselves frequently in conversations with people who suggest that we sustain a more formal educational component, something beyond this blog. One comment was that the United States in particular does not value history or anything in the past. Our people were described as more comfortable in the present or headed into the Read More

Limbo

African American History, African Diaspora, Afro-Caribbeans, captured Africans, Middle Passage, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

How low can you go? We are talking “limbo.” Is this a dance? A competition? A workout? An historical artifact? Any and all of the above? An essay written by the late French scholar Genevieve Fabre about the limbo recently crossed our radar. We were well aware through research that during the Middle Passage voyage a routine of daily exercise was established by slave traders for captive Africans. Movement, primarily Read More

It’s Like Having No Navel

African American History, African American literature, African Diaspora, ancestors, descendants of slaves, oral history, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

In Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon, one character, Milkman’s aunt Pilate, is described as having no navel, no evidence of connection with a progenitor, no root. That was always an unimaginable, impossible image. It grates against all that we know to be human and natural. She went from place to place with a box pierced into her ear containing a clue of the past and  also carried a sack Read More

Life in America: Dangerous and Black

African American History, American legal system, descendants of slaves, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

As social networks and news media have spread the story of the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida, people around the world react with disbelief and outrage. For those of us who are Black in this nation there is outrage, but very little disbelief. This incident is far too real, far too familiar. Just weeks after the shooting of this seventeen year-old, we stated in a previous post, Terminology (March Read More

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

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

Jump!

captured Africans, Middle Passage, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

Click to Listen to “First Time I Saw Big Water” produced and composed by Bernice Johnson Reagon, performed by Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon for the PBS-WGBH film score for series Africans in America, Executive Producer Orlando Bagwell Shackled and forced from the interior, the bush, often marching for weeks and months African captives destined for the transatlantic slave trade endured hardships beyond our imagination. Many had never seen 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

Personal Stories of Captured Africans

African ethnic groups, Afro-Latinos, captured Africans, Middle Passage, oral history, transatlantic slave trade

In a previous post, The Descendant Community, November 16, 2011 the role of oral history in formal scholarship was acknowledged. Frequently first hand accounts and family stories make an event or experience not only more powerful, but also personal in a manner that research text does not. This project is dedicated to remembering ancestors, uncovering and listening to people who usually are forgotten. They seldom have the opportunity to tell Read More