Lecture 2 Flashcards
When did the history of Black people begin
1619, but Africans were already present in the Western Hemisphere before that
What happened with the arrival?
- forcible capture and transportation of millions of Africans from their homeland across the Atlantic Ocean
-Arrival of about 20 Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 - brought in a Portuguese slave ship named “Sao Joao Bautista”
-Hundreds of thousands of Africans imported into British North America the following century
August 1620
Arrival of the mayflower in Massachusetts with the English pilgrims symbolizing the English settlement in New England, a year after the arrival of the 20 Ndongans (Africa)
Indentured servitude
-A person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment of travel expenses and maintenance, etc
- A person under contract to worker another person for a definite period of time, usually without pay but in exchange for free passage to a new country
- A person became an indentured servant by borrowing money and then voluntary agreeing to work off the debt during a specified term
Differences between indentured servitude and slavery
A. Indentured servitude was a form of debt bondage- it was agreed upon term of unpaid labor that usually paid off the costs of the servant’s immigration to America.
B. Indentured servants were not paid wages but they were generally housed, clothed, and fed
C. The rights to the individuals labor could be bought and sold, but the servants themselves were not considered property and were free upon the end of their indenture (usually a period of five to seven years)
Radicalization
The act of giving a racial character to someone or something
One-droprule
Any known black ancestry makes you black
(Mulatto, quadroon, octoroon)
Atlantic slave trade
The transatlantic slave trade, or euro-American slave trade involving the transportation of kidnapped and sold African souls or people from various ethnicities by slave traders to the Americas
Regularly used the triangular trade route across the Atlantic Ocean (its middle passage) to the Americas
Chattel slavery
Human beings (enslaved people) being see as a piece of property
Slavery
State of being owned by another person being in bondage; servitude or subjugation
Slavery
- an institution
- An industry
- A socio-economic and cultural system
- A political system
- Based on the modern existentialist conception of race
Race
It’s usually associated with biology and linked with physical characteristics such as skin color or hair texture
Prejudice
Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience
Discrimination
The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex
Anti-racism
The policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial tolerance
Racism
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized
1641
Massachusetts became 1st English colony to recognize slavery
1650
Connecticut legalized slavery
Virginia law (1662)
Children born to enslaved mother would be slaves for life; a status that made slavery permanent and hereditary
1664
New York and new Jersey legalized slavery
17th century Virginia
Existence of free Africans and African Americans
African American population
-About 20% of the total population by the time the 1st U.S. census was taken in 1790 ; could not return home with hard earned savings to buy property or start productive business and could not help their old countries National economy as did many immigrants from other lands
John T. Biggers (1924-2001)
Middle passage (1947) stresses overcrowded conditions by showing the many disembodied hands reaching out of a tiny space or varying lifelessly in exhaustion
Robert Hayden (1913-1980)
Wrote a poem “Middle Passage” voicing sentiments repeated often by African American visual arts.
