African American History 00/01

UNIT 1. Africa: Ancient and Colonial 1. The Nile Kingdoms , Scott MacLeod, Time , March 24, 1997. Anthropologists have identified several Nile civilizations prior to the glories of Egypt that controlled both the upper and the lower Nile. The discovery of these neolithic kingdoms, such as the Kerma or the Kush, clearly demonstrate Nubian societies that greatly influenced Egyptian, Mediterranean, African, and Arabian cultural developments. 2. Our Third Root: On African Presence in American Populations , Luz MarÍa MartÍnez Montiel, Diogenes , Autumn 1997. Africans have been present in America since the first decades of the sixteenth century. Africa''s contribution to American culture involves accepting an inheritance that is both part of the national heritage and part of the identity and cultural profile of each of our societies. This article examines the important influence that Africans have had on American culture. UNIT 2. The Beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade 3. Under the Whiplash , Oruno D. Lara, The UNESCO Courier , October 1994. Slavery, originally devised by the Greeks, is a system of violence, dehumanization, and exploitation. From its inception, there were but two ways for a slave to gain freedom --to escape or to be emancipated. The Atlantic slave trade added race and racism to the equation. Runaway slaves often banded together in armed struggle or revolt against the system of slavery. 4. Who Was Responsible? , Elikia M''Bokolo, The UNESCO Courier , October 1994. Slave-raiding, although a popular means by which Europeans acquired African slaves, proved to be extremely costly and unpredictable. As a result, in 1444, the Portuguese, and later the English and French, established an organized and more dependable system of slave-trading. Precolonial seaboard lineage or state societies were forced, compelled, or enticed to participate in this system. Over time trading networks were established that secured slaves from deep within the African continent. 5. Encouragement of the Slave-Trade , William R. Riddell, The Journal of Negro History , January 1927. On paper there existed laws in colonial America that taxed the importation of slaves. Do not conclude, however, that this import duty served as a deterrent to slavery. William Riddel demonstrates that the exclusion of payment of these duties by the importer actually served to encourage the slave trade. 6. A Multitude of Black People . . . Chained Together , Olaudah Equiano, from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African , London, 1789. Olaudah Equiano vividly recounts the shock and isolation that he felt during the Middle Passage to Barbados and his fear that the European slavers would eat him. UNIT 3. Early America 7. The Founding Fathers, Conditional Antislavery, and the Nonradicalism of the American Revolution , William W. Freehling, from The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War , Oxford University Press, 1994. While sparking the American Revolution, with its goal of individual freedom, the Founding Fathers were at best ambivalent when it came to slavery. Their conditional antislavery position produced several roadblocks to total emancipation, freedom, and justice for blacks in America. Their conditional aspiration to free black slaves was counterbalanced by their greater desire to build white republics. 8. "Us Colored Women Had To Go through a Plenty": Sexual Exploitation of African-American Slave Women , Thelma Jennings, Journal of Women''s History , Winter 1990. This article considers, from the African American slave woman''s perspective, how severe bondage was for the female. Using actual interviews, conducted during the early twentieth century with ex-slaves, the author examines what life was like for a female during slavery. 9. Negro Craftsmanship in Early America , Leonard Price Stavisky, The American Historical Review , January 1941. African craftsmen developed a variety of skills. They became spinners, butchers, carpenters, cooks, coopers, distillers, goldsmiths, and more. African skilled laborers were found in every province of colonial America. Skills acquired by slaves during their captivity served to increase their value and often allowed them to earn their freedom. 10. American Slave Insurrections before 1861 , Harvey Wish, The Journal of Negro History , July 1937. Throughout the colonial period, African slaves revolted in both the North and the South. Slave insurrections were more likely in Virginia after King Cotton was firmly entrenched. UNIT 4. The Civil War A. PRE-CIVIL WAR 11. "All We Want Is Make Us Free!" , Howard Jones, American History , February 1998. On September 19, 1839, the district court in Connecticut opened proceedings on the Amistad and the trial of 53 captive slaves. The trial, pitting greed against morality, was at once reduced to issues regarding property rights. Ultimately the Supreme Court, moved by the eloquence of John Quincy Adams and Roger S. Baldwin, declared that CinquÉ and 52 other Africans had indeed been kidnapped. 12. The Long Road to Abolition , Nelly Schmidt, The UNESCO Courier , October 1994. International threats gave rise to the beginning of the abolitionist movement in 1791. France, in an attempt to avoid invasion, succumbed to the threats of both Spain and Britain, and thereby ended slavery in San Domingo and Haiti. 13. The Struggle for Black Freedom before Emancipation , Wayne K. Durrill, OAH Magazine of History , Fall 1993. The efforts of blacks in securing their own freedom prior to emancipation have often been ignored. By 1862, the situation appears to have been more contested than before. In several notable cases the status, expectations, and conditions of servitude were often the product of arbitration between planters and slaves. Slaves registered their discontent by either joining up with the Union army or through disruption of the plantation system. B. CIVIL WAR PERIOD 14. The Jacksonville Mutiny , B. Kevin Bennett, Civil War History , Volume 38, Number 1, 1992. Labor shortages created by the Civil War forced the federal government to enlist large numbers of blacks in both the navy and the army. Frequently, inexperienced and unenlightened white military officers, fearful of black soldiers, relied upon acts of barbarism to control them. As one would expect, black soldiers responded, in kind and through mutiny. 15. Pride and PrCoates, Rodney D. is the author of 'African American History 00/01' with ISBN 9780072333725 and ISBN 0072333723.