Week 1

Question 1

Society

Answer 1

Any group that has or develops certain, beliefs, attitudes, customs, or habits that most members of that group accept and support.

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

The whole way of life of a group at a given time, including its customs, language, dress, religious beliefs, art, technology, literature, oralture, etc.

Question 3

Syncretism

Answer 3

Used by African Societies. It is the blending or combining of two or more ideas or systems to produce a new one.

Question 4

Amendment process

Answer 4

Used by the united states to respond successfully to pressures for change.

Question 5

World view

Answer 5

Explanation or framework which helps members to understand their environment, the events they experience, and to organize their lives in meaningful ways.

Question 6

Social Institutions

Answer 6

Help define a person’s place in society, teach obligations, responsibilities, and privileges of membership in that society. Teaches skills and knowledge necessary to become useful members of the society.

Question 7

Political Institutions

Answer 7

Provide services individual members of the society cannot provide for themselves including protection from outside enemy forces, , regulating relations between individuals, defining acceptable behavior, delegating power and authority.

Question 8

Economic institution

Answer 8

Acceptable methods of producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services.

Question 9

What are some common myths about African slaves?

Answer 9

1) They suffered due to a contrast with their heroic warrior culuture. 2) Adapted easily to slavery due to their submissive or their docile nature.

Question 10

Why were Africans a prime target for slavery?

Answer 10

Mostly because Native Americans were not good slaves. Being surrounded and outnumbered by native americans made enslavement difficult. Many native populations were wiped out to European illnesses and did not have the same skills as African slaves.

Question 11

Which African Peoples were predominantly enslaved?

Answer 11

Ibo, Ewe, Biafada, Bakongo, Wolof, Bombara, Ibibio, Serer, Arada.

Question 12

Which African peoples were seldom if at all enslaved or conquered? Why?

Answer 12

Yoruba, Dahomey, Ashanti, Fulani Kom, Moningo, Hausa. 2) They had centralized governments, standing armies, and cavalry.

Question 13

Approx how many people were enslaved during the slave trade

Answer 13

10 million between 16th and 19th centuries.

Question 14

T/F most slaves were captured in war or kidnapped by slave traders.

Answer 14

True

Question 15

What were the conditions in slave ships.

Answer 15

Shackled together on bare wooden boards, packed so tightly they couldn’t sit up. Many succumbed to illness and were beaten. Many became insane. Some committed suicide or mutinies rather than being enslaved.

Question 16

How is the myth of the docile African slave challenged by blassingame?

Answer 16

Many slaves mutinied to the point that many ship owners had insurance. Some commited suicide. Others ran when they hit shore or were sullen and uncooperative.

Question 17

How many mutinies happened on record?

Answer 17

50 between 1699-1845

Question 18

Olaudah Equiano

Answer 18

Born in 1745 in the Benin Empire. Father was an Ibo prince. Youngest son. Captured and sold into slavery at 11 with his sister.

Question 19

How was Olaudah affected personally by his enslavement?

Answer 19

He was constantly anxious and wished frequently for death. He mourned the loss of his family and was alone. He was frequently paranoid and though his enslavers would eat him when they were boiling water. or a portrait at his masters home would report his transgressions. He was the only newly enslaved african on his plantation and couldn’t speak to anyone. Haunted by how eager people bid or slaves

Question 20

How was Ibo Society Similar to ours.

Answer 20

1) Iron anchor coins. 2) Arranged marriages with reverse doweries. 3) Belief in a supreme being. 3) Elaborate wedding ceremonies with large feasts. 4) Patriarchal. 5) Women were bashful and chaste. 6) Nightly prayers,

Question 21

Describe Ibo Religion

Answer 21

Believed in a supreme gods an minor gods. Ancestors guarded against evil spirits. Transmigration of souls. Animal sacrifice at graves. Priests were revered and passed down from father to son. They foretold of events of jealousy, thievery, and poison. Burried with possessions.

Question 22

Ibo Culture

Answer 22

Elaborate religious traditions and priest class. Chief decided disputes and meted punishments. Elaborate music, dance, poetry. Children named after important events.

Question 23

How did European society impact Ibo Society.

Answer 23

Nearly destroyed them by encouraging frequent wars of slaves.

Question 24

Why did Africans easily adopt Christianity.

Answer 24

There were many parallels between their existing beliefs and christianity, including attitudes towards women, existence of a supreme being, etc. But old gods were not easily forgotten. And in some cases were believed long after enslavement

Question 25

What cultural traditions were preserved after enslavement?

Answer 25

Music, folk talkes, magic, dances, and language patterns.

Question 26

How was language taught to newly enslaved people

Answer 26

It awas taught by overseers. Usually slaves born in the country who know the language. But many were resistant to learning the language and adopting their new names.

Question 27

How was language preserved?

Answer 27

On large plantations, slaves had little contact with whites and could preserve their language more easily. Others mixed their language with English and made patois. Often would use their own language when excited and give African names to objects. .

Question 28

How did whites view the preservation of African language?

Answer 28

They often dismissed slaves as unintelligent for not adopting English. But Gullah’s for instance used over 4000 words from more than 21 African tribes. Hardly unintelligent or unsophisticated.

Question 29

Why did patois end?

Answer 29

The end of the African slave trade in the late 19th century lead to a decline of African language in the Americas after two or three generations.

Question 30

How did slaves resist the attempts to acculturate them to slavery?

Answer 30

Held onto their religious beliefs and African cultural determinants of status. Burial rituals. Maintained their native concept of beauty. Longed for revenge. Sang tribal songs and dances and folk tales.

Question 31

What folk tales survived.

Answer 31

Tales invoving animals outsmarting their openents were popular. The toroise and the hare. The rabit and the elephant, etc. Tar baby story.

Question 32

What elements of African music survived.

Answer 32

Call and response patterns and rhythm

Question 33

How did slave owners try to control music?

Answer 33

They banned instruments, and restricted music to not express discontent, used psalms to proselytize to slaves.

Question 34

Why is Olaudah not reliable in explaining the experience of enslaves Africans.

Answer 34

By the 19th century less than one million Africans were brought into America through the slave trade. Most slaves were born in the states were native slaves.

Question 35

How did Africans fair overall?

Answer 35

They survived through traumatic experiences, without becoming abjectly docile, infantile or submissive. They maintained elements of their culture, particularly their religon, folk tales, dance, and music.

Question 36

What was significant about the exploration of the African Coast by Antam Goncalvez

Answer 36

Attacked and enslaved moors who bought their freedom with slaves. Opened up the further exploration of Africa by King Henry the Navigator. They shought gold and other profitable merchandise, but found a lucrative trade in people.

Question 37

When did the slave trade begin?

Answer 37

3 years after Antam Goncalvez exploration in August 8th 1444, when 235 africans were captured on an expedition arrived in lagos portugal when they met a crowd when included king henry on horseback.

Question 38

How were the first slaves in 1444 treated.

Answer 38

They were paraded in the streets of lagos, separated from their families, and auctioned out. A 20 percent tax was paid to the crown.

Question 39

Diaspora

Answer 39

A mass dispersion of a people from their homeland.

Question 40

T/F Slavery existed in Africa before European involvement

Answer 40

True. But it was more forgiving. Slaves were auctioned back to their families and treated as family at least according to Olaudah. It was often temporary and rarely heritable. But slavery in the Americas was lifelong and passed from generation to generation.

Question 41

What was significant about the West African coast during the period of slavery?

Answer 41

It was very culturally diverse with many small village states and kingdoms, languages, Pre existing slave trade networks were exploited by slave traders and destabilized the region.

Question 42

Ghana

Answer 42

Powerful West African state between 830 and 1230. Provided from the trade in gold and trade for salt and other Mediterranean goods. Soninke Kings controled a large army to rule over many African tribes.

Question 43

After the collapse of the Ghana empire

Answer 43

The mali empire rose between 1230 and 1500. Famous ruler Mansa Musa was famous for his opulent pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. 1200 serveant caravan, eighty camels, two tons of gold, which he gave to the needy on his journey.

Question 44

Three Empires

Answer 44

Ghana, Mali, Songhai

Question 45

Songhai

Answer 45

1320-1591. Derived wealth from slave trade. Controlled city of Timbuktu. A civil war broke out in 1591 which opened it up to foreign invasion from Morocco.

Question 46

What was West Africa’s relation to the Atlantic Ocean?

Answer 46

The West African coast was more difficult. There were coastal swamps, rocky promontories, and few natural harbors. Trade was better suited for inland travel along the rivers.

Question 47

What was significant about property and leadership in west africa

Answer 47

It was often matrilineal or patrilineal. Kingdoms were small and based on kinship affiliations. Property was also collective rather than individual. Wealth was measured in people not in land.

Question 48

Who was traditionally enslaved in West Africa.

Answer 48

Slaves were a bi-product of war. Provided labor, concubines, and slave revenues. It was also assigned to serious crimes of adultery, murder, or sorcery. Whom were often sold away form their families. Debtors were also temporarily enslaved.

Question 49

Manumission

Answer 49

legal process that slave owners could initiate to grant freedom to a favored slave.

Question 50

Coffles

Answer 50

Bound together groups of people to prevent escape.

Question 51

How many slaves died before reaching the coast?

Answer 51

1 in 10.

Question 52

Barracoons

Answer 52

Temporary barracks which were built to house slaves. Were exposed pens near European trading forts. Had no toilets or facilities for human waste.

Question 53

Who did European traders buy?

Answer 53

Young slaves below the age of 30, defective in limbs, eyes, teeth, had venereal diseases or other kind of imperfection.

Question 54

How were the slaves treated once chosen?

Answer 54

They were branded to ensure their slaves would not later be exchanged for worse slaves. Care was taken not to burn women too hard.

Question 55

Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle

Answer 55

House Europeans on upper level and slaves on the lower level who were kept in dark dank cellars with little to occupy their time except listening to the ocean.

Question 56

T/F Only 30 percent of Africa was comprised by organized states?

Answer 56

True.

Question 57

How was slave trading precarious for the slave traders?

Answer 57

Ships often had to sail along the dangers coast from port to port for slaves and were open to attacks form pirates and ships from hostile powers. Slave mutinies were also common.

Question 58

Bilboes

Answer 58

iron hand shackles and posts fasted around ankles of two men.

Question 59

How were women and child vs men treated.

Answer 59

Men were largely kept below deck and experience the worse of the cramped conditions. Women and children were kept in separate rooms and had above deck access.