Chapter 13: Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

• William Wilberforce


  British statesman and reformer;

  leader of abolitionist movement

  in English parliament that led

  to end of English slave trade in

  1807.
• Suriname


  Formerly a Dutch plantation

  colony on the coast of South

  America; location of runaway

  slave kingdom in eighteenth

  century; able to retain

  independence despite attempts

  to crush guerrilla resistance.
• Palmares


  [pahl-MAHR-ehs] Kingdom

  of runaway slaves with a

  population of 8,000 to 10,000

  people; located in Brazil during

  the seventeenth century;

  leadership was Angolan.
• vodun


  African religious ideas and

  practices among descendants of

  African slaves in Haiti
• candomblé


  African religious ideas and practices in Brazil, particularly among the Yoruba people.
• obeah


  African religious ideas and practices in the English and French Caribbean island. Africans refused to have their culture taken from them
• saltwater slaves


  Slaves transported from Africa that had less chance of freedom than slaves born in the colonies.
• Creole slaves


  American-born descendants of saltwater slaves; result of sexual exploitation of slave women or process of miscegenation. Had chance to be free
• Middle Passage


  Slave voyage from Africa to the Americas; generally a traumatic experience for black slaves, although it failed to strip Africans of their culture.
• Mfecane


  Wars of nineteenth century in Southern Africa; created by Zulu expansion under Shaka; revolutionized political organization of Southern Africa.
• Swazi


  New African state formed on model of Zulu chiefdom; survived Mfecane.
• Lesotho


  Southern African state that survived Mfecane; not based on Zulu model; less emphasis on military organization, less authoritarian government.
• Great Trek


  Movement of Boer settlers in Cape Colony of Southern Africa to escape influence of British colonial government in 1834; led to settlement of regions north of Orange River and Natal.
• Luo


  Nilotic people who migrated from upper Nile valley; established dynasty among existing Bantu population in lake region of East Central Africa; center at Bunyoro.
• Fulani


  Pastoral people of Western Sudan; adopted purifying Sufi variant of Islam; under Usman Dan Fodio in 1804; launched revolt against Hausa kingdoms; established state centered on Sokoto.
• Dahomey


  Kingdom developed among Fon or Aja peoples in 17 century; center at Abomey 70 miles from coast; under King Agaja expanded to control coastline and port of Whydah by 1727; accepted Western firearms and goods in return for African slaves.
• Asante


  Empire established in Gold Coast among Akan people settled around Kumasi; dominated by Oyoko clan; many clans linked under Osei Tutu after 1650.
• Osei Tutu


  Member of Oyoko clan of Akan peoples in Gold Coast region of Africa; responsible for creating unified Asante Empire in 1701; utilized Western firearms.
• asantehene


  Title taken by ruler of Asante Empire; supreme civil and religious leader; authority symbolized by golden stool.
• triangular trade 


  Commerce linking Africa, the New World colonies, and Europe; slaves carried to America for sugar and tobacco transported to Europe.
• Royal African Company


  Chartered in 1660s to establish a monopoly over the slave trade among British merchants; supplied Africans slaves to colonies in Barbados, Jamaica, and Virginia.
• Indies piece


  Term used within the complex exchange system established by the Spanish for African trade; referred to the value of an adult male slave.
• Nzinga Mvemba


  King of Kongo south of Zaire River from 1507 to 1543; converted to Christianity and took title Alfonso I; under Portuguese influence, attempted to Christianize all of kingdom.
• Luanda


  Portuguese factory established in 1520s south of Kongo; became basis of Portuguese colony of Angola.
• factories


  European trading fortresses and compounds with resident merchants; utilized throughout Portuguese trading empire to ensure secure landing places and commerce.
• El Mina


  Most important of early Portuguese trading factories in forest zone of Africa; allowed Portuguese to gain control in region and gold.