A Deeper Look Into…
Cape Coast Castle
One of many slave castles built along the Gold Coast in Ghana. Up to 1,500 slaves at a time (men and women) were crammed in the castle’s poorly ventilated dungeons. Women were often raped by their captors. The dungeons had no water or sanitation; slaves were kept with fecal matter and waste on the floor. The castle’s involvement eventually stopped as a result of Britain’s ban on the slave trade (The Slave Trade Act of 1807).
Transatlantic Slave Trade
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was a global slave trade that transported approximately 17 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americans from the 16th – 19th centuries. It was also often known as the triangular trade because it connected the economies of three countries. The trade occurred in three steps: the first being that ships left Europe with goods for slaves when the ships arrived to Africa. Once the exchange was made, the ships would make the treacherous trip across the Atlantic to the Americas. The final step included the slave traders transporting goods produced by the slaves back to Europe. These products included mostly agricultural products such as sugar, cotton, and coffee.
The African Diaspora
The book depicts the exodus of Africans, taken by force by slavers and shipped overseas. Likewise, it depicts the lives of those left behind in Africa. Both sides struggle to escape prejudice, violence, hatred and also have and internal struggle in defining who they are, and what is right and wrong.In the end both families are reunited, symbolizing the power of the transnational community formed by the African Diaspora
Videos
A short video detailing the untold history of the Atlantic slave trade
President Obama’s visit to Cape Coast Castle
Maps
Map of Atlantic Slave Trade
Map of Esi’s Side of Family
Map of Ghana and the location of Ghana on the African continent
TIMELINE
Key:
Effia’s Blood Line
Esi’s Blood Line
Historical Events
1700- Gold coast and slavery
Reverend Thompson arrived from US to propagate gospel
Mid 1700’s- Effia and Esi’s Chapter
1770- Boston Massacre
1773- Boston Tea Party
1774- Give me Liberty or Give me Death speech
Paul Revere’s famous ride
1775- First intermarriage with a village girl and a British soldier
1779- Effia is pregnant with Quey
John Dickinson appointed delegate for DE continental congress
1787- 3/5 Compromise
1796- Ness’s Chapter
Ness is sold, and separated from Esi
Washington gives his final presidential address
1800- Quey’s chapter
Quey goes back into the village to work as an interpreter
1st performance of Beethoven’s Symphony in C
Adams is elected president and becomes the first to live in the White house
1807- USA outlaws importation of slaves (though this did little to mitigate slave trading)
1824- James’ Chapter
Asante defeat British forces in the Gold Coast
Freed American slaves establish Liberia through the ACS
Adams becomes the 6th president of the United States
1850- Kojo’s Chapter
Henry Clay introduces a compromise bill on slavery to U.S. Senate
Compromise of 1850
Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is published
1st U.S. women’s rights convention
Fillmore becomes the tenth president of the United States
Fugitive slave law is passed
1860- Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the United States
1861- The Beginning of the Civil War
1863- Emancipation Proclamation is issued
1869- Ulysses S. Grant becomes the 18th president of the United States
1870- 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are passed
1875- Civil Rights Act passed
1880- H’s chapter
Garfield is the 20th US President
U.S. Supreme Court rules that African Americans cannot be excluded from a jury based on race
in Strauder vs. West Virginia
1883- Supreme Court invalidates the civil rights act passed in 1875
1895- Akua’s chapter
Swan Lake premieres
200 African Americans leave Tennessee for Liberia
1896- Plessy v. Ferguson, separate is not inherently equal.
1920- Willie’s chapter
19th amendment is passed but black woman still can’t vote
Tulsa Riots, 80 dead (20 white, 60 black).
Harlem Renaissance
Jazz Age
1952- Martin Luther King Jr. begins his role as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement
1963- John F. Kennedy’s assassination
1964- Sonny’s Chapter
Failed assassination attempt of the president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah
Lyndon B. Johnson declares “War on Poverty.”
Law of Civil Rights accepted by US House of Representatives
1965- Malcolm X is assassinated
1968- Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated
1970- First official Black History Month celebrated in the United States
1971- Yaw’s Chapter
Congressional Black caucus organizes
Apollo 14 returns to earth
Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
1992- Los Angeles Riots begin following the verdict in the Rodney King case
2000’s- Marjorie and Marcus’ chapter
2005- Hurricane Katrina
2008- Barack Obama becomes the first person of African Descent to become the President of the
United States
2009- Disney releases its first film starring a Black princess
2012- The murder of Trayvon Martin
2013- The Black Lives Matter Movement is founded
Resources:
Lewis, Femi. “African-American History Timeline: 1970 to 1979.” Thoughtco., Dotdash, www.thoughtco.com/african-american-history-timeline-1970-1979-45445.
“On This Day – Today in History, Film, Music and Sport.” OnThisDay.com, On This Day, www.onthisday.com/.
Emily Selekman 2018