History and Timeline of Events

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

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