Menu
Idea

enslaved Africans

Back out to slavery
170
View on Map
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Detail from "the Book of Negroes," listing Arthur Bowler and his family, 1783.

Eight Clues

Recovering a life in fragments, Arthur Bowler in slavery and freedom.
by Jane Lancaster via Journal of the American Revolution on June 6, 2024
Cast of the opera "Omar" on stage, with Arabic script on the stage backdrop.

‘Tell Your Story, Omar’

A new, Pulitzer Prize–winning opera adapts the memoir of Omar ibn Said, an African Muslim who spent much of his life enslaved in North Carolina.
by Edward Ball via New York Review of Books on May 4, 2023
Nicholas Said.

The Epic Life of Nicholas Said, from Africa to Russia to the Civil War

Dean Calbreath’s biography, “The Sergeant,” relates the improbable adventures of a brilliant 19th-century Black man.
by Martha Anne Toll via Washington Post on March 30, 2023
Diorama of a cluster of houses and people along a waterfront, with a ship in the foreground.

On the Rich, Hidden History of the Banjo

The banjo did not exist before it was created by the hands of enslaved people in the New World.
by Kristina R. Gaddy via Literary Hub on October 24, 2022
Lithograph entitled "A View of the Pearl Fishery" depicting enslaved persons rowing in water next to tents on the shore.

African Swimmers in American Waters

Although most enslaved people worked in the fields, captive workers with strong swimming and diving skills were also exploited by plantation owners.
by Kevin Dawson, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on September 16, 2022
Group portrait, "Elihu Yale With Members of His Family and an Enslaved Child," 1719.

Who Is the Enslaved Child in This Portrait of Yale University's Namesake?

Scholars have yet to identify the young boy, but new research offers insights on his age and likely background.
by Nora McGreevy via Smithsonian on October 15, 2021
Artist's rendition of Omar ibn Said

A Quest for the True Identity of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim Man Enslaved in the Carolinas

Omar ibn Said was captured in Senegal at 37 and enslaved in Charleston. A devout Muslim, he later converted to the Christian faith of his enslavers. Or did he?
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via Post and Courier on May 27, 2021
Sunrise over Sapelo Island, Georgia.

Before 1619, There Was 1526: The Mystery of the First Enslaved Africans in What Became the United States

Nearly one hundred years before enslaved African arrived in Jamestown, the Spanish brought 100 slaves to the coast of what is now Georgia or South Carolina.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on September 7, 2019

How We Think About the Term 'Enslaved' Matters

The first Africans who came to America in 1619 were not ‘enslaved’, they were indentured – and this is a crucial difference.
by Nell Irvin Painter via The Guardian on August 14, 2019

A Symbol of Slavery — and Survival

Angela’s arrival in Jamestown in 1619 marked the beginning of a subjugation that left millions in chains.
by DaNeen L. Brown via Retropolis on April 29, 2019

Conversion and Race in Colonial Slavery

To convert was not just a matter of belief, but also a claim to power.
by Katharine Gerbner via Social Science Research Council on June 26, 2018

The Last Slave

In 1931, Zora Neale Hurston recorded the story of Cudjo Lewis, the last living slave-ship survivor. It languished in a vault... until now.
by Zora Neale Hurston, Nick Tabor via Vulture on April 29, 2018
Thomas Jefferson's two-volume personal copy of George Sale's 1734 translation of the Qur'an. Library of Congress.

Why Thomas Jefferson Owned a Qur’an

Islam in America dates to the founding fathers, says Smithsonian’s religion curator Peter Manseau.
by Peter Manseau via Smithsonian on January 31, 2018

Slave Consumption in the Old South: A Double-Edged Sword

Buying goods in the Old South revealed the fragile politics at the heart of master-slave relation.
by Kathleen Hilliard via Process: A Blog for American History on June 12, 2017
Olauda Equiano.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, native of Africa, survivor of the Middle Passage and enslavement, tells his story.
by Olaudah Equiano via The Internet Archive on March 24, 1789
Washington crossing the Delaware painting by Emmanuel Leutze.

What Freedom Meant to the Black Soldier Who Rowed Across the Delaware

The enslaved Prince Whipple acutely felt the contradiction between American ideals and his condition.
by Timothy Messer-Kruse via Commonplace on August 6, 2024
Two elderly Black women.

How the Memory of a Song Reunited Two Women Separated by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

In 1990, scholars found a Sierra Leonean woman who remembered a nearly identical version of a tune passed down by a Georgia woman’s enslaved ancestors
by Joshua Kagavi via Smithsonian on February 29, 2024
A first edition of the book "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral", by Phillis Wheatley.

Presidents Day, Meet Black History Month

Remembering an exchange between George Washington and the poet Phillis Wheatley.
by Marvin Olasky via The Dispatch on February 24, 2024
Enslaved people working on South Carolina Plantation.

A Historian Complicates the Racial Divide

"African Founders" corrects some of the ideological uses of Black American history.
by Ken Masugi via Law & Liberty on November 8, 2023
Collage of plantation logbooks superimposed over photos of enslaved people.

A Racist Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Descendant Wants to Reclaim Them.

There's no clear system in place to repatriate remains of captive Africans or objects associated with them.
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via ProPublica on October 9, 2023
Painting of the english surgeon Edward Jenner inoculating a child.

How Far Back Were Africans Inoculating Against Smallpox? Really Far Back.

When I looked at the archives, I found a history hidden in plain sight.
by Elise A. Mitchell via Slate on September 4, 2023
Sea Captains drinking alcohol

Ships Going Out

In "American Slavers," Sean M. Kelley surveys the relatively unknown history of Americans who traded in slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
by James Oakes via New York Review of Books on August 31, 2023
"The Negro in the American Revolution" cover

2026 and Black Americans: A Conversation about Benjamin Quarles

The long-term impact of Quarles’s work.
by Joseph M. Adelman, Michael Dickinson via Omohundro Institute Of Early American History & Culture on June 28, 2023
Silhouette of a Black man's head, against a background of Lord Dunmore's proclamation.

Enslaved by George Washington, This Man Escaped to Freedom—and Joined the British Army

Harry Washington fought for his enslaver's enemy during the American Revolution. Later, he migrated to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.
by Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on June 14, 2023
A lithograph of Phillis Wheatley and the first page of her book, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."

Phillis Wheatley’s “Mrs. W—”: Identifying the Woman Who Inspired “Ode to Neptune”

Who was that traveler? And what did she signify to the poet?
by J. L. Bell via Commonplace on May 16, 2023
Absalom Jones.

1619 Rightly Understood

David Hackett Fischer's book "African Founders" should be the starting point for any reflection on the enduring African ­influence on American national ideals.
by Wilfred M. McClay via First Things on May 13, 2023
Enslaved men gathered in the woods to plot a revolt.

Slavery and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century New Jersey

While documented revolts of enslaved persons in New Jersey aren’t abundant, some examples speak to the spirit of resistance among African people held captive.
by Rann Miller via Black Perspectives on March 27, 2023

Louis Congo: Ex-Slave and Executioner of Louisiana

Although freed from slavery, Louis Congo's job as public executioner ensured him a life as a pawn of French officials and retaliation from those he disciplined.
by Menika Dirkson via Black Perspectives on January 25, 2023
Dark painting of a storm

Reading the Horizon

Predicting a hurricane in nineteenth-century South Carolina.
by Caroline Grego via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 30, 2022
Divers examine an iron anchor underwater.

What a Spanish Shipwreck Reveals About the Final Years of the Slave Trade

Forty-one of the 561 enslaved Africans on board the "Guerrero" died when the illegal slave ship sank off the Florida Keys in 1827.
by Simcha Jacobovici, Sean Kingsley via Smithsonian on October 17, 2022
View More
30 of
170

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History