1 African American Civil War Museum SCRIPT FOR P3.1 through 3.7 Section Panel Text Notes 3 Introducti on/ theater wrap P3.1 The Glorious March to Liberty Civil War to Civil Rights The African American Civil War Museum honors the Americans of African descent who fought to save the Union and secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity. The struggle for liberty and equality under the law has characterized the experiences of Africans and their descendants in the United States. This is only a fraction of their story. Image 3.2.1_Map7 (LOC) P3.2 The American Colonies Building a Nation Skilled labor was desperately needed in the American colonies. The colonization of America depended heavily on artisans brought from mostly West Africa. Enslaved Africans were blacksmiths, metallurgists, toolmakers, sculptors and engravers, silversmiths and goldsmiths, tanners, shoemakers, saddle-makers and soldiers. Their skills not only supported the fledgling colonies, their cultures shaped the very character of America. [3.2.1_Map7] A Portolan Chart (Navigational Map) of the Atlantic Ocean and Adjacent Continents 1633 The transatlantic slave trade began on the West Coast of Africa. This map was used by 17 th century captains transporting their human cargo from Africa to America. Courtesy of Library of Congress Africans Arrive in America The first Africans brought to North America during the transatlantic slave trade arrived at Jamestown in the Virginia colony in 1619. These Africans had initially been brought across the Atlantic by a Spanish ship built in Japan, the San Juan Baptista. The legal status of these Africans as slaves or indentured servants is ambiguous. However, the courts in Virginia clearly recognized Africans and their children as “property” in the 1640s. Tobacco planters discerned that slave labor was more profitable than indentured and free laborers. From 1645 to 1660, the African descent population increased from 5,000 to 20,000. [3.2.3_SlaveShip] Africans were crowded onto slave ships to maximize profits. Courtesy of Library of Congress Image 3.2.2_Jamestown
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Transcript
1
African American Civil War Museum
SCRIPT FOR P3.1 through 3.7
Section Panel Text Notes
3
Introducti
on/
theater
wrap
P3.1 The Glorious March to Liberty
Civil War to Civil Rights
The African American Civil War Museum honors the Americans of African descent who
fought to save the Union and secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity.
The struggle for liberty and equality under the law has characterized the experiences of
Africans and their descendants in the United States. This is only a fraction of their story.
Image 3.2.1_Map7 (LOC)
P3.2 The American Colonies
Building a Nation
Skilled labor was desperately needed in the American colonies. The colonization of America
depended heavily on artisans brought from mostly West Africa. Enslaved Africans were
blacksmiths, metallurgists, toolmakers, sculptors and engravers, silversmiths and goldsmiths,
tanners, shoemakers, saddle-makers and soldiers. Their skills not only supported the fledgling
colonies, their cultures shaped the very character of America. [3.2.1_Map7]
A Portolan Chart (Navigational Map) of the Atlantic Ocean and
Adjacent Continents 1633
The transatlantic slave trade began on the West Coast of Africa.
This map was used by 17th century captains transporting their human
cargo from Africa to America.
Courtesy of Library of Congress
Africans Arrive in America
The first Africans brought to North America during the transatlantic slave trade arrived at
Jamestown in the Virginia colony in 1619. These Africans had initially been brought across
the Atlantic by a Spanish ship built in Japan, the San Juan Baptista. The legal status of these
Africans as slaves or indentured servants is ambiguous. However, the courts in Virginia
clearly recognized Africans and their children as “property” in the 1640s. Tobacco planters
discerned that slave labor was more profitable than indentured and free laborers. From 1645
to 1660, the African descent population increased from 5,000 to 20,000.
[3.2.3_SlaveShip]
Africans were crowded onto slave ships to maximize profits.
Courtesy of Library of Congress
Image 3.2.2_Jamestown
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[3.2.2_Jamestown]
First Africans Arrive at Jamestown on the Dutch Man of War in 1619
Courtesy of Library of Congress
Ship Shackles
These shackles were used to secure African captives in the belly of ships
on their Middle Passage, from Africa to the Americas.
Merchants of Human Cargo Dutch ships were the primary suppliers of Africans to the British colonies until 1672 when the
British crown chartered the Royal African Company (RAC), which monopolized the African
slave trade until 1698.
Coffle Shackles
In shackles like these Africans were marched from inland kingdoms to the coast and sold to
European slave traders.
(LOC)
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005696251/
Image 3.2.3_SlaveShip
(LOC)
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98501624/
P3.3 Cargo for the Middle Passage
Laborers and Warriors
The slave trade often reflected the purchasing of African captives based on the skills required
in the colonial economy. Across the colonies, agrarian skills, industrial experience, and
domestic knowledge were highly valued. Africans from urban and rural areas were among the
human cargo brought to North America on the Middle Passage, across the Atlantic to the
Americas. They were sedentary farmers and nomadic herdsmen. They were peasants and
princes, high priests and warriors.
[3.3.1_Map8]
Map of Africa corrected based on the observations of the
Royal Society of London and Paris 1725
The map shows boundaries, rivers, forests, and principal
settlements, with tents symbolizing areas inhabited by
nomads, and notes.
Quote to use:
There are certain nations from the interior of Africa… such as Bornon, Houssa,
Zanfara, Zegzeg, Kapina, Tombootoo, all are near the river Niger… they do not
arrive in any considerable numbers and always confounded with other nations who
have made them prisoners.
William Dunbar, Natchez, Mississippi, Letter to Slave Traders, February 1, 1807
At African Churches, services were held on January 1, 1808, “on account of the abolition of
the African slave trade.” In the African Church of New York, Peter Williams described the
author of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution as “instruments
of divine goodness.” Absalom Jones speaking in Philadelphia’s African Episcopal Church
referred to the Constitution as an instrument of God’s deliverance. Jones said that God had
come down to Philadelphia when the framers of the US Constitution came together. African
descent leaders such as Jones and Williams argued that slavery would be brought to an end in
league with the Constitution in accordance with God’s will.
This government founded on the principle of liberty and equality, and declaring them to be the free
gift of God, if not ignorant of their declaration, must enforce it...
George Lawrence, January 1, 1813
[3.5.5_PaulCuffee]
Captain Paul Cuffee, 1812
Revolutionary soldiers and sailors such as Prince Hall and Paul Cuffee led the effort to abolish
slavery and secure the right to vote in Massachusetts. Through their activism, “the Bay State” was
the first state to grant men of African descent the right to vote in 1783. Courtesy of the Library of
Congress
[3.5.6_Prince]
The Prince makes a Northern speaking tour
In 1808, on the streets of Natchez, Mississippi, Dr. John Cox recognized the son of a West African
king whom the Irish surgeon had known while in West Africa. Held as a slave, the Prince had
become the manager of a successful plantation. Cox offered to assist Prince in securing his liberty. Prince turned down the offer. Yet, in 1828, Prince, a senior military officer when captured as a
prisoner of war, was liberated with the assistance of President John Quincy Adams. This known
African royal in the United States gained public attention, but his presence had always been of
importance in the African knowledge circles formed by educated Africans of faith like Prince.
After liberation, Prince Abraham made a northern speaking tour. David Walker of the Prince Hall
Lodge in Boston was his personal escort during the tour. While in Philadelphia, Prince spoke at the
Sixth Presbyterian Church on the Fourth of July 1828. That night in the city of brotherly love,
Prince Abraham shared the story of his African life, his captivity, his desire to redeem his family,
and his belief that God had endowed all men with the gift of liberty. Courtesy of the New York
Public Library
P3.6 The War of 1812
A Military Necessity
Thousands of men of African descent earned their freedom fighting for American
independence. Yet Congress banned the enlistment of men of African descent into the army
with the United States Volunteer Militia Act of 1792. President George Washington signed
the legislation into law. When Congress declared war on Great Britain on June 17, 1812, they
could not legally serve in the federal army. Most free men of African descent were residents
of the North, and they enthusiastically volunteered to defend their country. Excluded from
enlisting in the army, many enlisted in the navy. Naval commanders such as Commodore
Men, women, and children escaped from the “prison-house of bondage” via the Underground Railroad.
They came from cities and plantations, rice swamps and cotton fields, kitchens and machine shops, cruel
masters and mild masters, Border States and Gulf States,. Some were guided only by the North Star,
some braved the perils of sea, some eluded howling bloodhounds, and some hid away for months and
years in caves and swamps waiting for a chance to escape to the North. William Still noted that due to
the secrecy of the network, it is not possible to recognize all those who labored suffered to aid the
oppressed.
Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman became one of the most prolific conductors on the Underground Railroad. Born on a
slave-breeding plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1823, she escaped from the plantation in
1849 with two of her brothers. Afraid of being recaptured, the two brothers returned while Harriet
continued. Traveling by night and using the North Star as a guide, she finally arrived in Philadelphia.
She returned many times to Maryland to bring her family members and many others to the North and
freedom. Harriet Tubman never lost a passenger.
Photo of Harriet Tubman
Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library & Archives – Image has been altered from original
Organizing the Underground Railroad
As Southern society became more repressive, Americans of African descent in the North organized
Negro Conventions. In these conventions, they coordinated their efforts to assist those seeking to escape
from slave states into free states. They also sought the assistance of sympathetic Americans of European
descent. The combined activities of Americans of African and European descent as escorts to liberty
became known as the Underground Railroad, and thousands were led to freedom by this secret network
of routes and safe houses.
Image: The Underground Railroad: Enslaved Americans in wagon and on foot escaping slavery.
Courtesy of LOC
The Mystery
Dr. Martin R. Delaney of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a part of the anti-slavery conventions that
coordinated the efforts of Americans of African and European descent to form what became known as
the Underground Railroad. In 1843, he began publishing the abolitionist newspaper The Mystery. The
paper ceased publication in 1847 when Delany collaborated with Frederick Douglass to establish The
North Star.
The paper shall be free, independent and untrammeled, and while it shall aim at the Moral Elevation of
the Arico-American and African race, civilly, politically and religiously, yet, it shall support no
distinctive principles of race- no sectional distinctions, otherwise than such as be necessary, for the
establishment of true and correct principles pertaining to the universal benefit of man, since whatever is
essentially necessary for the promotion and elevation of one class of society…” –Martin R. Delany, The
Mystery, December 16, 1846
Image: The North Star was co-founded by Martin R. Delaney and Frederick Douglass. Courtesy of
LOC
Image: Anti Annexation Procession in opposition to the annexation of Texas as a slaveholding
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state: This 1844 cartoon has William Lloyd Garrison (far left) leading a group of “Abolitionist Martyrs”
who have been tarred and feathered for their activism. In 1831, Garrison began publication of an anti-
slavery document and was considered a radical abolitionist. Courtesy of LOC
Image: James G. Birney_ a former slaveholder from Kentucky: James G. Birney emerged as the
leading conservative abolitionist after emancipating his human property in 1834. Birney argued that the
Constitution was an anti-slavery document. He was a candidate for president on the Liberty Party ticket
twice, in 1840 and 1844. Courtesy of LOC
In Their Own Words
Slave narratives were major recruiting tools for the anti-slavery movement. Harriet Jacobs’ Inncidents in
the Life of a Slave Girl was a shocking example of the cruelty of cruelty and sexual perversion endemic
to chattel slavery. Frederick Douglass’ narrative propelled the author into the national spotlight and
launched his career as a spokesmen and recruiter for the abolitionist movement. The Narrative of
William W. Brown: A Fugitive Slave chronicled the cruelty of slavery in Missouri, which was reported to
be one of the most humane environments for the enslaved. While planters and their spokesmen argued
that slavery was a benign paternalistic institution, the slave narratives provided firsthand accounts of the
tyranny and cruelty of slavery.
My escape to a land of freedom now appeared certain, and the prospects of the future occupied a great
part of my thoughts. What should be my occupation, was a subject of much anxiety to me; and the next
thing what should be my name?- From The Narrative of William W. Brown: A Fugitive Slave
Image: William Wells Brown_(1814-1884; William Wells Brown was born enslaved in Lexington
Kentucky. He escaped from slavery in 1834 and became a novelist and playwright as well as an agent
and orator for the anti-slavery movement.
Image: “The author pursued by bloodhounds,” From the Narrative of William Wells Brown: Courtesy of the University Library, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill