• slavevoyages.org contains information about various routes that slaves took en route to the Americas
    • Only ten million slaves survived the journey across the Atlantic; part of the Triangular Trade
    • Most Africans went to the British colonies and Brazil
    • The goods that were produced by slaves were materialistic and “wants”, not “needs”
    • The idea of race was legalized in 1640 - divides slaves and Europeans into “them and us”, thus increasing the importation of slaves
  • Slaves were equal in terms of gender; both men and women were expected to produce goods
    • House slaves had duties such as taking care of children and sewing, and some of them created quilts

Sewing

  • African-American women would sew dresses for their masters and use the remaining remnants of the cloth to create quilts
  • CLoth was expensive at the time
  • Parts of a quilt: quilt top, padding, and quilt bottom
  • Though quilts were a European tradition, Africans, especially in the nation of Benin, created applique textiles which were similar
    • Men mostly worked with applique which butts heads with the tradition that women are the ones to sew
  • African-American women were forced to create quilts for their owners
    • Creating quilts out of remnants was considered creativity (making something out of nothing) and resistance (finding hope out of nothing)
  • Family for slaves was their slave community, not their literal blood and flesh relatives
    • Creating quilts was an act of love and rebellion to help each other to survive
  • Samplers were made by white women to show they were proficient at sewing and thus could perform house duties well
    • Turned into quilts
  • Quilts were used to tell stories of the Underground Railroad as well; different quilts and icons had symbolism in a story of escaping
    • Theorized that quilts were used to show which houses were on the Underground Railroad - topic of historic contention
    • Quilts can be thought of as a menmonic device that provides hope to slaves
    • Many slaves ran away during the spring due to a variety of factors such as food, navigation, etc

Low Country US Slaves

  • Gichi and Gulla cultures were cultivated on the islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia; different than most African-Americans in terms of tradition, language, culture
  • The Low Country Region (coast of SC, GA, FL) had slaves that were mostly from the nation of Angola, as they were most experienced with farming rice
    • Contradicts the idea that slaves were not human; they in fact did have traditions and knowledge to farm rice
  • Slaves on the islands had a bit of autonomy; many of them spoke the same language (because they were from Angola) and slave owners disliked living on the islands because of the mosquitoes
    • Creates a structure where slaves work on the plantations while their masters are a boat ride away

Codeswitching

  • Black people have to belong to two consciousnesses
    • One of them is the white idea of slaves being idiotic, incapable of thought, and subhuman in order for their masters to underestimate them
    • The other consciousness is the reality of slaves being real humans who are capable of thinking and creating
    • African-Americans must code switch to go between the two consciousnesses