Thread by @drhoodscholar

Here is a thread on the history of Africans and what becomes the Americas. I've been studying this for years and have conducted primary research including archival, genealogical, ethnographic and oral histories. I write about some of the details in my diss drive.google.com/file/d/1j2OYvU…

First, all of civilization started in what later on becomes Africa. In the beginning it wasn't called Africa but the first human beings that populated the Earth migrated out of "Africa" into other parts of the world education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/globa…

So the Indigenous people on this land that we now call the 2 continents of North America and South America were not originally called that. The US was actually referred to as "Turtle Island" by some Indigenous peoples

It is also important to note that since the land was not originally North and South America, the boundaries that we have today didn't exist thousands or hundreds of years ago. This is important because we usually divide Indigenous peoples by "Mexicans" and South Americans" etc

In fact there was overlap of Indigenousness kingdoms between what is now Arizona, California, Texas and Central America. The point is that our current borders are completely arbitrary to prior Indigenous kingdoms.
I discuss some of the Indigenous people groups in my diss

Let's fast forward to the 14th century by take a quick pit stop in the 8th century. Many don't know this but Africans ruled parts of what becomes Southern Europe from the 8th century to the 15th century. This whole idea of "Europe" comes out of this African rule

Sources docs.google.com/document/d/1vp…
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
amazon.com/Gods-Crucible-…
Which means there would be no unified notion of Europe if it wasn't for "Africans"

The next significant event in the history of Africans and the "Americas" was actually in the 14th century. In 1385, the first successful capture of Africans by Europeans was actually by the Spaniards. I discuss this on pg 13

The important thing to note is that this wasn't a simple process.
1. Africans didn't just sell their people into slavery
2. Including the successful wars dating back to the 8th century, Euro nations and African nations had been fighting for years
3. Spaniards were first

Also, on the Indigenous land West of the Atlantic, "Africans" sailed across and were present before Columbus
The best source for this is amazon.com/They-Came-Befo…
I know this is controversial, I have other sources but not going to get into it.

It would just be crazy to believe we can create pyramids, mummies and amazing contributions to the world but we couldn't figure out how to sail across the Atlantic 🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️

In the 15th century a couple of things happened
Wars between "Euro" and "African" nations continued
The Portuguese stole and captured Africans in the 1440s
Spain finally overthrew the Al-Andalus in 1492
Everyone knows what also happened in 1492
Also, Euros paid Africans taxes

In 16th century a couple of major events.
Columbus brings enslaved Africans to what he colonizes and names "Rich Port" Puerto Rico (wasn't that name at first)
These Africans intermixed with the Indigenous Tainos

In fact, that happened throughout many of the Spanish colonies throughout the Indigenous lands they colonized & rename the West Indies, Central and South America. This important because it points to the intermixture of Indigenous & Africans & the Spanish enslavement pre British

For example, the Spanish colonized and enslaved what becomes Jamaica before the British did
Further north, not 1619, but the first enslaved Africans came in 1526 through Spanish explorer Vázquez de Ayllón

The important thing to note is that this was a failed colonial attempt. I argue that they brought them to the area between what eventually is called the James and York Rivers in a colony eventually named Virginia

These groups of Africans successfully worked with the Indigenous peoples and overthrow the Spaniards. If you want more info on this in addition to my diss on pgs 74-78 check out jstor.org/stable/271236?…

At this point in the 16th century, slavery is active in the "West Indies" led by the Spanish
Africans and the Indigenous peoples are intermixing and marrying
The British actually had a failed colonial attempt in "Roanoke" not the same as modern day Roanoke, VA

Also, the Portuguese are expanding their slave trade across the Atlantic after successful captures of Africans in what they call Brazil and Caribbean
And, the Portuguese are having more success in setting up colonies in Africa in 1576, Portuguese established a colony in Luanda

This 1576 date is important because it shows both that it was first warfare and forced that led to Africans being enslaved and not Africans willingly trading other Africans
Also that colonization has been going on for 500 years

Move to the 17th century, the British are finally able to set up a colony on Turtle Island
And, the French join in on enslavement and set up colonies in the Caribbean
It is also important to note that this was the growth of pirating, led by the Dutch who would still Africans

The famous "20 and odd Negroes" were actually stolen by the Dutch.
At this point, the French, Portuguese, Dutch, British and Spanish are all in on human trafficking. This next point is huge and literally changes everything.

THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE CHANGE LITERALLY SHIFTED THE COURSE OF HISTORY AND CHANGE THE WORLD.

"Slavery" had been going on for thousands of years. Ruling kingdoms would take over other nations and "enslave" them. But the transatlantic slave trade was different. Never before in the history of human kind did slavery entail carrying nations of people across an entire ocean.

This is significant for many reasons but the one I would like to highlight is that any nation that was initially participating in the trade would have been going along with the way things have been going for thousands of years. So to claim "Africans" sold Africans isn't accurate

Mainly because Africans trading other Africans wasn't outside the lines of history. What they didn't know was the extent of the slave trade. Hindsight is 20/20, no one during the beginning of the 17th century knew that it would grow to millions

So we would have to rewrite history and put into the minds of "Africans" that you are going to participate in a world changing event. Another important thing is just as there was no unified "European" nation, there was no unified "African" nation. They weren't their people.

Just like there were French, Spanish and British, there were multiple African Kingdoms (or states as he posits in this video)

Back to what becomes the Americas
The smallest percentage of enslaved actually went guess where? The British colonies. "And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000. That’s right: a tiny percentage. pbs.org/wnet/african-a…

This means that the majority of the enslaved were shipped to Portuguese, French and Spanish colonies
So the next part is kind of hard to explain over Twitter but I will try. At this point in the mid 17th century and into the 18th century Africans are all over the "Americas"

The British Colonies actually only had in the thousands of slaves in the 17th century. For the British colonies, the system of slavery didn't happen over night, it literally took a century to grow so by the time we get to the 18th century did we have actually large #s of enslaved

The reason why this next part is hard to explain over Twitter is because for the next 2 centuries theres constant forced and unforced migration of Africans from Africa to all the colonies, in between British colonies and in between "West Indies" and I forgot about Spanish Florida

Back in the 16th century, there was "Spanish Florida"
nps.gov/nr/travel/amer…

This map helps to visualize the movements out of Africa
Pay attention to the time frame, doesn't end until 1900 because although the slave trade was supposed to stop in the 19th century, they were still sneaking enslaved Africans close to the end of the 1800s

While there was constant forced migration from Africa, there was also constant forced migration and free movement in between the Americas. This movement was all happening at the same time. This site has done a good job of tracking the movements inmotionaame.org

First let's look at where those enslaved self emancipated went
This makes clear how they freed themselves and moved as far north as Canada and south as Central America
inmotionaame.org/migrations/lan…

Next we have the Domestic Slave trade inmotionaame.org/migrations/lan…
Now there were estimated 2 million enslaved Africans who were traded between the British colonies
Also, there was forced migration to the sugar plantations from British colonies to Spanish colonies

Also, there was emigration, where Africans went back to Africa. This started in the 18th century inmotionaame.org/migrations/lan…
They also went to parts of the Caribbean

At the same time this is happening, there was immigration from Haiti inmotionaame.org/migrations/lan…

I think this is a pretty through thread that lays out the amount of movement, the enslavers and colonizers from 1380s all the way to the 1890s. The only other things I didn't mention are:
The French had colonized Haiti which had a big influence on Louisiana

The British took over some colonies from the Spanish such as Jamaica
Eventually America expanded their empire and took over colonies from Spanish, Puerto Rico anyone?

Some other important notes: "This relaxation of exclusionary restrictions enabled the growth of the slave trade in the 18th century. Illegal trafficking nonetheless remained very important.

Thus, the French colonies received a sizable number of enslaved people from Portuguese, Dutch and British traders." heritage.bnf.fr/france-ameriqu….

This is important to note that there would be no growth in the transatlantic slave trade if Europeans didn't work together