Gaspar Yanga was a liberator and one of Mexico’s heroes, enslaved from West Africa. He fought for the abolition of slavery in Mexico. He was known as “America’s First Liberator” or “El Primer Libertador de las Americas.”
The town of Yanga, Mexico is named after him.
THREAD
El Yanga was an African abolitionist and a leader of a slave rebellion in Mexico during the early period of Spanish colonial rule. Mexico was called 'New Spain'.
Gaspar Yanga, often called Yanga, El Yanga, or Nyanga, was said to be a member of the royal family of Gabon, Africa, before being kidnapped and placed in the Middle Passage to the new world.
He came to be the head of a group of slaves who were revolting near Vera Cruz, around 1570. Escaping to the highland terrain, he and his people built a small free colony. For more than 30 years it grew, partially surviving by capturing caravans bringing goods to Vera Cruz.
In 1609, however, the Spanish colonial government sent troops from Pueblo to enslave Yanga and his people again. The Spanish numbered around 550, of which perhaps 100 were Spanish regulars.
Yanga and the Maroons facing them were an irregular force of 100 fighters with some type of firearm, and 400 more with stones, machetes, and bows and arrows.
These troops were led by Francisco de la Matosa, an Angolan. Yanga, who was quite old at this time, employed his troops' superior knowledge of the area to draw them to the negotiating table.
Yanga’s terms of peace asked for a treaty akin to those that had settled hostilities between Indians and Spaniards: an area of self-rule, in return for tribute, and promises to support the Spanish if they were attacked.
He proposed his district would return any slaves which might flee to it to soothe the worries of the many slave owners in the region. The Spaniards refused the terms, a battle was fought, and the Spaniards advanced into the settlement and burned it.
Yanga’s people fled into the surrounding highlands, and the Spaniards could not achieve a conclusive victory. Unable to win definitively, they agreed to a conference.
Eventually, Yanga's terms were agreed to, with the additional condition that only Franciscan priests would tend to the people, and that Yanga's family would be granted the right of rule. Finally, in 1630, the town of Yanga was officially established. It remains to this day.
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Did you know Cornrows were used to help enslaved people escape slavery? They used cornrows to create maps to leave plantations. It’s most documented in Colombia where Benkos Bioho, came up with the idea to have women create maps & deliver messages through cornrows.
A THREAD.
Cornrows are ancient art. Found in 3000 B.C. Sahara paintings & on Ethiopian warriors like Tewodros II, braids showed community, age & status in African societies. In the Caribbean, “cane rows” linked to slaves planting sugar cane, tying style to survival.
During the slave trade, captors shaved enslaved Africans’ hair to strip identity. But many defied this by braiding cornrows tightly to stay neat & preserve culture. These braids became secret tools, hiding maps to escape plantations across South America.
62 years ago today, The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C.
A THREAD
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C.
Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march.
On this day we celebrate #WomensEqualityDay to mark the day the U.S. Senate adopted the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.
Black women would wait nearly 50 years later to vote.
Some black women suffrages who paved the Path to the Ballot Box.
A THREAD
Racist policies often kept black women out of the suffragist movement led by white women. The headquarters of Colored Women Voters, located in Georgia, was one of many early 20th-century organizations that fought for African-American suffrage.
The National Association of Colored Women‘s Clubs Inc was established in 1896 as a merger between the National League of Colored Women and the National Federation of Afro-American Women. Thus functioning as a umbrella group for local and regional black women’s organizations.
To combat the high rate of death among slaves, plantation owners demanded females start having children at 13.
By 20, the enslaved women would be expected to have about five children.
—THREAD—
An enslaved woman was a sex tool beneath the level of moral considerations.
She was an economic good, useful, in addition to her menial labor, for breeding more slaves. To attain that purpose, the master mated her promiscuously according to his breeding plans.
The Master ,his son(s) and other members of his family took turns with her to increase the family's fortune & to satisfy his extramarital sexual desires. Guests and neighbors were also invited to this luxury.
One in every four cowboys was believed to be a Black man released from slavery despite the stories told in popular books and movies although the most famous cowboys of the old west were white.
Some notable cowboys!
A THREAD
Many of the enslaved african men were familiar with cattle herding from Africa.
a highlight of some famous black cowboys:
Bill Pickett (1871-1932), rodeo performer.
World famous black cowboy Bill Pickett "Dusky Demon" invented the rodeo sport, bulldogging (steer wrestling). In 1989 was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.