diaspora

"Know Your History,
Know Yourself"

Texas Black History Preservation Project
Documenting the Complete African American Experience in Texas www.tbhpp.org

The African Diaspora to the Americas

The transatlantic slave trade saw the forced movement of Africans to the Americas and Caribbean Islands as cheap labor sources. From the 16th to the 19th
century, more than 10 million Africans were taken from their homelands, primarily the continent's central lands and countries along the western coast. Those
who survived the arduous and inhumane conditions of the Middle Passage were introduced to indigenous customs and religions, however, Africans also
retained and practiced many of the customs from their homelands. Mixing and intermarrying with indigenous people created new cultures.

For this section, we examine different aspects of the Diaspora and how Africans made their way to what would become Texas:

"The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Origins of the African Diaspora in Texas" -- An essay by Dr. Glenn Chambers, asst. professor of history at
Texas A&M University
Royal African Trading Company -- Despite objections from British humanitarians, Great Britain became the dominant leader in the slave trade by the
close of the 17th century and leading the way was the Royal African Company, a group of merchants who were granted an exclusive charter by the
British Parliament. By the 1780s, when Britain shipped a third of a million slaves to the New World, the national economy depended on the slave trade.
Elmina Castle -- Notorious holding pen on Africa's Gold Coast for captured slaves to be sent to the New World.
F acts and figures about the transatlantic slave trade

nature of her inhabitants. Have they forgotten that Africa was the cradle of the arts and sciences?
If they pretend to forget this, it becomes our duty to remind them of it." – Baron De Vastey, African
Haitian, writer, 1817