Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

The New World was a term Medieval and Renaissance Europe used to refer to the continents of North and South America. First mistakenly thought to be India, the New World was quickly occupied and its inhabitants decimated by the Europeans, who attempted to strip the New World of all resources. Soon, colonies of Europeans started to live in the New World, using white supremacist ideology to advance their interests.

The Gullah Geechee is the name for the enslaved Africans captured and forced to work in the Carolinas. Because of the inhospitable environment, white enslavers stayed away, which allowed the disparate Africans to form an independent culture and language. The farming and cattle-herding skills of the Gullah Geechee directly led to the Carolinas becoming a formidable economic power.

Drapetomania is a pseudo-psychological “mental disorder” attributed to enslaved people attempting to escape their captors. This designation served to pathologize the natural human desire for self-determination and further cement the idea that Black people were less than human. “Treatment” for drapetomania ranged from dietary changes to violent punishment.