Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585–1660

by Linda M. Heywood , John K. Thornton

• ISBN13: 9780521779227
• ISBN10: 0521779227
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book establishes Central Africa as the origin of most Africans brought to English and Dutch American colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and South America in their formative period before 1660. It reveals that Central Africans were frequently possessors of an Atlantic Creole culture that included adaptation of Christianity and elements of European language, especially names and material culture. It places the movement of slaves and creation of the colonies within an Atlantic historical framework, including showing interactions among Africa, Europe, and all of the Americas. It explores the development of attitudes toward race, slavery, and freedom as they developed in the colonies of England and the Netherlands, and it revises earlier discussions on these issues. The book suggests ways in which this generation of Africans helped lay the foundations for subsequent development of African-American culture in all the colonies of these countries.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Privateering, Colonial Expansion, and the African Presence in Early Anglo-Dutch Settlements	p. 5
The Portuguese, Kongo, and Ndongo and the Origins of Atlantic Creole Culture to 1607	p. 49
Wars, Civil Unrest, and the Dynamics of Enslavement in West Central Africa, 1607-1660	p. 109
Atlantic Creole Culture: Patterns of Transformation and Adaptations, 1607-1660	p. 169
Shifting Status and the Foundation of African American Communities: Atlantic Creoles in the Early Anglo-Dutch Colonies	p. 236
Becoming Slaves: Atlantic Creoles and the Defining of Status	p. 294
Names of Africans Appearing in Early Colonial Records	p. 333
Index	p. 361
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