Footsteps articles from January 2006

Footsteps archives from January 2006

Blacks in colonial America.
January 1, 2006... The Portuguese pioneered the transatlantic slave trade in the mid-1500s. They bought captives on the West African coast from African merchants and from African rulers and their agents. The Portuguese then transported these captives to...

Anthony Johnson.(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... In 1621, "Antonio a Negro" arrived in the Jamestown colony of Virginia. The Bennetts, a family of tobacco farmers, purchased him to work on their plantation. Antonio proved himself, as did other slaves, a hard and loyal worker and was...

Flying the colonial flag.
January 1, 2006... Twenty names, places, events, and terms relating to African American Colonial heroes are hidden in the flag below. Can you find them all? Words run up, down, across, backward, and diagonally. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Angola ...

Blacks in New Amsterdam.
January 1, 2006... The first Africans brought to the Dutch colony of New Netherland (present-day New York, New Jersey, and Delaware) arrived only a few years after the Dutch West India Company founded the settlement at New Amsterdam (present-day New York City)...

African Americans bearing arms.
January 1, 2006... Blacks who took part in the American Revolution were not the first people from Africa to bear arms in North America. African newcomers to mainland North America, both enslaved and free, had been shouldering weapons for two centuries. They...

The Stono revolt.
January 1, 2006... The largest black uprising in Colonial North America took place early one Sunday morning September 9, 1739, near the Stono River, southwest of Charleston, South Carolina. Blacks in the area outnumbered whites almost two to one, and fearful...

Safe haven in Florida.(fugitive slaves)
January 1, 2006... October 1687: Twelve exhausted Africans reach the town of St. Augustine, Florida, after escaping from bondage in South Carolina. These eight men, three women, and one three-year-old were the first of many enslaved Africans who fled to...

Francisco Menendez: an unsung hero.
January 1, 2006... While many of the African American Colonial heroes are little known today, records do tell of a Mandingo man from West Africa by the name of Francisco Menendez. In 1715, Menendez and other enslaved Africans joined the Yamassee Indian War...

Petitioning for freedom.(African American slaves)
January 1, 2006... The white colonists challenging Great Britain for their liberty and independence did not have African Americans in mind when they engaged in their protests. Yet, however much they might have viewed the revolution as affecting only white...

Putting thoughts into words.(Jupiter Hammon)(Biography)
January 1, 2006... Dear Jesus, unto Thee we cry, And make our Lamentation: O let our Prayers ascend on high; We felt thy Salvation. Lord, turn our dark benighted Souls; Give us a true Motion, And let the Hearts of all the...

Colonial scramble.
January 1, 2006... Unscramble the letters to form names and words that match each description below. Can you fill in the blanks for all 10 Colonial figures and ideas? 1. Author of the first piece of published writing by a black writer in the United States:...

Warriors & wordsmiths.(Lucy Terry Prince and Phillis Wheatley)
January 1, 2006... African American women have made valuable contributions to American literature. Lucy Terry Prince and Phillis Wheatley were warriors and wordsmiths who have used the pen to address a variety of diverse topics. Lucy Terry Prince Poet,...

Phillis Wheatley: the mother of American poetry.(Play)
January 1, 2006... Characters Narrator 1 Narrator 2 Phillis Wheatley: a black slave who lives in Massachusetts John Wheatley: a prosperous white tailor from Boston Susannah Wheatley: the wife of John Wheatley Mary Wheatley: the...

A history of service.(military service)
January 1, 2006... People of African descent served in the military forces of European powers in America from the dawn of exploration in the 1400s through the American Revolution. Black people were soldiers, sailors, pilots, engineers, spies, teamsters,...

Peter Salem, American hero!
January 1, 2006... If you have studied the American Revolution, you probably learned about the battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill, two of the best-known battles of the war. But did you know that some of their heroes were black?...

Black loyalists.
January 1, 2006... In early spring 1775, at George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia, snow still lingered on the lawn, which swept down to the Potomac River. Along the cherry walk, plump buds showed the first hint of bloom. But the peaceful...

Bread upon the waters: two women, separated by time and circumstance, have made a difference in their communities--working with food and helping youth.(Common Ground)(Catherine Ferguson)(Barbara Smith )(Biography)
January 1, 2006... What do a former model and a former slave have in common? More than you might think. Catherine Ferguson was born about 1749 on a schooner bound for New York. Even though Ferguson did not learn to read or write, Ferguson's mother taught...

Fort Mose: Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2006... Fort Mose: Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom by Kathleen Deagan and Darcie MacMahon (University of Florida Press/Florida Museum of Natural History, 1995, www.upf.com), accompanies a well-researched, fascinating-to-read overview of...

Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2006... Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America by Ira Berlin (Harvard University Press, 1998, www.hup.harvard.edu) offers an excellent, comprehensive survey of the evolution of black society from the first arrivals...

The Young Oxford History of African Americans.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2006... The Young Oxford History of African Americans (Oxford University Press, 1997, www.cup.com) is an 11-volume set that is a must for anyone interested in American history. Volumes 1, 2, and 3 complement the theme of this issue and cover the...

Cobblestone Resources.
January 1, 2006... COBBLESTONE RESOURCES The following issues of FOOTSTEPS and its sister magazine COBBLESTONE complement this issue on "Colonial Heroes" and are available from Cobblestone Publishing: Blacks and the Military (FTP0309) Colonial Slavery...

On the Net.
January 1, 2006... For an introduction to African American Colonial life in Williamsburg, Virginia, with images of present-day reenactors/interpreters, check out: www.history.org/foundation/journal/slave.cfm For an overview of African American...

Let's find out.(Stephen Bishop)(Quilts of Gee's Bend)(Paul R. Williams)
January 1, 2006... Stephen Bishop was 17 years old when he started working as a guide in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave in 1838. He was also a slave. One of America's first cavers, Bishop memorized the twists and turns of the longest cave known in the world. He mapped...

The list continues.(famous African Americans)(Biography)
January 1, 2006... The pages of Footsteps magazine are too few to include the names and deeds of all the African Americans who distinguished themselves during the colonial period. After reading the brief biographies below, begin some detective work on your own...