African American History and the Atlantic Slave Trade

Term	Contextual note	MSH-Review/Replace summary	Time period/ Region note	References
abolitionist	Reductive when used as a label for Black activists who continued to campaign for Civil Rights in the USA long after the Civil War. Their work extended beyond slavery both in the antebellum period and beyond. Should be applied with caution to white individuals who supported the parliamentary procedure to abolish the slave trade. Many of these so-called “abolitionists” did not favour the immediate cessation of slavery, with some promoting its gradual abolition to protect their own financial interests for example.	Review	1700-, USA, UK	Dr Gabrielle Foreman et al. Writing about “Slavery”? This might helpDr Stephen Mullen (University of Glasgow) Matthew Lee (University of Aberdeen) Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery Seymour Dresher, Econocide
African	Discriminatory when incorrectly applied and homogenising when used in lieu of a person’s (ethnic/national/religious/linguistic) preferred identity. Respect the self-identification of second- and third- (and so forth) generation African diasporic communities. Terms such as “Black”, “African American”, “African-Barbadian”, “African-Brazilian” may be preferred.	Confirm	1800-, USA, Caribbean, Latin America	Dr. Gabrielle Foreman (Pennstate University) Dr Stephen Mullen (University of Glasgow) PCUSA Terminology Crosswalk
African American	Popularised by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, although its usage dates back to 1782. Generally speaking, it is the preferred term for the Black diaspora living in the USA today. It tends to refer to those Black Americans whose families were brought to the United States via the Atlantic Slave Trade. The term “Black Americans” is inclusive of later immigrants from Africa to the USA. In the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the term “African American” can be reductive when used to simplify the identity of, for example, an enslaved Black person who was born in West Africa and subsequently captured and moved to North and/or South America. When applicable, be specific about a person’s multiple identities (these may be transnational, multiracial, migratory, multilingual, etc.)	Review	1782-, USA	Dr Gabrielle Foreman et al. Writing about “Slavery”? This might help Fred Shapiro, The Origin of “African American”
African-American	Popularised by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, although its usage dates back to 1782. Generally speaking, it is the preferred term for the Black diaspora living in the USA today. It tends to refer to those Black Americans whose families were brought to the United States via the Atlantic Slave Trade. The term “Black Americans” is inclusive of later immigrants from Africa to the USA. In the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the term “African American” can be reductive when used to simplify the identity of, for example, an enslaved Black person who was born in West Africa and subsequently captured and moved to North and/or South America. When applicable, be specific about a person’s multiple identities (these may be transnational, multiracial, migratory, multilingual, etc.)	Review
Black American	Popularised by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, although its usage dates back to 1782. Generally speaking, it is the preferred term for the Black diaspora living in the USA today. It tends to refer to those Black Americans whose families were brought to the United States via the Atlantic Slave Trade. The term “Black Americans” is inclusive of later immigrants from Africa to the USA. In the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the term “African American” can be reductive when used to simplify the identity of, for example, an enslaved Black person who was born in West Africa and subsequently captured and moved to North and/or South America. When applicable, be specific about a person’s multiple identities (these may be transnational, multiracial, migratory, multilingual, etc.)	Review
Afro-	Afro- (prefix), with specific terms including Afro-Caribbean/s, Afro-Barbadian/s, Afro-Indian/s, Afro-American/s, Afro-Cuban/s, Afro-Bolivian/s, Afro-Colombian/s, Afro-Latin American/s Prefix coined by Americans in the late 1960s. It has now fallen out of favour on the grounds that the term “Afro” is associated with a hairstyle rather than a continent. Generally, the prefix “African-” is now preferred, although there are exceptions i.e. many people self-identify as “Afro-Caribbean”.		1965-, USA, Caribbean, Latin America	The Guardian UK, Style guide Chris Elliott,  We wouldn’t write ‘Afro-Caribbean’ today Police Service of Northern Ireland, The Appropriate Language Guide Show Racism the Red Card – Terminology