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 |