Chapter 8

 The western part of Africa where slaves were bought or captured and taken as slaves to the Americas.

 The African society was based on family.  Relatives lived in the same village.  The also worshipped the spirits of their ancestors.  They danced and sang chants to ask the spirits to protect them.  Another of their common traditions was storytelling. Fables, legends and myths helped these people learn about their culture and history.

 Someone from whom you are descended (but usually further back than a grandparent)

 A western African storyteller who recites the history of a tribe or family.

 Slavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others.  Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand wages.

 People from Africa who were forced to give up their freedom and spend their lives obeying and working for their “owners,” or masters.  Enslaved Africans were treated as property that could be bought and sold.

1. Some refused to take part in the slave trade. 2. Other West Africans tried to find slaves outside their own nations. 3. Some West African groups did not raid villages. Instead, they traded people who were already slaves, such as prisoners they had captured during their previous wars. A dilemma: 1. Take part in the slave trade. 2. Become a slave yourself when the neighboring tribe becomes more powerful and causes a war with you, taking you as a slave.

 An ocean trip.  An act of traveling by water.

 Situations in which a person is forced to make a choice, even though there is no good choice to make. or

 The voyage of slave traders and enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Americas.

1. Some slaves tried to kill themselves by refusing to eat or jumping off of the ship. 2. Some slaves rebelled by attacking their crew with crude weapons that they had made. 3. Many slaves tried to maintain enough strength to survive Another dilemma: 1. Choose to die on the voyage to America. 2. Working for the rest of your life as slave.

 To stand up or offer resistance to somebody or something

 Rebellion: organized opposition to authority

 A large area of privately owned land where crops were grown with the labor of workers or slaves who lived on the land.

 A sale in which slaves were sold to buyers who bid (offered prices) for them.  Usually a slave was sold to the person making the highest bid.

1. Some of the slaves attempted to escape. 2. Some of the slaves pretended to be sick. 3. Some pretended to not understand. 4. Some broke tools or set buildings on fire. 5. Some tried to kill themselves. 6. Many slaves chose to work hard and to what they were told so they could be moved into the house to be servants and/or taught a trade so they could try to buy their freedom.

 A person who was in charge of the work of slaves and could punish them for disobeying him.

 A public sale where the price was the same for each slave.  When the gate was opened, buyers rushed in and “scrambled” around grabbing the slaves they wanted.

 The slaves has to survive a period of “breaking in” or adjusting to his or her new life.

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