Encyclopedia of African American History

Atlantic Islands  17

Goodwin Jr., Paul B. Global Studies: Latin America. Guilford, CT:

McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Harris, Joseph E. Africans and Th eir History. New York: Penguin,

1987.

Harvey, Robert. Liberators: Latin America’s Struggle for Indepen-

dence. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2000.

Haynes, Keen. A History of Latin America. Boston: Houghton Mif-

fl in, 2000.

Hine, Darlene Clark, et al. Th e African-American Odyssey. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.

Olaniyan, Richard, ed. African History and Culture. Essex, UK:

Longman, 1982.

Th ornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic

World, 1 400– 1 680. New York: Cambridge University Press,

1992.

Trotter Jr., Joe William. Th e African American Experience. Boston:

Houghton Miffl in, 2001.

Atlantic Islands

European expansion, African plantation slavery, and the

development of the Atlantic World began in the Atlantic

islands off the coast of northwest Africa: the Canary Is-

lands, Madeira, the Azores, Cape Verde, and São Tomé. In

the 14th century, West African watercraft was specialized

for coastal, riverine, and interior travel along the Gambia,

Senegal, and Niger rivers, which connected with overland

routes across the Sahara. With exceptions, West Africans

did not pursue seafaring in the open Atlantic nor did they

settle several of the islands along the Atlantic coast. Th e

navigational diffi culties presented by the eastern Atlantic’s

Canary Current prevented Mediterranean and Arabic sail-

ors from successfully navigating the Atlantic coast of Af-

rica as well. Grain trade connecting Europe’s large inland

seas—the Mediterranean, Baltic, and North seas—stimu-

lated innovation in Iberian shipbuilding as well as acciden-

tal voyages of discovery. Ultimately, the prospect of a sea

route to West Africa’s goldfi elds prompted a collaboration

of Iberian, Italian, French, and English people, vessels, and

capital in the pursuit of short-range maritime exploration

along the West African coast.

Th e rediscovery of the Canary Islands by Malocello

in 1312 signaled the start of European exploitation of the

Atlantic islands as sources of profi t and expansion. Th e

Canaries were fi lled with natural products for commodi-

fi cation: timber, honey, hides, and dyestuff s. Th e Canaries

were inhabited, and the Portuguese and Spanish raided the

islands for cattle and people whom they sold as slaves in

By 1750, the number of African slaves comprised about 40
percent of Virginia and Maryland’s total population, and
four-fi ft hs of them were Creoles. Eventually, strong bonds
developed between new arrivals and Creole slaves.
One Creole population that absorbed European val-
ues lived among whites in Charleston and Savannah. Th ese
Creoles were oft en mixed-race relatives of their masters and
enjoyed social and economic privileges. Cultural exchanges
became an essential part of the process of creolization that
led African parents to produce African American children.
Miscegenation and creolization oft en occurred together,
producing physical and cultural change. At the same time, in
British colonial North America, mixed-race people were de-
fi ned as black. Although biracial slaves—those of mixed Af-
rican and European ancestry—enjoyed some advantages, as
a group their legal status remained as slaves. Creolization and
miscegenation transformed the descendants of the Africans
who arrived in North America into African Americans.
In the Caribbean region the term “Creole” refers to
anyone, regardless of race or ethnicity, who was born and
raised in the region. It also refl ects the blending of the vari-
ous cultures (African, French, British, and Spanish among
others) that infl uenced the area. Th is is also referred to as
the creolization of a society. On Jamaica and other Carib-
bean islands, planters divided slaves into three categories:
Creoles (slaves born in the Americas), old Africans (those
who had lived in the Americas for some time), and new
Africans (those who had just survived the middle passage).
For resale, Creole slaves were worth three times the value of
those considered to be “unseasoned” new Africans. Th ese
new Africans were called “salt-water Negroes” or “Guinea-
birds” by planters and Creole slaves. Seasoning was the be-
ginning of the process of making new Africans more like
Creoles.
See also: Acculturation; Black Atlantic

Maryalice Guilford

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