The Remember Slavery Programme, Managed by the United Nations

Home , Independence of Jamaica, Margaret Garner, Slavery in Cuba, Slave Trade Act

The Remember Slavery Programme, managed by The United Nations Information Centres also organise the United Nations Department of Public Information, a number of commemorative activities around the was established by the General Assembly in 2007 to world. In 2015, these activities will be held under the honour the memory of the victims of slavery and the theme, “Women and Slavery”. transatlantic slave trade. It also aims to raise awareness of the dangers of racism and prejudice today. The Programme works with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Each year, the Programme commemorates the educational institutions and civil society groups to help International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of students learn about the causes, consequences and Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade on 25 March lessons of the transatlantic slave trade. at United Nations Headquarters in New York City and organises a series of activities throughout the year. A memorial, The Ark of Return, will be unveiled at Those activities include roundtable discussions, film United Nations Headquarters on 25 March 2015. The screenings, an exhibit, a briefing for non-governmental memorial is designed by Rodney Leon, a United States organizations and a global video conference with architect of Haitian descent. The memorial represents students living in countries affected by the transatlantic a vessel to acknowledge the millions of African people slave trade. transported under severely harsh conditions on slave ships during the “Middle Passage”. Visitors are meant to pass through The Ark of Return to intimately experience three main elements: acknowledge the For more information on the programme please visit our website: http://rememberslavery.un.org tragedy, consider its legacy and never forget. or contact us at [email protected] WOMEN AND SLAVERY Telling Their Stories

This exhibition pays tribute to the many enslaved women who endured unbearable hardships, including sexual exploitation, as well as those who fought for freedom from slavery and advocated for its abolition. It also celebrates the strength of enslaved women, many of whom successfully transmitted their African culture to their descendants despite the many abuses they endured. It is no surprise that their fight for freedom from slavery also influenced the fight for women’s rights that started in the th19 century.

It is estimated that one-third of the more than 15 million people who were sold as slaves from Africa through the transatlantic slave trade were women. Enslaved women carried a triple burden. In addition to enduring the harsh conditions of forced labour as a slave, they experienced extremely cruel forms of discrimination and sexual exploitation because of their gender and skin colour.

Enslaved women from different nations Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

Women resisted slavery in many different ways. They developed skills and tried to preserve the dignity and unity of their communities. Some of them became the concubines of their masters or married a free man in the hope of gaining freedom for themselves and their children. Others became spiritual leaders or participated in revolts or fought for their freedom through the legal system. They had to endure prostitution, sexual exploitation, rape, torture and even death.

In many places, they participated in the fight against the brutal slavery system, which considered slaves as “movable property”. They paid a heavy price but their stories remain relatively unknown. Enslaved women were subjected against their will to a slavery system that intended to make all slaves anonymous, voiceless and cultureless. W stands for Woman, c. 1864 This injustice underscores the need to remember the The gospel of slavery: a primer of freedom Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City victims of slavery and acknowledge their humanity. THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

For more than 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history. Slave caravans from East Africa Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

As a direct result, the greatest movement of Africans was to the Americas. From 1501 to 1830, four Africans crossed the Atlantic Ocean for every one European, making the demographics of the Americas in that era more of an extension of the African diaspora than an European one. The legacy of this migration is still evident today with large populations of people of African descent living throughout the Americas.

Two systems of slave trading developed: a northern trade dominated by the British and the French and a southern trade system in the South Atlantic, dominated by the Portuguese and Brazilians.

In what became known as the “triangular trade” of the northern system, vessels sailed from Europe to West Africa with goods traded for captives who were then traded and transported to the Caribbean. The ships were then emptied of their human cargo and their holds were filled with New World products to sell once they returned to Europe.

Map 1: The Trade in Slaves from Africa, 1501–1900

Number of Captives

EUROPE 8,000,000

C a Black Sea sp ia n 4,000,000

S NORTH e a 2,000,000 NORTH M e d i t AMERICA e r AMERICAN r 1,000,000 MAINLAND TUNISIA a ALGERIA n e 50,000 a n ASIA S e ) a Width of routes indicates MOROCCO 0 A TLANTIC 0 number of captives transported (

1 9 1 7 1 LIBYA 1

0 – 1 OCEAN 0 0 EGYPT , 5 – 0 0 P ( 1 1 1 0 7 R e 1 9 7 1 0 e r , ( 0 0 s 0 d 0 i – 0 0 a 0 S 1 0 ) n

0 0 e 9 G 0 0 0 a , 0 u 0 , 7 l ) f 5 4 1 7 CUBA 1 , 0 3 , 2 1 2 ARABIA INDIA VERACRUZ , ST.-DOMINGUE 0

JAMAICA Bay of YEMEN Arabian CARIBBEAN Bengal BARBADOS SENEGAMBIA Sea 8 9 CARTAGENA 2 AFRICA ,0 BIGHT 0 SIERRA LEONE WINDWARD OF 0 COAST GOLD BENIN COAST BIGHT OF BIAFRA 0 0 0 0 0 , ,0 0 3 8 3 2 5 Equator Equator

T S 12 A , O 570,0 (1 00 C 501 –186 I 7) L WEST I H 6

SOUTH CENTRAL A 5, 00

AFRICA W 0

AMERICA S INDIAN PACIFIC OCEAN

A OCEAN IC R BRAZIL F A 143 T 200,000 ,000 S A E MASCARENE H ISLANDS T MADAGASCAR U 359,000

S 1 51,000

A TLANTIC OCEAN RÍO DE LA PLATA Of the many routes that captive Africans followed from their homeland to other parts of the world, the route across the Atlantic was taken by far the largest number after 1500. About the same number of captives traveled across the Atlantic Ocean 0 400 800 kilometers between 1501 and 1900 as left Africa by all other routes combined 0 400 800 miles from the end of the Roman Empire to 1900.

Overview of the Transatlantic Slave Trade 1501-1867, Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press 2010) THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

The transatlantic slave trade lasted for four centuries. Through much of the early modern era people accepted slavery and the slave trade as legitimate and moral. By the early nineteenth century it was becoming clear to the international community that the trade of enslaved people was no longer tolerable.

The initial momentum to overturn the formerly accepted view began with the early Anglo- American abolitionist movement. Individuals and organizations corresponded, advocated, and published books, pamphlets and newspapers as part of an effort to raise awareness of the cause. This was the beginning of one of the largest humanitarian movements ever seen. A global effort was also building with many nations becoming signatories to international treaties on the issue.

By 1807 Great Britain and the United States had legally abolished the transatlantic slave trade. These actions however did not end slavery within the countries and territories that participated in the slave trade. Decades later, the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 ended slavery in Canada, the British West Indies and the Cape of Good Hope.

Anti-slavery society public notice Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

The Indian Slavery Act, signed in 1843, outlawed slavery within British India, which was governed by the East India Company. Slavery was also abolished in 1848 in France, 1853 in Argentina, 1863 in the Dutch colonies, 1865 in the United States, and 1888 in Brazil.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of theth 13 Amendment to the United States Constitution, which formally abolished slavery throughout the United States. Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia by the African- American people in Washington, D.C., April 19, 1866 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City THE IMPACT ON WOMEN

As the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 approached, the import of slaves from Africa soared. However, after the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered into force in 1807 in the British Empire, the population of slaves declined. This led to increased labour demands on the enslaved populations. A woman with iron horns and bells on, to keep her from running away Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

Although the pressure to increase the productivity of enslaved labour impacted men and women, slave holders in some locations started to develop practices regarding female slaves to increase the slave population. This led to the sexual exploitation of enslaved women and became an important element that motivated the resistance of female slaves.

Fugitive slaves/Emily runs away Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City QUEEN ANN ZINGHA

An African Queen who resisted Portuguese colonial rule to protect her people from slavery

1582 – 1664 Angola Ann Zingha, Queen of Matamba Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

Queen Ann Zingha was the daughter of the eighth Queen Zingha succeeded in convincing the king of Matamba, in central Africa. She ruled the Portuguese to withdraw their troops behind kingdom with an iron will until her death at the age previously recognized borders and respect the of 82. Her long reign was marked by countless sovereignty of Matamba. At the conclusion of the internal battles and a turbulent relationship with the negotiations, the Portuguese proposed that the Portuguese. queen’s free territory would be placed under the protection of the king of Portugal. This proposal She was horrified to observe the enslavement of a was to include the delivery of 12,000 to 13,000 portion of her people. Slaves were packed at the port slaves every year in lieu of taxes. of Luanda like animals and nearly half of them died of malnutrition and abuse before they were even Queen Zingha staunchly refused to go along with transferred to slave ships. Luanda had the reputation this proposal. Her will eventually prevailed and she of being one of the largest slave trade ports and ruled over the country’s last remaining free territory one of the most brutal. According to statistics on until her death. Queen Zingha was the last sovereign slave expeditions, nearly 40 per cent of the enslaved ruler of Angola. The Portuguese abolished the slave Africans were from Angola or the Congo. trade in 1836.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France CLAIRE

Maroon (runaway slave) who died fighting to keep her freedom

The history of French Guyana is marked by the story In September 1749, a detachment of Amerindian of runaway slaves. Those who managed to escape and colonist soldiers was dispatched to attack permanently formed groups to survive in the forest Montagne Plomb. In a fresh attack, runaway slave and defend themselves against expeditions led Copéna and his wife Claire were captured. Accused by the authorities. Their encampments looked like of looting and inciting slaves to flee, Copéna was actual villages where subsistence activities (hunting, sentenced to death by torture on the wheel. Claire fishing, agriculture) developed. The names of the was strangled and then hanged. Their children were major Maroon figures – Adome, Jérôme, Simon, ordered to attend the executions. Pompée and Linval – have gone down in history. The work on display is an example of “art tembé,” Around 1742, the Maroon runaway slave the art created by runaway slaves of French Guyana community of Montagne Plomb was formed. and Suriname. The 1685 Black Code already prescribed severe punishment for runaway slaves, but the colonists obtained further authorization to shoot them on sight.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France DANDARA

Maroon (runaway slave), wife and mother who became a national symbol of resistance

17th century Brazil Johann Moritz Rugendas, San Salvador, 19th century © DACO-VERLAG, Stuttgart, Germany 2013

All that survived of Dandara, a Brazilian runaway The quilombo had nearly 30,000 Maroons when it slave, in the history books is her name. She was was finally destroyed in 1695. Zumbi was eventually a companion to Zumbi Dos Palmares, one of the captured and decapitated on 20 November of that most important warlords of the Maroon region of year. No one knows what became of Dandara. Palmares. Together, they had three children. Zumbi and Dandara became the leading symbols Runaway slaves settled in Palmares, which had of anti-slavery and anti-colonial resistance and 6,000 inhabitants by 1643. Maroon communities, heroes of the Afro-Brazilian community. The known as mocambos or quilombos, were well anniversary of the death of Zumbi is associated organised and fortified. They were made up of with Afro-Brazilian awareness and resistance. The Maroon slaves, Africans and Creoles, but also quilombos have lived on in history as communities Amerindians, mestizos and free whites. that opposed the colonial system.

After the expulsion of the Dutch colonists from the north of Brazil, the destruction of Palmares became the primary concern of the Portuguese colonial power. They had to organise several offensives before succeeding.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France QUEEN NANNY

Maroon (runaway slave), rebel leader and military strategist who established a Maroon colony

Around 1686 – 1733 Jamaica 500 bill with the effigy of Queen Nanny, issued on the 50th anniversary of the independence of Jamaica in 2012 © Daniel Denis

Queen Nanny, an Ashanti born in Ghana around Queen Nanny was an important spiritual figure and 1686, was brought to Jamaica as a child and was a great military strategist. She adopted guerrilla sold in Saint Thomas Parish, where slaves worked tactics and ordered her warriors to disguise day and night on sugar cane plantations. themselves as trees and bushes in order to ambush unsuspecting British soldiers. Queen Nanny also After fleeing the plantation with one of her brothers, organised a barter system to sustain her community. Quao, Queen Nanny formed a Maroon community. They gained control of the Blue Mountain region, Between 1728 and 1734, Nanny Town and other naming it Nanny Town, around 1720. There, Queen Maroon communities were brutally attacked by Nanny met her future husband, Adou. British forces. Queen Nanny is thought to have been killed during one of the battles in 1733. Nanny Town occupied a strategic position which Slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1833 after made any attack difficult for the British. In order to massive slave uprisings. protect her warriors from any imminent danger, Nanny sounded the famous horn known as the abeng.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France SANITÉ BÉLAIR

Rebel and soldier who fought for the Haitian revolution with her husband, Charles Bélair

Around 1781 – 1802 Haiti 10 Haitian Gourdes bill with the effigy of Sanité Bélair, issued on the bicentennial of the independence of Haiti in 2004 © Daniel Denis

Few history books mention the various ways in Sanité, who was also known as Suzanne, was a which women contributed to the Haitian revolution, young, freed slave. In 1796, she married Charles which culminated in the establishment of the Bélair, the nephew, aide-de-camp and lieutenant of Republic of Haiti on 1 January 1804. But in August Toussaint Louverture. She fought at her husband’s 1791, during the slave uprising in Saint-Domingue, side in the 1802 battles. some of the women took part in the insurrection and armed combat led by Toussaint Louverture. During a surprise attack on Bélair’s troops, many Some of them were central to his strategy of of whom had gone out in search of supplies and organising guerrillas against the French in the ammunition, Sanité was taken prisoner. Charles island’s interior. surrendered in despair and the couple was found guilty. The colonial tribunal, considering Charles’ Alongside Sanité Bélair, numerous women, military rank and the gender of his wife Sanité, including Défilée (also known as Dédée Bazile) sentenced Charles’ to a firing squad and Sanité to and Claire Heureuse, the wife of Jean Jacques decapitation. Dessalines, distinguished themselves by their bravery and their courage.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France OLYMPE DE GOUGES

Playwright, political activist and feminist, condemned to death for her ideas

In the early 1780s, Olympe de Gouges wrote the Olympe continued writing and publishing plays first play in French theatre to denounce the against the injustice of slavery and in favour of economic system of slavery. The author openly abolitionism. criticized the Black Code governing the lives of slaves. Being part of the origin of legal divorce (the first and only right granted to women during the Considered very daring for the time, this work French Revolution of 1789), Olympe drafted the almost landed Olympe in the Bastille prison. Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the [Female] The play tells the story of a Maroon couple who Citizen in 1791. took refuge on a desert island to escape poor treatment. Two young Frenchmen come to their aid. Sentenced to death for supporting the Girondins It is the first drama to portray black slaves as actual (a party of the French Revolution), Olympe was characters, which advocated the reconciliation of decapitated on 3 November 1793. the races.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France ANNE KNIGHT

British feminist, who advocated the abolition of slavery

1781 – 1862 England Anne Knight (1781-1862), photograph by Victor Franck, c. 1855 © Religious Society of Friends in Britain

Born in 1781 into a family of pacifists, Anne Knight They submitted a petition signed by 350,000 became involved in the anti-slavery movement as women in 1833 and for the first time, used a early as 1830. She circulated petitions, distributed boycott as a political tool. They went door-to-door leaflets and organised public meetings. She also to explain the link between the consumption of established a branch of the Women’s Anti-Slavery sugar and slavery and succeeded in significantly Society and closely collaborated with abolitionist reducing sugar consumption. Thomas Clarkson. In 1840, the attitude of the male leaders of the In 1834, Anne set out on a tour of France, where World Anti-Slavery Convention encouraged Anne she delivered lectures on the immorality of slavery, to launch a campaign in favour of equal rights for advocating its abolition. Alongside Anne, Lucy women. Townsend, Sarah Wedgwood, Mary Lloyd, Sophie Sturge and Elizabeth Coltman were all very active in Anne died on 4 November 1862. Her contribution promoting the immediate abolition of slavery. to the anti-slavery campaign would be recognized by freed Jamaican slaves, who named the town of Knightsville after her.

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France SOJOURNER TRUTH

Freed slave and feminist, first to link women’s rights with civil rights

1787 – 1883 United States I sell the shadow to support the substance, Sojourner Truth. Portrait of Sojourner Truth, 1864, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

Sojourner Truth, born Isabelle Baumfree, was was the first to link the oppression of women and separated from her family as a little girl and sold that of slaves. She travelled across the United States several times. to denounce slavery.

The state of New York abolished slavery on 4 July In 1851, she spoke at the first National Women’s 1827 after Sojourner had already escaped with Rights Convention. She delivered her most famous her daughter. Learning that her son, then 5 years speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?”. Sojourner drew no old, had been sold to the South, she filed a complaint distinction between women’s rights and civil rights. in court that led to his return. It was the first trial in which a black woman won a victory over a white During the American Civil War, Sojourner met man in a United States court. President Lincoln. She actively participated in campaigns to recruit black soldiers to fight with On 1 June 1843, Isabelle Baumfree changed her Union troops. In 1865, Sojourner launched a name to Sojourner Truth. Deeply religious, she campaign against the segregation of tramways in wished to affirm her role as a sojourner who showed Washington, D.C. by boarding tramways reserved others the path to the truth. for whites.

Meeting William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick In the last years of her life, Sojourner actively Douglass, Olive Gilbert and David Ruggles, campaigned for the rights of former slaves to through a Utopian community, marked a turning own private property, particularly land. She also point. She participated in debates on slavery and protested against the death penalty and continued to fight for the emancipation of slaves in the

Excerpt from the Dix Femmes Puissantes exhibit Americas and the Caribbean. Courtesy of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France HARRIET TUBMAN

Freedom fighter, army leader and Underground Railroad activist

1822 – 1923 United States Harriet Tubman, “Moses” of the Gospel Train Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

Harriet Tubman embodied the anti-slavery guided an estimated 70 slaves to freedom. Her last movement and was known as a Moses figure trip was in the fall of 1860 on the eve of the American to her people. Given the covert nature of the Civil War. Underground Railroad and the challenge of documenting it, her story might have been lost During the Civil War (1861 - 1865), she served with except for her extraordinary accomplishments. the northern Union Army – the anti-slavery faction – as a spy, a nurse and a cook. Because enslaved women were largely responsible for raising their children, the vast majority of runaway She became the first woman in the United States slaves were men. Harriet, who made her own daring to lead troops into combat. This campaign resulted escape when 27 years old, was an exception. in the liberation of 750 slaves. Harriet’s success stemmed from her courage and strong ties to the With a $300 reward offered for her capture, she abolitionist community in the North. made at least 12 roundtrips to the antebellum slave- holding South, funded by her abolitionist network. After the war, she worked with suffragists Elizabeth While seeking to liberate her family and friends, she Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony for women’s rights.

Excerpt from the 2013 Remember Slavery exhibit MARGARET GARNER

Runaway slave who killed her daughter rather than returning her to a life of slavery

Around 1833 – 1858 United States The Modern Medea - The Story of Margaret Garner, 1867 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City

Margaret Garner’s life is a tragic example of female What followed became one of the longest and resistance against the brutality of slavery. The costliest fugitive slave cases in history, pitting the story later inspired the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 against state law. Beloved by Toni Morrison. In the end, Margaret was never tried for murder, as she and her daughter were considered to be In 1856, a group of eight slaves – including Margaret, possessions. The Garners were returned to their her four children, her husband and his parents – owners. escaped towards the free state of Ohio. They took refuge in the home of family members where they The case of Margaret Garner illustrates the burdens were eventually confronted by the master’s posse, enslaved women faced that included forced labour sent to return the family to Kentucky. Margaret killed and sexual exploitation. The light skin colour of her her youngest child rather than see her return to children raised speculation that her master was slavery. their father. The mulatto’s light skin became a social stigma as an unspoken symbol of the sexual violence against enslaved women.

Sources: Mary E. Frederickson and Delores M. Walters, editors, Gendered Resistance: Women, Slavery, and the Legacy of Margaret Garner, The New Black Studies Series, (Champaign, Illinois, University of Illinois Press 2013)

Mark Reinhardt, Who Speaks for Margaret Garner?, (Minneapolis, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press 2010) Josefa’s legacy lives on as Elvira Fumero participates in Menda dances Courtesy of Sergio Leyva Seiglie, They Are We project JOSEFA DIAGO

Enslaved African woman who passed on her rich cultural heritage to her descendants

Mid–1800s Sierra Leone Copy of the plantation manifest bearing Josefa’s name Courtesy of Sergio Leyva Seiglie, They Are We project

Josefa Diago, known on the plantation manifest as In 2013, Josefa’s descendants in Cuba were finally Josefa Gangá, was captured from the Upper Banta reunited with their distant relatives in Upper Banta, Chiefdom in Sierra Leone while in her mid-teens. Sierra Leone. These relatives still recognized many She had just been initiated into the Menda society, of the Menda rituals that had been preserved in which encouraged the use of traditional herbal Cuba. healing remedies. As a result of this reunification, the people of Upper Josefa survived the “Middle Passage”, during which Banta have been inspired to preserve their heritage. millions of Africans were shipped across the Atlantic Josefa Diago, whose African name is not known, is Ocean to the New World, and was enslaved in the still changing lives on both sides of the Atlantic. Matanzas province in Cuba. She was liberated at a very old age when slavery in Cuba ended. This extraordinary journey of a Cuban community group to discover their African roots is researched Josefa taught her Menda songs, dance and initiation and retold by Emma Christopher in her award- rites to her family, who passed these traditions to winning documentary film They Are We. succeeding generations without the knowledge of Josefa’s origins. Today, her descendants are herbal healers and leaders of Gangá culture in the Matanzas province.

Emma Christopher, University of Sydney, Australia They Are We documentary film This exhibition is presented by the United Nations Remember Slavery Programme, managed by the Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Public Information, in partnership with the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France.

The text is based on the exhibition Dix Femmes Puissantes, designed by the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France, under the direction of Francoise Vergès. The Department also acknowledges the support provided by Diane Miller, National Programme Manager, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, U.S. National Park Service. rememberslavery.un.org - memorial.nantes.fr - www.nps.gov