View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Richmond University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository English Faculty Publications English 2011 African American Literature By Writers of Caribbean Descent Daryl Cumber Dance Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/english-faculty-publications Part of the African American Studies Commons, and the Caribbean Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Dance, Daryl Cumber. "African American Literature By Writers of Caribbean Descent." In The Cambridge History of African American Literature, edited by Maryemma Graham and Jerry W. Ward, Jr., 377-404. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 18 African American literature by writers of Caribbean descent daryl cumber dance They dubbed it the Port of No Return. When their ancestors left that port at Elmira Beach, Ghana – or Goree Island, Senegal, or any of a number of similar African ports – and set out on the perilous journey over the ocean to the Americas, there was no going back for the New World Negroes. That is what for most Africans in the Americas was the beginning of their history. Whether resident in a small island nation or in the American colonies, whether under the domain of a British, Spanish, French, or Dutch colonial power, and whether shuttled back and forth between several of the above, New World Negroes were tied together by a history of displacement and slavery.