Frequently Asked Questions & Terminologies

  • The colony of Virginia was founded in 1607, however the birth of the United States began during the American Revolution of 1776. African American history is inseparable from the colonial era and the United States. When the founding fathers debated and drafted the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, they had to consider the future of the free and enslaved Black population by addressing the issues of the Atlantic Slave Trade and hereditary slavery. Full emancipation was deferred for a future generation to resolve.

  • Virginia is frequently associated with the evolution of hereditary chattel slavery. Here are 3 major factors. 1) The first arrival of African captives in Virginia (British North America) in 1619. 2) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison were all Presidents of the U.S. and Virginia slave owners. 3) By 1775, Virginia had the largest number of enslaved Black people, who rose to over 40% of its population.

  • After 156 years of bondage in the 13 British American colonies without the hope for full emancipation and citizenship rights, the American Revolutionary War forever changed the destinies of free and enslaved African Americans and their descendants to the present.

  • Bakari Historical Services presentations and services recognize that for many African Americans, early American history is a means to understand or reconstruct their family ancestry. Some BHS presentations demonstrate how history, genealogical research, and commercial DNA services can provide clues to their research.

Frequently Asked Questions.

  • “… my mothers Family has Served the Family of Mrs Armistead upwards of one Hundred and 30 years …” James Carter’s Accounts of his Sufferings in Slavery, 1807.

    This quote exemplifies the human impact of hereditary chattel slavery. In 1662, Virginia legislators established that the condition of the mother was the condition of the child. Therefore, the legal status of a enslaved child was based on their racial heredity for 246 years, until slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865. This practice ensured that slaveowners would inherit Black people for generations.

  • Bakari Historical Services terminology of a complex shared and divided history begins in British North America, during the 1600s. For example, during the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington led racially integrated troops in the Continental Army. Black and White soldiers had a shared interest in defeating the British Army. However, after sharing American victory and independence, the new nation was divided on the issues of race, freedom, and citizenship rights for free and enslaved Black people. Shared history does not imply equality.

Terminology

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