Glossary

Abolition
The campaign to end slavery in the British colonies. The act was passed in 1807, although illegal trading still continued

Boating
The capture of Africans who lived in villages on the banks of rivers – men in boats would travel up and down the river and capture any African they encountered

Bonny
A slave trading port in Nigeria

Buckra
White man, a term coined by enslaved Africans

Cape Mezurado
A slave trading port in present day Liberia

Chattel slavery
The system of slavery whereby an individual and their offspring are considered to be the property of another person for life

Coffle
A group of captured Africans, kidnappers and animals travelling together from the interior to the coast in Africa

Driver
Overseer of enslaved workers, sometimes another enslaved African, sometimes a European

Emancipation
The term given to the abolition of slavery when the act of freeing enslaved people was enacted

Enslaved Africans
People of African heritage who were enslaved under the chattel slavery system operating in the Americas during the period of slavery

Flux
Dysentery – during the Middle Passage, many enslaved Africans suffered from the flux, and many died from it

Guinea
The guinea coin of 1663 was the first British machine-struck gold coin. The name, which was an unofficial name for the coin, came from Guinea in Africa, where much of the gold used to make the coins originated

Haitian Revolution
The only successful slave revolt (1791-1803) leading to the creation of the first black republic outside of the African continent

Jumper
Constable responsible for inflicting punishments on enslaved Africans

Liberated African
Enslaved Africans freed from vessels engaged in illegal slave trading after the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807. They were either conscripted into the navy, sent to Sierra Leone or sent to the Caribbean to work as indentured labourers

Maafa
Derived from the Kiswahili word meaning disaster or terrible occurrence, it means the Enslavement of Africa

Maroon
Runaway slaves and their descendants, who lived in autonomous communities in the Americas. Derived from the word Cimarron, which means wild or unruly

Mulattos
A person of African and European descent, derived from the word mule (offspring of a donkey and a horse). Today it is a term considered to be offensive, but was widely used in the Americas during enslavement to describe any person of mixed heritage

Negro/Negroe
Word used to describe an African

New Calabar
A major slave trading port in the Bight of Biafra, Nigeria

Rattoning
Agricultural term regarding sugar cane – new sprouts springing up from the root of a previously cut down sugar cane

Resistance
A force of opposition, in this case against the institution of slavery Resistance under the slavery system took many forms, such as sabotage of machinery, running away, to violent uprisings

Scramble
The method of selling enslaved Africans once they arrived in the Caribbean. They were placed in a large yard and the buyers would rush in and seize as many people as they could

Transatlantic trade in Africans
The trade of African men, women and children by Europeans from Africa to the Americas. Also called the triangular trade, British ships laden with goods to barter for slaves sailed to Africa, sailed to the Americas with enslaved Africans on board, and then sailed back to Britain with slave produced goods such as rum, sugar, tobacco and mahogany

Victuals
Food supplies on a ship

Zong
The slave ship where 133 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard in 1783 in order to claim the insurance money. The case was heard as an issue of lost property – the abolitionists used the case to bring to light the horrors of the slave trade