About The Project
Context: In 1802 a visibly pregnant 30-year-old African woman named Solitude led Guadeloupean forces against French troops. After 18 days of rebellion, the revolutionaries set off gunpowder resulting in the deaths of more than 400 rebels and soldiers. Solitude was captured and executed after the birth of her unborn baby because the child was the property of her owner. She was executed the day after the birth of her child. Inspired by Solitude’s leadership, the guiding principle of the Guadeloupean revolt was that they would “live free or die.” The spirit of this belief permeated the more than 300 documented revolts initiated by enslaved Africans and their descendants from the onset of slavery into the twentieth century.
Presented here is a geopolitical representation of slave revolts by Africans and African descendants spanning roughly four and one-half centuries throughout Africa and the African This multimodal interactive map cites the chronology, frequency, and locations of revolts, illustrating that armed resistance took place from the onset of the European encounter including numerous attempts by victims to halt the trade in African people. The map markers incorporate descriptions, including persons involved and results, as displayed through video; audio; images; and text to contribute to the scholarship on resistance to enslavement. The digital revolt map can be used to consider a holistic approach to slavery including conditions; laws, particularly those on punishments; “thinking about revolting;” relationships within the enslaved community; and the role of international events that influenced the mobilization of African people.
Methods: This digital humanities project applies computation to Social Science and Humanities research to systematically compile and analyze a wide range of data. My foundational texts were Junius Rodriguez’s, Encyclopedia of Slave Revolts and Herbert Aptheker’s American Negro Slave Revolts, which I supplemented with archival sources from the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York, along with traditional bibliographical references.
Map markers are color-coded using red, black, green, blue, and yellow. Revolts on land use the liberation colors from civil rights leader Marcus Garvey (i.e. red, black, green, and yellow). Black represents African resistance up to and includes the 1600s, the green 1700s, the red 1800s, and the yellow 1900s. The blue markers are those revolts that took place at sea, noting that most of those revolts occurred around the coast of Africa.
Language: Initially, I used the term “enslavement of Africans and African descendants throughout the Diaspora;” however, to make this project accessible, the more searchable terms black “Black slave revolts” and the relevant geographical area are used.
Postscript:
I did the mapping out of love for my people and my heritage! I want to thank God and the Ancestors who shepherded this project along; my friends, family, students, graphic artists, and technicians that brought this work into fruition; all those folk who listened to me talk about “my map”over the years without little evidence of its existence, and special thanks to Scribe Video, Fine Editor muthi, and most of all Dr. Kalenda Eaton.
Citations:
Junius Rodriguez, Encyclopedia of Slave Revolts, Greenwood; Illustrated edition (December 30, 2006)
