Diaspora
- Originally, the scattering of Jews after the
Babylonian exile. Here, the scattering of Africans across the globe
as a result of slavery.
Gibbet - A gibbet is the same
as a gallows – a structure used to hang someone. The bodies of
lynching victims were sometimes left hanging from gibbets for many
days as "examples" of what could happen to people who did not behave
as members of conservative white hate groups thought they should.
The verb to gibbet can mean to kill by hanging or to expose to
public scorn.
Gullah - A creole language that
combines African words and sentence structure with English. Gullah
is still spoken by many black people along the coasts of South
Carolina and Georgia (it is often called "Geechee" in Georgia). The
word Gullah may come from the Liberian tribe Gola (or Gula) or the
Angolan tribe Ngola.
Freedman - Before 1865, a
freedman was any person of African or partial African descent who
was not a slave because he or she was:
– able to purchase his or her freedom
– granted freedom upon his or her master's death
– the child of a free woman
After the Civil War, the term "freedmen" included all people
of African or partial African descent living in the United
States.
Jim Crow - The term "Jim Crow"
comes from the name of a character in an old minstrel show. It means
discrimination against blacks or segregation of blacks and
whites.
Manumit - To manumit means to
free from slavery, to emancipate. Masters occasionally granted
manumissions in their wills, especially to their mistresses and
children.
Mulatto - Any person of partial
African and partial European descent. Many mulattos were children of
white masters and the black slave women they owned.
Mustees - Any person of partial
Native American and partial European descent.
Muster - To assemble or summon,
especially troops. "Mustered in" means to enlist in military
service. "Mustered out" means to discharge from military service.
Reconstruction - Reconstruction
began with the end of the Civil War in 1865, and its goal was
literally to rebuild the South. Homes, schools, hospitals, and farms
had been destroyed by battle, neglect, and Sherman's March.
Government was in shambles. Families were torn apart and fathers,
husbands, sons, and brothers were dead. Almost every aspect of
society, as both white and black Southerners had known it, revolved
around an economic system that no longer existed. Both groups were
forced to find new methods of survival.
Restoration - When
Reconstruction ended in 1877, the South was still in horrible shape.
Conservative whites began to do things that, in effect, restored the
South to its pre-war condition by returning African-Americans to
their pre-war condition. Without federal troops, black people had no
protection from this corruption. Fraud and violence swept the land.
Progress for African-Americans in the South basically came to
standstill for the next 100 years.
Yeoman - The owner of a small
farm who tends his own
fields.