Africans & their Communities Following Abolition & Emancipation

TOPIC/THEME:  Africans & their Communities Following Abolition & Emancipation

An important area of research in the study of the African Diaspora is the period following the Abolition of Slavery and eventual Emancipation! Abolition freed tens of thousands of enslaved Africans, but left these former enslaved African workers with no road-map on how to improve their lives.  In the many slave-holding societies once controlled by the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and American slave holders, freed Africans were forced to find a way with little or no assistance from the governmental establishment or former slave holders. In fact, many were forced to fight for their very survival.

How did these African survive? What were the challenges and obstacles they had to overcome? What were the results?

This semester’s research assignment focuses on the aftermath of the Abolition of Slavery and the Emancipation for the former African enslaved workers in the New World. Students are expected to write an essay of, at least, five full pages, relating to the abolition of the slave system and the subsequent emancipation of enslaved Africans. Students are expected to identify some of the challenges faced by freed Africans and how they overcame them.