The transition from slavery to freedom represents one
of the major themes in the history of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Under and against the rule of various powers, Africans experienced emancipation
during the course of the nineteenth century. In Jamaica and Brazil, freedom
came peaceably, but blood-shed also accompanied slavery’s death. In
the United States, the rebirth of freedom resulted from what was at the time
the world’s most destructive civil war, a war in which liberated slaves
and free Blacks played a vital role in determining the victor and securing
their own liberty. In Saint Domingue, the slaves, under the leadership of
Toussaint L’Ouverture, engaged in violent revolution and won their
freedom and independence, establishing Haiti, the world’s first Black
republic. Regardless of the path to freedom, African peoples in the New
World had to continue to struggle for liberation.
Where ex-slaves formed the majority, the quest for sovereignty, independence, and equality remained
elusive or hollow. Elsewhere they rarely enjoyed equal citizenship and
the untrammeled right to pursue happiness.
© 2006 by The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Founders of Black History Month www.asalh.org