From oral and literature accounts, and retold stories, of a family’s ancestral journey as far back as the authors could trace, it became clear that these oral stories in diaspora communities complement the recorded history of their ancestors and those accounts from several colonizers they encountered. The oral stories emphasized being free people pursuing self-determination and navigating a world reshaped by warring empires and growing forms of colonization since the 15th century.
This family’s stories are parts of those from the early communities of: i) free people in Africa, the Iberian peninsula, and Jamaica, ii) indentured communities who seized the first opportunity to pursue self-determination, and iii) freed people from the 18th century Atlantic slave trade. Collectively, they stood as a lighthouse for freedom across several generations in early West Africa (Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Cape Verde Island), Angola, Jamaica, British American colony, Early Canada, and Britain. In Freetown, the family’s ancestral history in the last 200 years extended to empowering themselves and others in parts of Sierra Leone and beyond.
This edition attempts to employ indigenous written sources that are now giving credence to oral narratives from within communities we are connected to around the world. One such example of our current view is that our ancestors, who were among those who sailed away from New York to Nova Scotia, Canada, began free of any obligation to British America and the newly independent America. The legendary Thomas Peters from this Nova Scotian community traveled across to Britain in early Canada, representing the interest of his free community to return to Africa. That community was not prepared to subjugate itself to yet another evolving colony in early Canada. Their ultimate return to Africa and reception by Naimbana II, Obai of the Temne people of Sierra Leone, and other community leaders was a recognition that the 16 ships of Africans in March 1792, from Nova Scotia were descendants of fellow Africans. Our Ancestors, once settled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, became a beacon in Africa for others in the ‘Fellowship of the Free’ within the era of subjugation.
表中的内容
Foreword………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Notes from the Authors……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
1. Ancestors as Beacons of Free communities in Africa, America, and the Caribbean…… 11
Recreating Our Story Across Generations and Centuries………………………………………………. 12
Our Families and Their Last Christmas in America ………………………………………………………… 13
2. A View unto Sierra Lioa West Africa in the period 1585 – 1617…………………………………… 16
3. Our Roots from Guinea to British America 1650 – 1700’s …………………………………………. 23
4 Our Earliest Ancestors and the World’s Context from 140………………………………………….28
5. Brief history of Empires in West Africa, North Africa & Iberia Peninsula……………………. 30
The Berber Empire (Moors of Al Andalus and North Africa) (1050- 1147)………………………. 31
Bakongo (Upper Angola) Kingdom: (1390 – 1910)………………………………………………………….. 32
Genoese – A Shipping Trade Empire……………………………………………………………………………….. 33
The Portuguese Kingdom, its African Empire and Brazil ( 1415 -1999 )………………………….. 34
Kingdom of Castile and the Spanish Empire (1492 – 1976.)…………………………………………….. 35
6. The Moors and African Navigators in the Second and Fourth Voyages of Columbus…. 37
7. Early Africans in ( Xaymaca ) Spanish Jamaica – Moors, Black Spanish and African ……. 40
8. Morgan and Barnett from Jamaica- Their Family Journey Stories ……………………………… 43
9. Family by fate, by struggles, by marriage: ‘Fambul-in-laws’…………………………………………. 46
Family Genealogy Tree …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 48
The Archers and The Elliotts……………………………………………………………………………………………… 52
Other Upcoming Family Research…………………………………………………………………………………….. 56
关于作者
Akindele T.M. Decker is a community historian, poet and writer. He has published over 5 books for children and young adults. His writings cover topics dealing with the middle-passage, identity, folktales, and historical periods in Africa and the African Diaspora. He serves as his family’s genealogist and historian, with over 16 years worth of independent genealogy research into his West African family lineage. He has served on panel discussions for the American Association for State and Local History, Association of African American Museums, Brook Green Gardens, South Carolina Penn Center, and other heritage-based organizations. He currently serves as Lead Curator of African Curator, a company that preserves historical data through Historical Marker installations and books for young people.
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