AP African American Studies Flashcards: African Resistance on Slave Ships and the Antislavery Movement
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 21 cards to help you master important concepts.
Besides architectural changes, what other equipment was added to slave ships to minimize resistance?
In addition to barricades and nets, slave ships were equipped with guns to quell revolts.
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Besides architectural changes, what other equipment was added to slave ships to minimize resistance?
In addition to barricades and nets, slave ships were equipped with guns to quell revolts.
The La Amistad Revolt
An 1839 revolt where enslaved Africans, led by Sengbe Pieh, successfully took over the Spanish schooner La Amistad.
Who was Sengbe Pieh?
Sengbe Pieh was a Mende captive from Sierra Leone who, in 1839, led one of the most famous revolts aboard the slave ship La Amistad.
What conditions of the Middle Passage did slave ship diagrams effectively illustrate?
The diagrams showed the unsanitary and cramped conditions that increased the incidence of disease, disability, and death during the long voyage.
What was the legal and social outcome of the La Amistad revolt and trial?
The Supreme Court granted the Mende captives their freedom, and the two-year trial generated public sympathy for the cause of abolition.
How did African resistance impact the business of the slave trade?
Resistance made the slave trade more expensive and more dangerous for those operating the ships.
What was the primary purpose of slave ship diagrams created during the era of the slave trade?
The diagrams depicted a systematic arrangement of captives designed to maximize profit by transporting as many people as possible in a single voyage.
What was a key form of collective resistance aboard slave ships?
Africans overcame linguistic differences to form and stage collective revolts against their captors.
How have Black artists used the iconography of the slave ship since the abolition of slavery?
Black visual and performance artists have repurposed slave ship iconography to process historical trauma and honor the memory of their ancestors.
How did Black and white antislavery activists use slave ship diagrams?
Activists in the 18th and 19th centuries circulated the diagrams to raise public awareness of the dehumanizing conditions of the Middle Passage.
What were some methods of individual resistance by Africans during the Middle Passage?
Africans resisted individually by staging hunger strikes and attempting to jump overboard rather than live enslaved.
What was the approximate duration of a Middle Passage voyage?
A single trip across the Atlantic on a slave ship could last for up to 90 days.
Commodification (in the context of the slave trade)
The process by which African captives were treated as property or goods to be bought and sold for profit, rather than as human beings.
What was the estimated number of Africans forced into the transatlantic slave trade?
Over 350 years, more than 12.5 million Africans were forced onto slave ships.
What architectural changes were made to slave ships in response to African resistance?
Changes included the construction of barricades to separate captives from the crew and the inclusion of nets to prevent people from jumping overboard.
How were slave ship diagrams often inaccurate regarding the number of captives?
The diagrams typically showed only about half the actual number of enslaved people who were forced onto any given ship.
What fundamental traumas were African captives resisting aboard slave ships?
They resisted the trauma of deracination (removal from one's homeland), commodification, and lifelong enslavement.
What challenge did captives have to overcome to stage collective revolts?
Africans from diverse regions had to overcome linguistic and cultural differences to organize and communicate effectively.
What was the estimated number of voyages that constituted the transatlantic slave trade?
The transatlantic slave trade consisted of more than 36,000 known voyages.
What was the relationship between African resistance and the antislavery movement?
African resistance on slave ships directly spurred antislavery activism and inspired abolitionists.
What tools of control used by enslavers were typically omitted from slave ship diagrams?
The diagrams rarely included features like guns, nets, and iron instruments used to force-feed captives who were on hunger strikes.