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Moor's Account / Laila Lalami | RAC 2018-19: Home

Reading Across Campus : Fall 2018 - Spring 2019

 

           “As long as the concept of an African-American is current and as long as African American history is seen as beginning with enslavement in Africa, then Esteban is important because he is the first African-American.”

— Robert Goodwin, historian and author, “Crossing the
Continent, 1527-1540, The Story of the first African-
American Explorer of the American South”

                                   

By Damien Halleux Radermecker [CC BY-SA 2.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Elmina Castle

Approximately more than half of the slaves transported via transatlantic trade passed through Elmina Castle, which was built by Portugeuse in 1482. Later, Elmina became an important trading point where the Europeans shipped goods to Africa in exchange for slaves.  

From: Texas Institute for the Preservation of History & Culture. “Elmina Castle.” The Diaspora: Coming to Texas, Prairie View A&M University, 2017, www.pvamu.edu/tiphc/research-projects/the-diaspora-coming-to-texas/elmina-castle/.