The African Diaspora was the relocation of African people to the Americas and across the globe. The term is applied in particular to the descendants of the Black Africans who were enslaved by Arab and Portuguese slave traders and shipped to the Americas by way of the Atlantic slave trade. 
Upon arrival in “American colonies” the African people came into contact with the native population who were to a lesser degree than the African people subjugated and enslaved by the European people. What is surprising to some readers to learn is that the greatest mixture of African and Indigenous people did not occur initially in either the Americas or Africa, but rather in European cities such as Seville, Lisbon and Valencia[i] This contact has not been studied for a variety of reasons, one of the principal reasons is to dissolve the claim that Negro and Indian blood had established itself in the European genetic pool at such an early period in history.
Slavery was quite common in the Mediterranean world in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In Christian Barcelona, one finds numerous slaves between 1275 and 1288 classified as Muslim of intermediate color, white Saracen and black Saracen. In the thirteenth century Barcelona had many Greek, Turkish and Russian slaves.[ii] The arrival of American captives in Southern Europe did not present a controversy. Columbus was the major supplier of American slaves prior to 1500. He sent about six thousand indigenous Indians to Europe.[1] In 1770, Great Britain outlawed slavery and the slave trade ended in Britain in 1807, when authorities agreed with the growing number of abolitionists (those who argued that slavery is immoral and violates Christian beliefs) and outlawed the trade. In 1833 slavery was abolished throughout the British colonies as the culmination of the great antislavery movement in Great Britain.
We have come a long way from the enslavement and cruel treatment of our African and Indigenous ancestors. Many people today categorize West Indians of African descent as African American. They also classify Indigenous people from any region as being Native Indian. This classification is based on their physical appearance, ignorance and their dilemma in history. This journal is written to identify the differences people of African and Indigenous descent in the Caribbean and South America have with black Americans and Native people of North America. People of African and Indigenous descent have differences in food, music, experiences with slavery, language, and religion. The social, economical and political nature of each region has gone far in moulding these groups of people into distinct individuals.
It is stated that two great mixed races have developed in the Americas. The one in which African ancestry is strongest we can call ‘Eastern Neo-American’ because it is most characteristic of the eastern half of the Americas.[iii] The other one, in which American ancestry is strongest, we can call ‘Western Neo American’ because it is most characteristic with areas like South America, Central America and the west coast of America. The two groups are similar in components but different in the order of the races. This subtle difference is a common factor in the social and cultural differences of the African and native people of the regions in the Americas.
For example the people of African descent in Guyana share a similar Eastern Neo-American grouping of black Canadians and Americans. However, they are uniquely different in culture. This is evident in the cooking, and music. In Guyana and the Caribbean regions the most important food are rice, coconut and various tropical vegetables such as plantain. Rice and coconut milk is cooked with a variety of meats such as chicken, beef or fish. The most important spice in the West Indies is curry. All the major groups of people living the West Indies cook with curry. The spice curry was introduced to the West Indies with the coming of East Indian migrant workers.
In America and Canada, the diet is not as spicy. Black Canadians who migrated to Canada lived on a diet of pumpkin, squash, potatoes and beans. This was eaten with beef, chicken or some other meat. In the Eastern region of America, the diet was potatoes, fish and lobster. In the nineteenth century lobster was not considered suitable for a gentleman to eat. Lobster was the staple diet of the poor people living in the east coast.
The type of food you ate depended on climate and availability. In regions of South America, the native people were excellent fishermen, moreover there were a variety of wild meats such as sea cows, laba, watrous and antelope. The indigenous people of the South American region also introduced other Guyanese to exotic fishes such as epapterus which is a prehistoric looking cat fish. The tropical temperatures only provided for more exotic foods.
In Canada, the native population’s diet is similar to all Canadians. It was the native people who grew corn and squash. Moreover, the indigenous people hunted for deer, caribou, buffalo, fish, bear, and possum. In various regions of America and Canada they would hunt and eat different foods. For example in the South-western United States both the Papago and the Navajo Indians ate different things. The Papago eat beans and rice just like the Mexicans and Hispanic people. The Navajo Indians ate tacos with meat.[iv]
In looking at the cultural history of the Americas we must understand that it is written and dominated by white Europeans. Black people, of all shades, feel that their culture is not represented fairly. Black Americans declare that they are not like the other black people who migrated to America. Black Americans believed that they endured more than any other group during the antebellum period and the height of slavery in the 18th century. African Americans do not believe that other black groups such as people from the Caribbean, South America and Africa could identify with what they went through. Black Americans believe that these groups could easily live the American dream. In actuality Blacks in the Caribbean and South America experienced slavery and their native people were subjugated to a more or equal experience as the African American and North American Indian.
The black and Indigenous people from the West Indies and southern regions of the western hemisphere suffered and fought just as hard or harder for their freedom. The black Caribbean’s history is entwined in colonialism, the plantation system and slavery. Although Guyanese black people earned their freedom three decades before Black Americans, the black people in Brazil did not obtain their freedom until Brazil abolished slavery in 1888. Furthermore, the Brazilian government acknowledges to the United Nations that at least 25,000 Brazilians today still work under “conditions analogous to slavery.” The top anti-slavery official in Brasilia, the capital, puts the number of modern slaves at 50,000.[v] Also the working environment and economic condition is still an important factor in the development of culture and identifying regions as second or third world. North Americans are classified as super powers, whereas regions in South America, Central America, and the West Indies are rated as second to third world nations.
Hypothetically speaking, it is the African American, Canadian of African descent and the native population who has the advantages of living the American dream. Evidence of the previous statement was proven in the course titled Black Indians and Native-Black Relations in the Americas. This course had a large impact on my thinking and the way I viewed other minorities. Many people in the past century have immigrated or obtained asylum in North America. These people have escaped their homelands for various reasons, such as fear of being persecuted for their sexuality, politics, high concentration of crime and an understanding that there are better opportunities in Canada, America and the rest of the world.
Diaspora is the mass migration of one group of people from one region to another. The African Diaspora is commonly identified with colonialism and the millions of African and Indigenous people who served the Europeans in the gold mines, sugar, and cotton plantations. In this world we still experience the pain and cruelty of Diaspora. In Africa and South America there are unmarked graves of hundreds of people who were murdered for their land or because they chose the wrong political faction. In Cuba a majority of the population cannot leave their island to vacation in some other region. Haiti and Guyana are considered two of the poorest countries in the world. Haiti and Guyana also have the highest mortality rate due to AIDS, malnutrition and murder. It is an unfair fallacy for African Americans and Native Americans to consider their predicament more severe than any other group in this hemisphere.
Another important cultural difference is the music of the Indigenous and Black people of North America. The native music of this group is very different from the music of the West Indies. In the West Indies and Brazil the music is influenced by the African beat. Reggae is characterized by a heavy backbeat rhythm, meaning the emphasis of the beat is on, for example, beats two and four, when in four/four. This backbeat is characteristic of all African-based music and is not found in traditional European or Asian music. Reggae drummers also emphasize the third beat when in 4/4 time with a kick to the bass drum.[vi] Other influence in the Caribbean is Latin American music which refers to the music of all countries in Latin America (and the Caribbean) and comes in many varieties. Latin America is home to musical styles such as the simple, the habanera of Cuba and the rhythmic sounds of the Puerto Rican and the Andean flute. Latin music is routed in the Brazilian, Portuguese, Haitian, Spanish and Creole languages of the region.
In America, the music of the black people is the blues. The blues originated in the deep south of America. The blues is the father of country music, hip hop and rock and roll. The term “the blues” refers to the “the blue devils”, meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman‘s one-act farce Blue Devils (1798).[vii] The blues symbolizes the oppressed black man or in country music the jilted lover. All genres of music closely related to blues speak of drinking to ease the pain and violent oppression. Genres such as the blues have implemented melancholy and sadness in their music. It is the African American way of keeping their history alive.
Another example of melancholy in a variety of genre of music is the country anthem of working in the coal mines of Kentucky or West Virginia. I believe that people of colour in the Latin Caribbean regions understand oppression, but they believe in singing about their heroes and romanticizing life. One only has to listen to the music of Bob Marley to understand that we black and native black people revere and love Africa and political leaders such as Castro, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
In Brazil, and the Caribbean, the indigenous population’s contribution to music and celebration is entwined in calypso music, and other Latin music. The indigenous culture is prominent in the various carnivals of the West Indies and Brazil. The music of Caribbean and Latin people is based on romance, sex and political freedom. The genre of blues is based on death, depression, melancholy and hard times.
In North America “Pow Wow” is the Native American way of meeting together, to join in dancing, singing, visiting and renewing and making new friends. The Pow Wow is like a carnival or celebration. The Pow Wow festival is centered on the drum and dance. This festival has always been a way of documenting the history of non-white peoples. In America many blacks and native people to a certain extent do not celebrate their victories and achievement in music. Even the upbeat music of hip hop relies on lyrics such as a cheating spouse or a man or woman who is extremely well endowed to symbolize sex as opposed to true love. In looking at Latin and West Indian music, people sing and tell stories of their heroes. This is an important cultural and artistic difference between the two groups of people. We as Caribbean people sing and worship our heroes. We know and understand of the oppression of slavery. But we choose to leave that behind and not mire in the sadistic cruelty of slavery and the racist policies of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
In looking at slavery we have seen how the Island Caribs, Black Caribs and Garifuna were perceived by their Amerindian, European, and African slave neighbours. These people are recognized as heroes because they avoided being shackled in a period that had no human rights for the African and indigenous people of the region. Garifuna strength encouraged other slaves to form outlaw communities such as the Maroons in Jamaica. The Garifuna struck fear into the hearts of all who faced them in the Lesser Antilles and later Central America.
What is important is to know where and how Africans came to the Caribbean. Enslaved Africans destined for Caribbean labour were abruptly thrown onto the shores and to the mercy of the Island Caribs of St. Vincent, an island first named, and claimed, by the Spanish, then the British but thoroughly ignored by both.[viii] The Black caribs came about between 1600 and 1796, not only from shipwrecks, but through Island Carib raids and maroons fleeing their cruel slave masters and intermarriage with other Caribs. St Vincent grew in reputation as a black and indigenous Shangri-la. The Black Caribs along with the Island Caribs and Garifuna should then be perceived as people to be worshipped by enslaved blacks, Indians and Abolitionists. The Black Caribs were traders in sugar, pigs, cattle, cotton and tobacco. The Black Caribs were capable sailors who transported their goods from Martinique to Trinidad in their great canoes.[ix] In 1763, St. Vincent was returned to British colonial jurisdiction under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France.[x] The Treaty of Paris was instrumental in the relocation of the Black Caribs to British Honduras which is now known as the country of Belize. The Carib’s culture is entwined with the French culture. Their names were French, African and Arawak and they drank wine instead of rum.
Arguably, Americans cannot perceive a culture of Black and Indigenous American people living to together and forming a cohesive administration that went against the inhumanity of slavery and other evils of colonialism. The two groups that could be compared to the Caribs and Black Caribs were the Seminole Indians in Florida, Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Debatably these groups at any conceived time clearly believed that the African black slave was inferior to the red man. The previous statement is open to debate because history does tell us of The Seminole Wars which were the longest lasting and most expensive wars the U.S. had ever engaged in up to that time. The Cimarron or Seminole tribe was forced into the interior swampland of Florida. This community was never really defeated and the American government handed reserve territory over to the tribe. The Seminoles were a combination of runaway African slaves, indigenous people, and impoverished people from various cultures. The refusal to give up African American tribal members led to the first and second Seminoles wars and the place in history as a brave warrior nation. Today the black Seminoles are in a constant battle to maintain their status as full members of the Cherokee and Seminole Nation.
The African American and the native population in North America believe that they were the only groups to suffer indignation. It is the one negative characteristic that separates them from the Caribbean, Central America and South America. In quickly looking at native people in Canada and America, the major negative characteristic that differs from Aboriginal people in South America and the other regions we have discussed is blood quantum. Over time, blood quantum has become a symbol of who is or is not Indian and by what percentage.[xi] The government defines whether someone is a “real” Indian or not by measuring their blood. The number of generations of all your ancestors was pure-blood by the number of marriages with people who aren’t pure-blood. It’s a really bad way to define somebody’s culture, but it is the white government who implemented this law. It is unfair that a government can tell you that you are not Indian and you know that you are Indian. Being Indigenous is more than colour of skin; it is being a part of a culture.
I am a Black Guyanese a few of my family members are Arawak Indians. These cousins are of black and Indigenous, East Indian origin. Moreover, they were raised “buck” and will always be buck {a term in Guyana for Indian} no matter how much black or Chinese or white blood they claim to hold. These family members can claim benefits with funding provided for them. In America, all Seminole Freedmen have attempted to receive benefits. The key point of the case is that Seminole Freedmen have been denied benefits based on their African ancestry and that Judgement Fund benefits are restricted to members with a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. These people are being excluded from the tribe because of their black blood.[xii]
In South America the language is predominantly Spanish with the exception of French Guiana (French), Dutch Guyana (Dutch), British Guyana (British) and Brazil (Portuguese). For example the Guyanese people predominantly speak English, but Portuguese, Hindi, Mandarin and several indigenous tongues are prevalent in the country. In looking at the Garifuna language, it is a mixture of French, English, some African words, Cariban and Arawak. The Cariban language as died out whereas the Arawak language as strived. The explanation is that the Cariban people would kill their enemies and take their wives. The women would then teach Arawak to their offspring. Evidence to support this claim is found in the tongue of the Garifuna people. The Black Carib’s language is spoken in Hondurus, Guatemala, and Belize. The language in Belize is known as Black Carib, but it is an Arawakan language with Carib influence. At one time, men used Carib, lexical vocabulary, and women Arawak vocabulary, though both on an Arawak grammatical base, but this distinction has dwindled to only a handful of words.[xiii]
Another difference in language includes the fluid rhythmic vocabulary of the Jamaican people and the Creole language found in Trinidad, St Lucia, Jamaica and any seaport around the world. Creole is a language that was adopted to differentiate between the Upper class British and native people that they colonized. The Creole language could be natural to any race of people around the world so the British Empire was that large.
After the Seven Year War 1756-1763, English became the dominant and only tongue for culture and business. In Louisiana there was a group of people known as Acadians who spoke a broken French known as the Cajun language. The Acadians were a displaced group from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In the southwest regions, Spanish was a striving tongue and in Lower Canada, which became Quebec, the habitants were able to keep their culture and francophone tongue.
In researching the indigenous people of the various regions we have studied a similarity in decline; however, the indigenous people of the Caribbean and the southern region of the Americas are not pressured to relinquish their dialect and ethnic culture. In North America people are led to believe that native language is useless to survival and civilized culture. Nevertheless, language is the heart of a people’s culture. During the antebellum period and from the beginning of the slave trade, foreign languages and religion were not encouraged in America. Slave owners believed that the slaves would more easily be able to rebel if they were encouraged to teach their own language and customs.
The most intriguing comparison is the movement of religion and the religious practices of the ethnic people coming from regions outside the territory of America and Canada. The religion in the Caribbean islands and the other tropical locations outside of North America can only be described as vibrant and exotic. On the contrary, religion in America and Canada was very simple and traditional. Religion as we understood religion was used to convert the native people of British North America. In Upper Canada it was the Jesuits and there extreme form of Roman Catholicism. The Jesuits forced religion on the native people and when they started to die of disease it was the native women who had blamed the Jesuits for bringing a strange omen and death to their villages. However, conversion continued and the native people were forced to set aside their own religious beliefs and values.
The Jesuits arrived in Brazil in 1549 with the first royal governor, Tome de Sousa, and a new stage began: evangelization.[xiv] The Jesuit’s were used to bridge the contact between the European and Indian world. The Jesuit’s were closer to the Indian women and children in Brazil because they gave the indigenous women opportunities. For example the Jesuit policy in Brazil was to rebuke any Portuguese for having a large number of concubines. Many of the Portuguese settler men repented and married these women. On the contrary, seventeenth century New France witnessed the government, with the aid of the Jesuit “declare,” concubine and Indian marriages an abomination to European culture.
The Filles du roi, or King’s Daughters, were courageous women who were sent to New France by King Louis XIV of France between 1663 and 1673. They numbered over 750 and consisted of country girls, village girls and orphans. These young women of marriageable age and capable of bearing children were part of King Louis’ program to promote the settlement and increase the population of New France. Their transportation and settlement expenses, as well as a dowry of 50 livres for many of them, were assumed by the royal treasury.[xv] The idea in New France was to secure French culture in the region. When the British secured New France, Louisiana and the land west of the Mississippi the assimilation and destruction of the native people was even crueller.
Religion had more impact on people’s lives in North America. Religion was one way of justifying that the white people were chosen by God to rule the world and the people of colour. During the antebellum, period Americans fought to reform society in order to perfect America and its people. The leading reformers were Quakers who had for centuries fought for the African slave’s freedom. In the southern regions, the Methodist movement evolved and the Mormon faith was growing in Utah and the surrounding regions.
The antebellum period brought about changes in attitude toward slavery and changes in religious circles. In the 1780’s, Methodists–who represent a standard example–had formulated strong rules against slavery, and slaveholders. Slavery was deemed to be “contrary to the laws of God, man, and nature, hurtful to society and, contrary to the dictates of conscience and pure religion.” The Methodist church even pushed for its members to free their slaves.
During the early history of slavery, African slaves tried to hold onto their spirituality. These rituals and dogmas were variously described as Witchcraft. Whites were threatened by these “pagan practices,” and as a result, all blacks who practiced this faith were severely beaten or sometimes put to death and within a generation the African language and culture was lost in America. The only alternative to assure the slaves respected white culture was to preach fear into their hearts with religion. The slave master had wanted them to understand that a higher power had granted Europeans the title of the master race and they had wanted them to abstain from revenge.
In 1831, fear was spread into the white people because of a rebellion that killed 55 of their own people. This rebellion is known as the Nat Turner rebellion. Nat Turner was a runaway slave. Afraid for their lives, their investments, the civil peace, and the preservation of the South’s way of life, whites demanded–and their state legislatures passed–laws curtailing the rights of African-Americans to assemble, to worship, to become literate, and to do much more, except under strictly controlled circumstances.[xvi] At the same time, this fear and anxiety was producing an outpouring of concern to make Christians of the slaves in the hope that they might learn to turn the other cheek, and to accept their lot in life.
Christianity was very much different in the Caribbean, Central Americas and South America. In St Vincent, the Black Caribs had implemented the use of the drum in their Christian religion. As stated in the article titled “These Sons of Freedom”, a drum was used to induce possession trance by ancestors, the “Carib” practice of a shaman blowing smoke on a patient’s afflicted body to extract malevolent penetrations, and “Catholic” baptism and images of saints.[xvii] The Black Carib’s religion was based on holy sites, and using relics to heal, such as bones. The Carib’s ministers used the title Buyeis, which was a Shaman in the classic sense. The Christian religion of the Caribs was nothing close to the Christianity that we knew. It was connected with the Catholic faith, and African and indigenous people to the island. This exotic feature to Christianity is founded in the freedom of the Garifuna people and also the policy of the white settlers to give their slaves a certain amount of freedom to practice dancing and music which was incorporated into the Christian religion of the Caribbean.
Much of the culture in the Caribbean island differed from Canada and America. We must remember that the territory of British North America had a larger white population who worked or benefitted from slavery, farms, or industrialism and expansion of business ventures in the Northern United States. Moreover, the white population was always smaller in the tropical regions.
Culturally we have two unique machines of destruction. In North America, one drop of black blood made you first black blood, whereas the islands and Brazil had no one drop rule. There were people classified as white in the island who had a percentage of black blood. For example if you look white and your father was white you could be classified as white. Also your brother who was darker maybe classified as black. In these regions you were identified by how you looked.
Therefore, people of a lighter caste were at times given special privileges because of a white father or Indian mother. Many of these children with a white father were able to travel the world and venture to other regions and live comfortably. I can mention names such as Alexandre Dumas who is still considered one of the finest writers of all time. Alexander Dumas mother was half black and his father was of French planter nobility stock.
Freedom was also achieved by African slaves impregnating Indian women. The Spanish and Portuguese had passed a law that a child born from the womb of an indigenous woman could not be a slave. Eventually the islands had a large population of free Mulattos and Creoles who would push to marry lighter or white to move up the social scale. This was the case in Argentina; a country which it seems has few people of African descent.
The period of colonization was very difficult for African, Indian and mixed blood peoples. The melancholy and anger expressed by black people can be understood. However, African American Indians and black people must realize there are horror stories dealing with colonization across the globe. In the 16th early century the Spanish soldiers in South America would routinely rape and disembowel the guts of pregnant women for sport. Further speculation could see the Portuguese and Spanish government fearing God and asking for penance-thus deeming the children of an Indian woman free for the debauched behaviour of soldiers of a previous century. Either way, pregnant slave women were not slaughtered in the United States. A slave was a very important and expensive human or commodity as described by slave owners.
38 percent of the slaves were sold to the colony of Brazil to work in the sugar and coal mines. The life expectancy of these slaves was seven years. In America only the harshest sugar plantations of Louisiana could produce such a deadly comparison. Being a slave must have been hard in any region. Imagine not being able to choose your own wife or never seeing your child again. Imagine your daughter being raped by an old white man. These experiences are tougher to survive and deal with than a whip.
Today it is sad to think of the West Indies, Haiti and some regions of Brazil, because they are many people suffering in these regions. There is little I can do to help my kin but send clothes food and money. The country of Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the world and Brazilian cities are known as the murder capitol of the world. Everyone would like to leave these regions and immigrate to America.
Americans see other minorities as having too much but they have not witnessed real poverty, hunger and mass murders. America is one of the richest countries in the world. The African and Native people of America are some of the most educated and talented peoples. There are many African and native institutes that are of higher learning. On the contrary they are many people in these two groups that have chosen to fade away.
There is an old saying that says that the sun never sets on the British Empire. In reality, at one time in our history the sun could never set on European colonial rule. I have learned much from this course. Mostly important I have learned to support people of all minorities. In researching this journal I have learned about the East Indians who migrated to Europe in the 16th century; these people are called gypsies. I have learned of the black woman of Muslim heritage who married a Medici banker and produced a black heir. We also talked about the people of the Americas who visited Europe and travelled to places like the Philippines. Research will also reveal black Roman soldiers buried in Great Britain. We the Black and Indian are truly a unique group to overcome so much and travel so far.
I found this to be the most challenging and uplifting course I have ever taken. In conclusion I would say that the history of the Cimarron community of Palmares was the most important thing I learned from this course. The Cimarron of Palmares was the longest lasting and largest slave community known in the Western hemisphere. This community of ex-slaves lasted almost a century, and grew as large as fifty thousand strong. The capacity to survive in the hills of Brazil against continual efforts of Portuguese slaveholders to destroy the community is incredible. The fact that Palmares was also a multicultural community illustrates the ability of a socialist and democratic society’s strength under the shadow of a capitalistic slave regime. This community was unique and wonderful because much of the Muslim, African and Indigenous culture was kept alive in Cimarron culture. Today the Cimarron culture is influential in carnival, music, African Indigenous martial arts and fashion. The Brazilian women in this region still cover their heads and wear clothing that is central to Islamic culture. Finally, the shipment of people from the Americas as slaves beginning in the 15th century was the beginning of a laborious journey. I felt sad when I realized how vast slavery was around the world; however I was enlightened with the knowledge that so many people of colour rose up and fought. It is ignorant and naive for African Americans and Indigenous people of America to believe that they as a group suffered more from the people of African and Indigenous ancestry living in the regions of South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Courtney Duncan.
Courtney Duncan
[i] Jack D Forbes, The Intensification of Contacts Trans-Atlantic Slavery and Interaction, after 1500 (Black Indians and Native-Black Relations in the Americas Fall/Winter 2008-2009 Course Kit), PG#37-38
[ii] Ibid….pg#37
[iii] Ibid…pg#56
[iv] http://www.blurtit.com/q258267.html (accessed July 11th 2009)
[v] http://www.mongabay.com/external/slavery_in_brazil.htm (accessed July 13th 2009)
[vi] http://worldmusic.about.com/od/genres/p/Reggae.htm (accessed July 13th 2009)
[vii] http://www.cnrtl.fr/lexicographie/blues? (accessed July 13th 2009)
[viii] Christopher Paul Johnson, These Sons of Freedom: Black Caribs Across Three Diasporic Horizons” in Diasporic Conversions: Black Carib Religion and the recovery of Africa. (Black Indians and Native-Black Relations in the Americas Fall/Winter 2008-2009 Course Kit), PG#105
[ix] Ibid…pg#107
[x] Ibid…pg#107
[xi] Ibid…pg#189
[xii] Ibid…pg#191
[xiii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cariban_languages (accessed July 15th 2009)
[xiv]Nora E. Jaffary Gender, race and religion in the colonization of the Americas: Women and Gender In Early Modern World (New York, New York: Ashgate Pub Co; illustrated edition, August 2007), PG#24
[xv] http://www.raysplace.org/index.php?action=filles (accessed July 16th 2009)
[xvi] http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/twelve.html (accessed July 16th 2009)
[xvii] Sir William Young, “These Sons of Freedom” Black Caribs across Three Diasporic Horizons (Black Indians and Native-Black Relations in the Americas Fall/Winter 2008-2009 Course Kit), PG#108-117
Crystal Cave Chronicles 