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Africa in the Americas: Slavery in Spanish and Portuguese Realms
Bilingual – interpretive labels in Spanish and English
Between 1500 and 1800, millions of Africans sailed to the New World—against their will, with almost 90 percent going to Spanish and Portuguese colonies. "Africa in the Americas" explores the lives of Africans during the first three centuries of the American enterprise, with particular emphasis on how the slave trade created the prosperity of the New World and stamped the evolving society with indelible aspects of African cultures.
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Exhibit
This exhibit features paintings, sketches, archival documents, historic maps, and artifacts and explores the life of Africans in the first three centuries of the American enterprise.
Panel topics include:
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- The great involuntary migration
- Old World traditions of slavery
- The middle passage
- The slave market
- First encounters with native peoples
- African influences on food and culture
- Work performed by Africans
- Domestic, social, and religious life
- Experience as slaves, rebels, runaways, free persons, patriots, and citizens of Latin American lands, including Florida and the Southwest
Exhibit format
Choice of freestanding or wall-hanging formats. Twenty panels with seventy photographs. All panels are 28” wide x 41” long. Freestanding versions stand 78” high.
Freestanding version: 10 double-sided panels
Shipping weight (2 wooden crates): 205 lbs.
Floor space required: 14’ x 10’.
Wall-hanging version: 20 single-sided panels
Shipping weight (2 wooden crates): 280 lbs.
Wall space required: 48 linear feet
Convertible version: 20 single-sided panels + poles
Shipping weight (3 wooden crates): 370 lbs.
Supplemental materials:
- Brochures of bilingual essays, one on slavery in Mexico and one on slavery in Brazil. 50 copies each free with exhibit.
- 5 full color posters free with exhibit.
Optional materials (available on request):
- Slide-tape and VHS video, 23 min., free with exhibit
- 5 acclaimed studies of Africans in Latin American societies. Free with exhibit while supplies last.
Available for rental:
- Bahia (Africans in Brazil)
- Dominican Republic: Cradle of the Americas
- Fields of Endless Day (African experience in Canada)
- The Last Supper (Cuban)
- Zajota and the Boogie Spirit