usion in the Negro Act of 1740. The Act made poisoning a felony punishable by death.In conclusion, both significant African retentions and transformations took place in the early European settlement of the Americas. More recently, there has been a tendency to overemphasize or even romanticize the "Africanisms." While acknowledging "Africanisms" did make their way into the Americas, I find the evidence from accounts of early slave cultures and the Anthropological background provided by Thornton on cultural transformation and change persuasive in suggesting the formation of Afro- American rather than "Afro-centric" communities. This approach to the slavery and the slave era is relatively young and will have to be developed. A conclusion that is clear after studying works of Peter Wood, Gwendolyn Hall and Richard Price, is that the early arguments suggesting no connection of African heritage to the Americas are entirely invalid.Response to Question 3The settlement and establishment of the Freetown peninsula as a colony for freed slaves would come to represent one of the most unique settings for coalescence of African and European cultures. The majority of Freetown Africans had gone through the unusual experience of being enslaved in their home countries, sold to be sent abroad and then; by chance and circumstance, they were captured by the British manawars and unloaded in what was to become a bold experiment in Africa's colonial history. The Africans described in Phillip Curtin's book are an example of the diversity in background of those settled in Freetown. Ali Eisami, a Muslim, was captured in the Fulbe uprisings in Bornu in 1808 and made his way to Freetown after witnessing much of the fall of the Oyo empire. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was captured in Yoruba land, shipped for Brazil, and sent to Freetown after the slave vessel was intercepted. He would later become a well known Anglican bishop. Joseph Wright would end up in Freetown as a re...
