Mina (Louisiana)
The Mina were a community of well-organized, enslaved Black people in Louisiana who spoke a common language, most likely a dialect of Ewe that may have been related to Fon.[1]
The Mina
Though some historians include the Mina with enslaved Africans sold from Elmina on the Gold Coast, other historians believe they were Ewe people from the Bight of Benin.[1] As part of how some Louisiana slave-holders managed enslaved people at the time, the maintenance of African linguistic–ethnic communities was tolerated and even encouraged.[1] The Pointe Coupée Mina community arose following their enslavement and importation into Louisiana following 1782.[2] Among enslaved Africans whose ethnicity was recorded in official documents between 1719 and 1820, Mina were the third-largest enslaved ethnic group in Louisiana.[3]
Many Mina took part in the Pointe Coupée Slave Conspiracy of 1791.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 9780807119990. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
- ISBN 9781859190869
- OCLC 646875495.