Actual Golden Ratio Project (Yes, you have to click on this link to get to it)

Actual Golden Ratio Project

Golden Ratio Project Description

My Golden Ratio Project

As of today, Monday, April 27th, 2015, I have now almost finally completed my project studying into the sacred mathematical concept of the Golden Ratio.  The Golden Ratio, pronounced “Phi” in Greek is an irrational number similar to that of “Pi” whose first 4 digits are 1.618; however, hence being irrational, its digits go on forever.  It is a ratio that roughly matches the fibonacci sequence as you go on and on with it; for instance, a Fibonacci Spiral and a Golden Ratio Spiral are roughly the same in appearance.  Also, if one should decide to try and create a golden ratio spiral, they should start by curving the spiral through larger and larger squares that increase in size in accordance with the Fibonacci Sequence.  Either way, this picture with the image of a spiral shaped galaxy and a golden Spiral line superimposed over it on Geogebra demonstrates how Galaxies frequently form in a spiral shape, and occasionally in a golden ratio spiral shape, along with many other objects and organisms found in nature.  These things ranging from nautilus sea shells, all the way to the heads of Romanesco cauliflowers form and increase in size in accordance with the Golden Ratio--I even saw this with some Romanesco Cauliflowers in Greenstar a couple months ago!  Before I transition to talking more about what academic goals this project covers--especially in regards to my senior online portfolio, I would like to mention that the Galaxy superimposed on this powerpoint slide is our Milky Way Galaxy.  With that, I will move on to talk about the more purely academic side of this project.  

Last year, when I participated in the New Roots Honors program, I signed up to ideally complete the work for and gain Honors Credit in US History and Government, Science, and also in Math.  Whilst I completed the requirements for the first two classes by the end of the year, I did not quite manage to get the Math project done on top of all the other work during that time.  As such, I did not get Honors credit in Math that year after all.  Now however, even though I am not in the Honors Program and Sacred Geometry is not the Math Class that I am taking currently, I am still going to be getting extra credit for this in my Math Class.  So Chris, here’s the artifact of my research into the concept of the Golden Ratio, as well as practice at the skill of graphing a spiral on Geogebra.  Now I have finally completed an extra credit math project on the Golden Ratio which is something I have been wanting to do since the end of 9th grade!  Also, I have done ALMOST ABSOLUTELY the opposite of give up on this project which gave me trouble last year towards the end in Math Class!  So, with that said Chris, may I present to you, my Golden Galactic Milky Way Portrait!  Now that I have covered my interests in doing this project from the angle of Math, both academically and materially, I will move on to talk about how this project fits into my Senior Online Portfolio.  

First off, I feel that this artifact meets the Schoolwide Outcome (S.W.O.) of “Lifelong Learners”.  Second off, if I must put it into an artifact submission category, I will hereby submit it as a special interests artifact.  It is a special interest artifact because it is not something that was assigned to me directly in school, nor even about content that would normally be taught to me as part of the high school Math Curriculum; it was just an extra area of math that I’ve been interested in for a long time and wanted to explore separate from the required math content in my high school courses.  And, the artifact which I created after my research was another thing that was not assigned to me as part of the normal course load, but instead something that I had interest in doing and therefore took independent initiative on.  Finally, I want to move on to talking about what this project means about me as a lifelong learner.  

This project clearly aligns to the schoolwide outcome of “Lifelong Learners” because it is just one of many examples of how I continue to research and explore new topics that I’m interested in; needless to say, I don’t need to be forced to learn things in school; I already want to learn about new things all the time in my life, and the Golden Ratio is one of them!     

Capstone Briefing Paper

Environmental Education

______________________________________________

Executive Summary:

The Formulation section of the report addresses what the societal problem is and how we researched the policy. It describes why the societal problem is in fact a problem, and why working to solve it can be beneficial. The survey and interview methods and results are discussed using tables to show how we gained information on the subject from experts and stakeholders. All interview questions used are included to show how we conducted our interview and to prove that all questions were created to try to prevent any interview bias.

The Implementation section of the report discusses the feasibility of the implementation of the policy. It describes the necessary funding, legislative and administrative actions, and a prince score that identifies and analyzes the players involved. The two most essential players are described here, New Roots Principal Tina Nilson-Hodges and New Roots counselor Matteo Lundgren. Both are very supportive and have the most authority over the implementation, so we determined, based on our research and observations, that our policy is very feasible and is likely to be implemented.

The Evaluation section of the report shows how we plan to evaluate the effect of our policy. We will be giving out a pre-assessment to students at the beginning of the course that will then be retaken at the end of the year to show what effect the course had on the students taking it. There is also an estimate on what the benefits of our class will be over time. Also included in this section is a graph with a trendline that projects the expected growth of the amount of time that New Roots students spend outside. A cost and benefit analysis compares the benefits of the effects our policy is expected to have versus the cost of implementing the policy, along with potential solutions to the costs.

Formulation

Societal problem:

• Most teenagers don’t spend enough time developing a strong connection with their environment.
• When people don’t have a connection to nature it is difficult for them to care about it and to protect it.
• When we as humans cannot properly protect our environment it eventually comes back around to us, the air we breathe and the water we drink will become poisoned.

Survey:

In order to determine student interest and pre-existing knowledge related to our policy, we conducted a survey. it was given to approximately 50 randomly selected New Roots Charter School students, the target population was about 160. We selected students by randomly selecting classes and distributing the surveys within them. What we concluded was the most important data from the survey was the amount of time that students spend time outside. The survey showed that 60% of students spent less than six hours a week outside.

This shows that New Roots students do spend some time outside. though we think that it would beneficial for high school students to spend more time outside in their natural environment.

Interview:

Below are the questions we used for our interview.

What is environmental education?	Is education about current issues like climate change and fracking important? Why?
What is outdoor education?	Is the lack of widespread knowledge about climate change a problem? Why?
How do you get young people excited to learn about the environment, and outdoor survival?	Do you think that it’s important for students to respect the environment? Why?
Does environmental education benefit students? How does it or why doesn’t it?	What do you think is the best way for young people to get involved with protecting the environment?
Is environmental education important to you? Why?	Is it important for students to have a background in ecology and biology? Why?
What programs/classes exist for young people?	Does the development of survival skills benefit students? How does it or why doesn’t it?
What is the main thing you think about when creating lesson plans?	How do you manage the risks of being outdoors?
What problems or roadblocks have you found when teaching outdoor skills/environmental education?	How do you ensure student safety when using potentially dangerous tools?
Do you wish that there had been an environmental education course available in your high school?	Would you be interested in participating in our environmental education course as a guest speaker?
How do you think an environmental education course would have benefitted you?	Do you think that teenagers spend enough time outside?

Our interviews with Tina Nilsen-Hodges and Tim Drake showed that both people were very supportive of the idea. We learned a lot from Tim Drake’s experiences with teaching nature education at Primitive Pursuits, for example, how to get younger people excited about nature, and why it’s important. We also received some insight from both people about the importance of being outside while learning.

Contributing Factors:

In our society there is a certain stigma placed on going outside, and particularly on going outside into the woods. Our culture is steadily becoming more dependant on being indoors, and being more dependant on air conditioning and heating to change our climate around us. We know that this technology will not exist for ever and while it is nice to have if we cannot survive without it when its gone we will die.

Policies:

Currently there are no policies that put into place environmental education in our public school level. This is a problem. Here are a few policies that we propose to address this societal problem:

1. Create a requirement statewide for schools to teach a class that takes students outside and teaches them about nature.
2. Update existing biology standards so that teachers must take students outside every once a week, weather permitting.
3. Create an after school program that teaches outdoors and about the environment.

Our first policy would be most preferable to fix our problem. A cost benefit analysis is located at the end of the evaluation section.

Implementation:

Funding (Prediction):

It is expected that for the environmental education course there won’t be much funding needed, so for the special occasions, like field trips, those who decide to participate will be asked to contribute a small amount of money towards the cost of supplies. The class will also facilitate fundraisers through the school to raise money. The only costs we foresee are supplies for camping excursions like food, campground fees, and equipment.

Administrative Action:

In order for our policy to be implemented, we need New Roots Charter School’s administration to approve it. New Roots Principal Tina Nilsen-Hodges and the New Roots counselor Matteo Lungren have to review the lesson plans for the course along with our proposal.

Feasibility:

Implementing an environmental education course at New Roots Charter School is feasible for many reasons, one of them being that it states in the school’s mission and vision that students will be empowered to “...create just, democratic communities, and thriving green economies that restore the natural world that sustains us” and to “redesign our communities for social, economic, and ecological sustainability.” Since the course will be addressing ecological sustainability and will discuss ways to restore the natural world, the school would be benefitted by the course and therefore would have a reason to approve of the policy. Our school also has a precedent for student-led courses. At New Roots, an International Humanitarian Law class has already been implemented that is student taught.

We created a Prince Chart to determine the feasibility of the policy’s implementation. The only players that have an effect on the policy are New Roots Charter School’s counselor Matteo Lundgren and Tina Nilsen-Hodges. Matteo Lundgren has a four for issue position because he is significantly supportive of the policy. The only reason why it isn’t a five is because it will be more work for him to add another class to the schedule. He has a five for power because, as the only counselor at the school, it is his decision which classes are put on the schedule. It is almost entirely up to him whether or not the course is included. The priority is also five because it’s incredibly important that he’s supportive of the policy because he decides whether or not it becomes a class. Tina Nilsen-Hodges has a five for issue position because, based on our interview, she was very supportive of the idea of an environmental education course. It’s important to her that the school follows the mission and vision that she created, and our course will be addressing the principals involved in them. She has a 4 for power since she has the ability to influence the counselor’s decisions, but she doesn’t directly control the schedules. She also has a four for priority for the same reason that she has a 4 for power. Based on these results, the policy will be very feasible because of the amount of support these two players have for the policy.

Prince Chart
Players	Issue Position	Power	Priority	Prince Score
Matteo Lundgren	4	5	5	100
Tina Nilson-Hodges	5	4	4	80

We interviewed Tim Drake from a local nature education program called Primitive Pursuits and talked to New Roots Charter School Principal Tina Nilsen-Hodges. Tim Drake showed support for our policy and offered to be a guest speaker at the class to talk about his experience doing natural education through primitive pursuits. Tina Nilsen-Hodges expressed interest in there being an opportunity for students to take an environmental education class at New Roots Charter School.  

Evaluation:

Benchmark Graph:

40% of students surveyed said that they spend more than 6 hours a week outside. We propose that if our policy is put into effect we will see 15% increase over the next three years of students who spend more than 6 hours a week outside. Our policy will help students feel more comfortable in the outdoors and we will see about a 5% increase each year of students who spend more than six hours a week outside the class is taught.

Course assessments:

At the beginning of the course student will take a pre assessment to gauge the level of interest and knowledge of the environment. the students will then take the same assessment at the end of the course to see if they improved in their skills and knowledge.

Benefits:

1. Students will understand nature and will know how to take action to protect it from threats
2. Having an increased connection to nature will help students handle stress more effectively. Nature has a therapeutic effect on most people.
3. By developing Student’s naturalist intelligence students will become more diverse thinkers and have a chance to develop interests in natural sciences.

Costs:

1. A teacher will need to be paid for teaching the class
2. An agency will need to be created to help teachers connect with experts to develop a curriculum. An existing agency such as the EPA could be modified to complete this task.
3. Schools will need to acquire camping gear and provide food for students on camping trips.

Cost analysis:

• For the cost of hiring a teacher it would be in the school’s interest to find a teacher who already has experience teaching outdoor education many teachers who already work at a school could fill this position. worst case scenario a school would need to hire a part time teacher to teach the class. the school would need to fit it into their budget.
• The cost for starting a new agency would be high. It is recommended that we Modify an existing agency as that would cut the cost a lot. Money for this can be allocated by the board of education.
• for food and other perishable supplies it would cost about 30$ per student. That money could be provided by the student, the student’s parents, or through fundraising done by the class. if the class wants to go on camping trips they would need to raise the money themselves. Donations of gear from businesses could benefit the class greatly and the business could get a tax write off. Grant funds could be set up for camping gear like tents and backpacks.

Capstone Description

Project Environmental Education

By: Ray Vanek-Johnson

This past semester for Public Policy, we all had to do a project where we studied a societal problem and worked on developing a solution for it.  In Public Policy class, we also studied how the local, state, and national governments work, how different kinds of organizations work, as well as different political situations going on around the country and even internationally.  Furthermore, we also learned skills such as searching for information on databases like Proquest, conducting surveys to obtain data on our societal problem, finding important players in the politics of our issues, and also more interesting things such as how to calculate the likelihood that our proposed policy will work among many others.  

I did my Capstone Project as part of a team with two other students, Kory Ellis, and Caroline Snyder.  Our Capstone Project was aimed at addressing the issue of children not being connected enough with nature nowadays.  In other words, in this Modern Era, children do not spend as much time outside connecting with nature as they used to.  This is due to a multitude of factors ranging from the advancement of video games which take away the need to go outside in order to find enjoyment, all the way to the way in which state and national parks charging money from visitors deters many families from being able to visit natural wonders.  The solution we developed to this problem was to implement “Environmental Education”, or some others would also call it “Nature Connection” standards into the New York State curriculum in schools K-12.  A strategy for implementing Environmental Education is piloting an elective class on Outdoor Skills at our school, New Roots Charter High School.  The name of the class is actually entitled "Outdoor Education and Backpacking Skills”.  It is a merger between our elective and the elective of the teacher Andrew Gray, whose core class right now is math, but also likes to teach outdoor skills.  Thus, my Capstone Team and I, as well as Andrew Gray jointly teach this outdoor skills elective.  

Our Capstone Project aligns with the two SWOs (School Wide Outcomes) of “Members of an Ecosystem” and “Community Members”.  It is perhaps quite self-explanatory how our project connects to the first of these two SWOs; our class is aimed first and foremost at teaching other students how to connect with nature in a hands on way. Additionally, and to a lesser extent, we will also be aimed at teaching them about how the ecosystem works and how to protect it through a scientific perspective.  Our capstone project connects to the SWO of “Community Members” because we are doing a service to two of our communities, our own New Roots Community, and also the Greater Ithaca Community by providing an education to other people.  And, as educators, we are definitely demonstrating a social intelligence in our abilities to educate others.  This concludes my description of the most important artifact in my Senior Graduation Portfolio.                 

"No Nukes New Roots" Picture

Description of "No Nukes New Roots"

Artifact 4: No Nukes New Roots

During the second semester of my 10th grade year at New Roots, my best friend Ethan and I started a club that was dedicated to the disarmament of nuclear weapons.  In time, our other friends Kory, Antonio, Irene, Gabe, and Aiden also joined the club.  We would meet during lunches on certain days of the week as a group.  At the end, we wrote a petition on Avaaz.org calling on all the leaders of nuclear weapons bearing countries from around the World to disarm their weapons.  Having been a member of Avaaz for some time, I was inspired to start this club in school when I found out that it was possible for members of this organization who usually got emails asking them to sign petitions to create their own petitions.  Furthermore, at this time in school, we had an assignment in Ms. Sue’s English Class to start a petition about a specific problem after we had been studying about social justice issues that were happening in the world. This was roughly when I first invited Ethan to join me working on this project. Just a short while after this happened, our other friends joined the nuclear disarmament club that Ethan and I had created. The artifact that I have left from this project is a picture of all of us at Ethan’s house either while we were still in the process of writing the petition, or after we finished writing it.  Now, I will go on to talk about the School Wide Outcome (S.W.O.) that I feel this artifact and project aligns with.

This artifact aligns with the S.W.O. of Citizens.  I feel that it aligns with this outcome first because writing a petition to influence the policies and decisions made by politicians means automatically being concerned about what is happening in one’s society.  Second, gathering together with others about the societal issue that you hope to influence means both you and your fellow citizens being and becoming more informed together.  Third and foremost, to be able to write a good petition is a powerful way to channel your knowledge and concern over the given problem towards changing the situation for the better!  This is why I believe that the nuclear disarmament club I started in 10th grade is a perfect example of being an active citizen in this World!!

Pictures of my Classmates and I Planting the "Three Sisters"

Artifact #3 Description

Artifact 3: Planting the Three Sisters

Basics About the Project

During my Junior year at New Roots, the 2013-2014 school year, everyone in grades 9, 10, and 11 took these classes called expeditions.  In these classes, everyone went out and studied certain aspects of our local region.  During the first half of the school year, I had the “Local Resources in our Region” Expedition with David Streib and Todd Ayoung; during the second half of the school year, I had the “Indigenous Cultures in our Region” expedition with Audrey Southern and Tanya Kingsley.  In this expedition, I learned about the five, and later six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that are Indigenous to most of what is now New York State, and especially the Finger Lakes Region of it.  At the end of this expedition in June 2014, we all had to complete final research oriented projects where we studied a certain topic pertaining to the peoples of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that we were curious about. At the end, we created presentations based on what we learned.  I researched about different technological capabilities that they had gained, with an especial emphasis on their agricultural method of “the Three Sisters”. This agricultural method works in such a way whereby corn, beans, and squash are all grown together in such a way that the three plants benefit each other and the soil around them.  For instance, the beans which grow in the soil fix nitrogen which both helps the other two plants to grow and makes the soil fertile for the long run.  Then, the corn plants which are planted next to the beans and squash grow tall in the fertile soil and provide a surface for the beans to climb up onto as they grow.  Finally, the corn provides shade to the growing squash with its leaves--this is very important in order for it to grow!  So, at the end of the year, I put on a powerpoint presentation about all this, and when I was done with it, I invited the class to come with me out in front of the Clinton House to plant the Three Sisters in front of our main school building.  That is what you see us doing in the above pictures.  

What S.W.O. does it align with?

This project strongly aligns with the School Wide Outcome (S.W.O.) of “Healthy Persons”.  It strongly aligns with this S.W.O. for a few reasons.  First off, it is a way of growing healthy wholesome food.  Second off, it is a way of growing food without the use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, or any other modern farming chemicals and methods that are harmful both to the Environment, and also to human health. Third, this way of growing foods also benefits people’s health with the Human-Earth connection that it opens up in the process when one digs in the soil in order to plant the corn, bean, and squash seeds.  Finally, the other connection and awareness that it opens up is the Human-plant connection that comes into being when one handles the seeds delicately and with care, as well as the ways in which one interacts with the growing plants up through the time of harvest.  I firmly believe that re-adopting this method of agriculture in farming applications throughout the World could solve many of the most pressing food related crises and problems of the 21st century, and make us all healthier people in the process!!          

   

Research Paper about African-American Ethnic Origins

Ethnic Origins of African-Americans: an Historical Analysis

Ray Vanek-Johnson         US History periods I & G

Introduction

For roughly 250 years, an unprecedentedly brutal institution existed in the United States.  That institution was slavery.  Slavery was fueled by both the Transatlantic Slave Trade directly from Africa, and the internal slave trade of Africans already in the Americas.  Some effects of this institution – such as brutality, injustice, and ongoing racism - are well known.  The Transatlantic slave trade could, in fact be called a genocide.  But, if it was a genocide, who were the victims?  Where did they come from?  What part of Africa could be said to be the original home of the majority of modern day African Americans?  Also, more specifically, what tribe in Africa, or group of slaves in the slave trade can they identify with?  Part of the reason why it can be so excruciatingly hard to know this information is because of one highly destructive practice of the slave trade.  This practice is the practice of brutally erasing the slaves’ knowledge of their own cultural identity from their minds during the movement between Africa and the Americas, which was employed by slave owners and traders during the period ranging all the way from Pre-Bellum to Antebellum Times in the United States.  In recent years however, more new and effective ways of tracing ancestry have emerged for African Americans.  This new and effective way is based on DNA testing.

To start off with, when you test anyone’s ethnicity by DNA, you have three modes of doing so.  These three modes are: mitochondrial DNA testing, Y chromosome testing, and autosome testing.  Perhaps the most obvious of these modes is Y chromosome testing; it is based on studying the Y chromosome of a given person in order to determine their most direct paternal lineage given that the Y chromosomes are exclusive to males.  The next method is autosomal testing which requires looking at all the chromosomes in a human that are not sex related.  This gives a more broad-sweeping picture of someone’s genetic ancestry.  The third and perhaps most accurate way to know someone’s heritage in a direct maternal line is mitochondrial DNA Testing where the DNA of the highly unique organelle in someone’s cells, called the mitochondria, is examined.  This has been a very common way of studying genetics in many populations around the world in recent times.  In studying the origins of African Americans, I have looked at genetic studies using all three modes of genetic testing.  Another point that bears mentioning is that the most valuable genetic information comes from the part of the genome that is non-recombinant.  This part of the gene tells a story about what happened long ago in someone’s ancestry, because it has been unchanged for perhaps thousands of years.  

My Process

When I first started this research project, my knowledge of human genealogy beyond the basics was much more limited.  For instance, while I had heard that all humans are 99.99+% the same, and that the “½, ¼, 1/8…” rule is not fully true, I had no clue whatsoever about just how many angles there were to looking at a person’s genetics.  This includes things like which haplotype has the most variability, or what lone standing change in the bases of the DNA is connected to a certain group of people in a certain region.  However, in the end, all human beings are 99.99% or more the same genetically as one another.  Thus, solving the puzzle of human genetics relies on being able to observe highly minuscule differences in the genes of people of varied ethnicities at all angles, in order to paint a holistic picture of the origins of each population.  

When I first read about a genetic study of African-American origins that functioned on these principles, I had no clue about all of these dimensions to DNA testing, nor the skill to be able to piece together so much confusing information all at once.  Over time though, I went on to read many more reports about genetic studies that had been conducted around this same subject.  In doing so, I learned how to generally piece together information better, as well as work with a lot of confusing and/or unknown information in order to figure out the main idea.  The confusing information ranged from statistical equations, to genetic concepts that I had quite simply never heard of before.  Now however, even if I still don’t understand a lot of the total information, I do however understand a lot of the overarching concepts.  This is in large part because I gained the ability to sift out extraneous information from the given source, and take away only the key concepts through reading many in depth reports of human DNA studies.  These information processing skills, as well as the ability to pay attention to the scientific method will help me both as a scientist, and as a historian.

Another skill that I also learned is how to cite records of historical events, including text and illustrations, in order to make conclusions about my given research question.  This skill, a more purely social studies skill, is a one that I struggled with earlier in the US history course.  As a result of my project this has changed and I am now much more proficient in this area of social studies.  Furthermore, I believe it is good that I have mastered some important skills as a scholar of social studies rather than just memorizing historical facts about the US.  

Research Findings

First and foremost, the findings of my research show that African slaves brought to the United States originated in at least three and possibly four regions.  These regions are West Africa, the Bight of Biafra, Central West Africa, and possibly Southeastern Africa.   Southeastern Africa, however, is a significantly less likely region of origin for slaves taken to the United States.  

Finally, an internal slave trade within the Americas also existed during the colonial times.  This trade was the trade of African peoples between colonies in the Americas.  The most common example of this was Afro-Caribbean peoples being taken to mainland North America, as well as to a lesser extent to mainland South America.  In fact, many slaves were taken from colonies in the Caribbean up to territory now part of the United States.  This significantly complicates the process of figuring out where in Africa many of the slaves forcibly taken to the United States originated.  A researcher, whether historian, human geneticist, or anthropologist, must figure out the origins of a population of slaves that has been settled, sometimes for well more than a generation, in  another colony, usually a Caribbean colony.  Finally, the other major factor that can complicate finding the ethnic origins in Africa of contemporary African-Americans is the intermingling between populations of slaves in the United States.  As a result, a significant number of African-Americans have ancestry that originates in more than one African region.  This is often combined with non-African ancestry.  However, geneticists have still made headway in tracing African-Americans and other African diaspora populations to the four regions of Africa listed above.  The first and perhaps most significant region in the overall slave trade from Africa to the Americas is Central West Africa.      

The Central West region of Africa is the region stretching from Southern Cameroon down to Southern Angola along the Atlantic Coast. It is primarily inhabited by people of Bantu ethnicity, which includes the Mbundu tribe among others.  This is clearly the region where the majority of slaves taken to the Americas as a whole originated.  However, this region is unlikely to be where the majority of African slaves taken to the United States originated for a few reasons.  

The first is that while this region of Africa was the primary source of slaves in the early to mid-1600s, this was not when the peak of the slave trade to the United States occurred. Central West Africa was almost certainly the origin of at least 15% of the slaves taken to the United States throughout the entire history of the slave trade.  In fact, the first slaves brought to the British North America colonies were from the Mbundu tribe in Northern Angola.  They were sold to people in the Virginia colony by Portuguese slave traders in 1619.  These are a few among the many examples that illustrate Central West Africa’s important role as a place of origins for people enslaved in the territory that is now the United States.  

Genetic studies have clearly proven a significant amount of Bantu ancestry to be present in a large number of African-Americans.  Also, one of these studies has even shown Mbuti DNA to be present in African populations in the Americas—especially Bantu diaspora populations in Brazil, but also Bantu diaspora populations in places like the United States.  The Mbuti are a tribe of people who have lived almost exclusively as hunter-gatherers in the Ituri Rainforest of the Congo traditionally.  They, as well as other groups of African people are incredibly short on average (the average heights of both men and women are between 4’ 0” and 4’ 6”) and therefore referred to as pygmies.  These results from a genetic test conducted in 2004 on the origins of African diaspora populations as a whole were incredibly surprising because the Mbuti populations are thought to have been relatively secluded from the slave trade through living in largely impenetrable forests.  Just how many Mbuti people were involved in the slave trade, if in fact any, remains a mystery.  These questions constitute an important debate in the social studies and Anthropology field.  And while these studies shed light on the quite influential Bantu presence in Colonial America, they do not however indicate that Bantu people were the ethnic majority in the slave populations of colonial America and the early United States.

These same studies have also shown Bantu ancestry to average only 8% in most African-Americans.  This is very compelling evidence that refutes the theory of Western Central Africa as being the source of the largest number of slaves brought to the US.  Further evidence may be found in a study that investigates the origins of Africans throughout the Americas as a whole.  This study found a strong polar coordination between the Americas and Africa in that it found the majority of slaves from further south in Africa to have gone to South America, while the majority of slaves from further north in Africa went to North America and the Caribbean.    

Another region, however, where the majority of African slaves in the United States likely came from is the Bight of Biafra.  This region stretches from Central Nigeria down to Southern Cameroon.  It is inhabited by tribes of Niger Kordofanian ethnicity including the Igbo, Yoruba, and other tribes.  

The first and foremost evidence that supports the Bight of Biafra being the origins of the majority or plurality of the slaves in the United States is the fact that from what many genetic studies suggest, the overall highest percentage of Ancestry of all African-Americans is Yoruba.  As is mentioned above, the Yoruba are a tribe of people native to Eastern Nigeria in the Bight of Biafra.  Furthermore, multiple genetic tests have found the highest amount of genetic overlap, especially in the form of genetic variability between the Yoruba people, the Igbo people, the Mandenka people, as well as other groups of people native to the Bight of Biafra region and African-Americans.  As this evidence suggests, Igbo, Yoruba, Mandenka, and other people originating in the Bight of Biafra may be contemporary African-Americans’ most common ancestors.  These people mentioned above are part of the Niger Kordofanian pan-ethnic group, the group of people native to the region stretching from Cameroon to Senegal east to west, and the edge of the Sahel desert north to south.  

Genetic evidence is not the only evidence to suggest a strong presence of slaves originating in the Bight of Biafra—most notably Yoruba slaves in the United States.  Other evidence lies in studies that have been conducted using a purely historian oriented approach, namely by studying slave ship records and possibly other historical artifacts.  The vast majority of these studies have concluded: the overall majority of slaves brought to the United States both during the peak eras of the slave trade, and throughout the entire slave trade were of Yoruba, Igbo, or other ethnicity originating in the Bight of Biafra.  This evidence, when combined with the high prevalence of genetic matches between African-Americans and contemporary people in the Bight of Biafra in multiple genetic studies, presents a very compelling argument for the Bight of Biafra, and particularly the Yoruba tribe being the primary source of slaves in the United States.

The only other region where the majority of slaves brought to the United States could have conceivably originated from is West Africa.  For a long time, West Africa was thought to have been region of origins for the majority of slaves brought to the United States.  As such, this same story of the slave trade to the United States was taught in most US History classes for a long time.  West Africa is considered to be the region that stretches from Senegal in the westernmost point, all the way down to Western Nigeria in the easternmost point.  The most compelling evidence in favor of this theory is the findings of one genetic study that showed high levels of haplotypes from the present day country of Benin in West Africa, to be present both in many African-Americans as well as Afro-Caribbeans in Jamaica.  The majority of further evidence for this theory lies in a more limited amount of studies based on slave ship records that have found regions such as the Windward Coast, the Ivory Coast, or occasionally even Senegambia to be the likely region of origins for the majority of African-Americans.  One study cited slave ship records as the leading source of evidence to indicate African slave origins in the Windward Coast region near Sierra Leone.  There is even a limited amount of further genetic evidence that has suggested some of these regions as the source of the majority of African slaves in the United States.  An example of a study that supports this hypothesis is a study that found a high level of DNA originating in Senegambia (the region of the modern day countries of Senegal and Gambia combined) in a population of African-Americans.  This sample population was predominantly from the Southeastern United States, but also to a lesser extent from the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States.  Combined with this with the fact that many slaves were taken from Senegambia to Colonial America (especially the Carolina colonies) for their skills in rice cultivation, this study adds up to compelling evidence that Senegambia, other regions of West Africa, or West Africa as a whole was/were probably the second most common region of origin for Africans kidnapped to the United States.  Also, some of these same Senegambian slaves formed what would become the Gullah Communities of South Carolina.  The African-Americans living in these communities on islands along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina have preserved most of their African heritage right up to the present; they even speak a language that is very heavily influenced by their original African language.  However, the current evidence supporting the Bight of Biafra as being the most common region of origins for the majority of slaves forcibly taken to the United States greatly is overwhelmingly greater than that indicating the same of West Africa.     

Finally, another region that has been theorized to potentially have been a source of slaves brought to the United States is Southeastern Africa.  This region includes the countries of Mozambique and Madagascar.  These regions clearly played a role in at least one element of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.  In the 1800s, a spike in the slave trade to Brazil occured , and most of the slaves brought to Brazil in this period came from either Mozambique or Madagascar.  However, there is little evidence of a slave trade between the United States and Southeastern Africa.  For instance, while a match was found uniquely between the Americas and Mozambique, it only proves the obvious: that Mozambicans were involved in parts of the Atlantic Slave trade.  It does not specifically prove that the United States was one of their destinations.  Furthermore, all non-genetic evidence to support this theory ultimately amounts to hearsay, or even myths and rumors.  However, there is not enough evidence to absolutely rule out the influence of Southeastern African slaves in the United States.  Therefore, whether this region of Africa played a role in the slave trade to the United States remains a mystery.  If it played any role at all, it would have been extremely small.  

The answer to the question of “From just where in Africa, and to what tribe can most contemporary African-Americans trace their roots?” is not irrefutably set in stone. However, evidence from studies that I have read, including studies done on slave ship records and historical artifacts, as well as genetic matches, particularly in overlapping genetic variability levels, indicate that the Bight of Biafra is where the majority of African-American slaves came from originally.  And, most of all, the overall most common ancestry in all African-Americans is most likely Yoruba.  

 

     

Consideration of an Historical Novel that Looks at the Slave Trade:

“Slave Dancer” byPaula Fox  

“Slave Dancer” by Paula Fox is a novel that I read roughly four years ago for my English class at my old school.  It is a novel about the experiences of a young American boy, Jesse, living in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 1830’s.  He plays his fife for money on the streets of New Orleans.  He plays his fife on the docks of the Port of New Orleans.  He does this to support his widowed mother and ailing sister.  Once, while he is unexpectedly away from home late at night, he is kidnapped by slave traders.  The slave traders take him captive onto their ship to work as a slave.  In the course of the novel he travels across the Atlantic to Africa and back, as well as around the Caribbean. While on board the slave ship Jesse experiences the horrors of the slave trade first hand.  For instance, he witnesses the brutal punishment of other people on the ship whenever they are blamed for something.  For instance, he watches the whipping of his friend Purvis who is wrongly blamed – in fact framed - for something he didn’t do.  Jesse also witnesses the atrocities that are committed against the slaves who are taken on board the ship to be sold both in the American South and in the Caribbean.  Once a day, he must play his fife in order to give the slaves music to dance to.  This is the one time of day that the slaves come out from the lower storage space on the ship where they are packed together like sardines.  These slaves came from the Bight of Benin in West Africa.

At the end of the story the ship capsizes and sinks off the coast of Mississippi in the spring of 1840.  Jesse is the sole survivor of this accident, as everyone else who is not drowned is eaten by sharks.  This sadly includes Purvis Clay, Jesse’s Irish friend.  After Jesse manages to escape from the sinking ship, he goes ashore to Mississippi.  Here, he meets a freeman named Daniel.  Daniel has escaped slavery, and now lives off the land in the woods near the Mississippi coastline.  Daniel helps to nourish Jesse back to health for a few days where he lives.  Once Jessie is well however, Daniel sends him on his way.  Jesse walks all the way back to his home in New Orleans within a day or two and finds his family again.  

This novel depicts the Trans-Atlantic slave trade highly accurately in many ways.  The first way is that it is unflinching in how exposes the atrocities committed against the slaves involved.  Also, it demonstrates the behavior of  all those involved in the slave trade from people who played music or in some way entertained slaves on board the ships, all the way to government officials who were complicit in the trade.  These include government officials in the American South, the Caribbean and other countries like, as well as multiple monarchs of African countries.  Finally, and perhaps most of all, the slave ship that Jesse is taken away on goes to the Bight of Benin.  This part of the story relates most to the focus of this paper in that according to DNA evidence, as well as historical artifact evidence, the Bight of Benin was quite possibly one of the top three most common regions of origins for slaves taken to the United States.  Though many of the questions posed in this paper cannot be known for certain yet, hopefully scientists and historians alike can continue to shed light on the answers in the decades to come.  Finally, by doing so, we can hope to create a more just society where atrocities on this level never occur again, and where many of the social justice challenges seen in American society today may cease.  

Maps of Slave Trade

Source
"New Perspectives on the Transatlantic Slave Trade," Special Issue, William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 58 (2001), between pp. 16 and 17.

Comments
Shows major areas of slaving activities and embarkation ports; see caption on map for original source. Map placed on website with permission of the William and Mary Quarterly.

Source
"New Perspectives on the Transatlantic Slave Trade," Special Issue, William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 58 (2001), between pp. 16 and 17; see caption for original source.

Comments
Shows major areas involved in importing enslaved Africans. Map placed on website with permission of the William and Mary Quarterly.

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Mbuti”— Page 14 by Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, 1995