---
title: "African American Communities — APUSH Definition & Guide"
description: "African American communities were networks built by enslaved and free Black people in the colonies, blending African and American culture. Key for APUSH Topic 2.7."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/apush/key-terms/african-american-communities"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP US History"
---

# African American Communities — APUSH Definition & Guide

## Definition

In APUSH, African American communities are the social, cultural, and family networks that enslaved and free Black people built in the British colonies, preserving African traditions (language, music, religion, kinship) while creating a new African American culture under the pressure of slavery.

## What It Is

African American communities formed wherever enslaved and free Black people lived in the [British colonies](/apush/key-terms/british-colonies "fv-autolink"), from Chesapeake tobacco plantations to South Carolina rice country to northern port cities. People who had been forcibly transported across the Atlantic came from many different West African cultures, and in America they wove those traditions together with European and Native American influences. The result was a distinct African American culture with its own music, foodways, religious practices, naming patterns, and [family structures](/apush/unit-4/african-americans-early-republic/study-guide/7xeQjlCwTvWKuWJNS9VY "fv-autolink").

This is the kind of thing the CED means when it asks you to explain how "the movement of a variety of people and ideas across the Atlantic contributed to the development of American culture" ([APUSH](/apush "fv-autolink") 2.7.A). The Atlantic slave trade was one of the biggest forced movements of people in history, and the communities Africans built were a creative act of survival. Kinship networks (including "fictive kin" who stood in for family members lost to sale), the blending of African spiritual traditions with Christianity, and everyday resistance all happened inside these communities. They are the foundation for everything from the Black Church to the civil rights movement, which is exactly why APUSH keeps coming back to them.

## Why It Matters

This term lives in **Topic 2.7, Colonial Society and Culture ([Unit 2](/apush/unit-2 "fv-autolink"): Colonial Development, 1607-1754)** and supports learning objective **APUSH 2.7.A**, which asks how transatlantic movement of people and ideas shaped [American culture](/apush/key-terms/american-culture "fv-autolink"). Most of Topic 2.7 covers European pluralism, Anglicization, and the Great Awakening, but the African contribution to colonial culture is the other half of that story. Africans were among the "variety of people" crossing the Atlantic, and the culture they built is part of what made colonial American culture genuinely new rather than just transplanted English culture.

It also matters for the long game. African American communities are one of the best continuity threads in the whole course. You can trace them from colonial slave quarters, through free Black communities and the Black Church in the antebellum era, to [Reconstruction](/apush/unit-5/reconstruction/study-guide/DiWHCM2v4Drc73iIcfDS "fv-autolink") institution-building, the Great Migration, and the civil rights movement. That makes this term gold for DBQ and LEQ arguments under the American and Regional Culture and Social Structures themes.

## Connections

### [Slave Codes (Unit 2)](/apush/key-terms/slave-codes)

[Slave codes](/apush/key-terms/slave-codes "fv-autolink") are the legal system African American communities formed against. Colonial laws stripped enslaved people of rights and made slavery hereditary and racial, so community networks, family ties, and shared culture became a form of resistance the law couldn't fully reach.

### Maroon Societies (Unit 2)

Maroon societies were the most radical version of community-building. Escaped [enslaved people](/apush/key-terms/enslaved-people "fv-autolink") set up independent settlements in swamps and frontiers, taking the same impulse (build a community beyond white control) to its furthest physical extreme.

### Black Church (Units 4-5)

The blending of African spiritual practice with Christianity that started in colonial communities grew into independent Black churches by the early republic. The Black Church then became the organizational backbone for abolition, Reconstruction politics, and eventually the civil rights movement.

### [American Culture (Unit 2)](/apush/key-terms/american-culture)

Topic 2.7's big idea is that American culture emerged from many Atlantic influences, not just English ones. African American communities are your strongest evidence that colonial culture was a fusion, which complicates the Anglicization story in KC-2.2.I.B.

## On the AP Exam

Multiple-choice and short-answer questions on Topic 2.7 often pair a passage about colonial culture or slavery with questions about how enslaved Africans preserved and adapted their cultures. You're expected to explain that African American culture was a blend, not a blank slate, and connect it to the Atlantic movement of people in APUSH 2.7.A. No released FRQ has used this exact phrase, but the concept is a workhorse for essays. A continuity-and-change LEQ on African American life, or a DBQ on resistance to slavery, rewards you for tracing community institutions (family networks, religion, mutual aid) from the colonial era forward. The move that scores points is specificity. Don't just say "they formed communities." Name what those communities did, like blending Christianity with African traditions or maintaining kinship ties despite family separation by sale.

## African American communities vs Maroon Societies

Maroon societies were a specific type of community made up of people who escaped slavery and lived in independent settlements outside colonial control, often in remote swamps or mountains. African American communities is the broader term covering all the networks Black people built, including those formed by enslaved people on plantations and free Black people in cities. All maroon societies are African American communities, but most African American communities were not maroon societies.

## Key Takeaways

- African American communities were networks of family, culture, and religion built by enslaved and free Black people in the British colonies, blending diverse West African traditions with European and Native American influences.
- These communities are direct evidence for APUSH 2.7.A, which asks how the transatlantic movement of people and ideas (including the forced migration of Africans) shaped American culture.
- Community-building was a form of resistance because slave codes denied enslaved people legal rights, so kinship networks and shared culture preserved identity in ways the law couldn't erase.
- African American culture in the colonies was a fusion, not a copy of African or European culture, which complicates the simple Anglicization narrative in Topic 2.7.
- This term is a continuity thread you can run across the whole course, from colonial slave quarters to the Black Church, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and the civil rights movement.

## FAQs

### What were African American communities in colonial America?

They were the social, family, and cultural networks that enslaved and free Black people built in the British colonies between 1607 and 1754. These communities blended West African traditions in religion, music, and kinship with European influences, creating a distinct African American culture.

### Did enslaved people lose all of their African culture?

No. Despite the brutality of the Middle Passage and slavery, enslaved Africans preserved and adapted languages, religious practices, music, foodways, and naming traditions. APUSH expects you to describe this as cultural blending and adaptation, not cultural erasure.

### How are African American communities different from maroon societies?

Maroon societies were specifically settlements of escaped enslaved people living independently outside colonial control. African American communities is the umbrella term that also includes networks among enslaved people on plantations and free Black people in colonial cities.

### What unit and topic do African American communities fall under in APUSH?

Unit 2 (Colonial Development, 1607-1754), Topic 2.7 (Colonial Society and Culture), under learning objective APUSH 2.7.A about how the movement of people and ideas across the Atlantic shaped American culture.

### Why do African American communities matter for APUSH essays?

They're a powerful continuity argument. You can trace community institutions from colonial kinship networks to the Black Church, Reconstruction-era schools and churches, and the civil rights movement, which is exactly the kind of long-range connection DBQ and LEQ rubrics reward.

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