The First Free Black Town of the New World

 

San Basilio de Palengue in Columbia is the first free black town in the New World. At the end of the 16th century a small group of slaves escaped their white masters and founded a community in the middle of the tropical rainforest. Today the descendants of the slaves still honour the culture and language of their ancestors.

 

 

 

 

Related Topics

 

Words

  • agriculture = farming
  • ancestor = member of your family who lived a long time ago
  • carve = to remove land from an area
  • cemetery = place where people are buried
  • century = a hundred years
  • chain = metal rings used to stop prisoners from escaping
  • cheer for = to want a team to win
  • community = people who live in a certain area or place
  • dense = here: with many trees and a lot of vegetation
  • descendant = someone who is related to a person who lived a long time ago
  • determination = willpower, if you really want to do something
  • establish = start; to make something new
  • fool = to trick someone into believing that something is true
  • found – founded = to start something new
  • heritage = culture
  • key = important
  • livestock = animals, like cows and sheep that are kept on a farm
  • port of entry = here: place where people enter a country by ship
  • preserve = hold up; continue to use
  • recipe = instructions to cook a meal or food
  • remarkably = extremely
  • resident = a person who lives in a town
  • sample = part of a song
  • venerate = honour , respect something old
  • World Heritage Site = place that the United Nations thinks is very important and must be saved