African American Dehumanization Effects On Slavery

The Atlantic Slave Trade attempts to dehumanize enslaved Africans in numerous ways. First of all, from the sketch of a slave ship in the Middle Passage, it reveals that each slave has very limited space on the ship. Therefore, due to the harsh living condition on the ship, many slaves died in the Middle Passage. In addition, slaves were used as possessions, sold in market, “poked and prodded by strange white people” (Berlin 4). This intends to show “plantation owners’ wealth and power” (Berlin 2). Moreover, slaves might be “whipped, restrained, or maimed for any infraction, large or small ” (Henretta 100). Particularly, slave owners brandishing hot irons on slaves, to reveal their confined identity as slaves. Furthermore, the slave owners also

The majority of African slaves came from a region that was called West Central Africa. The people from West Central Africa practiced a religion similar to Christianity, and believed in a single all powerful being that created the world, “As to religion, the natives believe that there is one Creator of all things, and that he lives in the sun, and is girded round with a belt, that he may never eat or drink; but according to some, he smokes a pipe, which is our own favorite luxury” (Equiano, 1789). In both religions, there is an omnipotent being that requires no substance and lives above the Earth. In addition, in both religions the Creator controls the events that occur throughout a person life. In addition, they often offered food to the spirits of their loved ones who were said to watch over them and protect them from their enemies. Family would also place sacrifices to

“Not only did slaves believe that they would be chosen by the Lord, there is evidence that many of them felt their owners would be denied salvation” (34). Levine claimed that the slaves uses their beliefs and religion as a “means of escape and opposition” because it gave them a “serious alternative to the societal system created by southern slaveholders” (54.)

One of the first things that attracted the African American slaves to Christianity was a way of obtaining the salvation of theirs souls based on the Christian’s idea of a future reward in heaven or punishment in hell, which did not exist in their primary religion. The religious principles inherited from Africa sought purely physical salvation and excluded the salvation of the soul. However, they did believe in one supreme God, which made it easier for them to assimilate Christianity.

Survival was a key element for the lives of African Americans during slavery. Its guiding principle was the ability to endure the oppression to secure the continuation of the race. Slaves recognized that adaptation to the new environment and culture in the New World would be the main factor for their ability to stay alive. They began this adaptation process, called survival faith, by creating a sub-culture which merged traditional African practices with those the slaves were forced to adopt from their masters. The African slaves brought with them all of their African traditions but were suppressed from utilizing them in their original fashion. Therefore, they merged remnants of African cultures including ¡§the great Bantu tribes from Sierra Leone to South Africa; the Sudanese, straight across the center of the continent, from the Atlantic to the Valley of the Nile; the Nilotic Negroes and the black and brown Hamites, allied with Egypt; the tribes of the great lakes; the Pygmies and the Hottentots; and in addition to these, distinct traces of both Berber and Arab¡¨ (DuBois, 3) with those remnants of European and Native American cultures. This new culture was comprised of dance, rhythmic music, folk traditions and values, religious beliefs,

There are very many different groups of culture in America; one in particular that represents about 15% of the general population in America is African American culture (Center Of Disease Control, 2002). The African American culture was derived from the country Africa. The African people have been in and out of slavery from many different countries since the beginning of time. The English were not the first to enslave the group of people, but they were the last. When the Africans came over to the Americas in the early 1600’s, they were forced to give up many of their traditions and adapt to whatever their masters gave them to learn from although some of their native culture and history was hidden in their spirituals. When coming over to the

Most African American thinks slavery is still causing a big issue on their society, Such as their music, their art and their own identity. Most African American still feels like they are being lied to about their past ancestor and culture, which make them feels very confused about the question of their real heritage. One of the impact the slavery had on the African American was that it brought a lot of sadness to the individual and sometimes that person ends up hating his or her self, not because of their skin color but because they feels like they are the only race who cannot find their true DNA. This destruction of slavery started from previous culture and it continued through generation, their inability to communicate as slaves, and the impact of slavery after emancipation all negatively affected African-American Culture. Kennedy, David (2002) explain, through slavery, Africans completely lost their heritage and previous culture. They were separated from their families, and cultural items such as their music which use to give them strength when their needed it. They also used their music to stay bonded each other; which were also taken away from them during slavery. Another issue the slavery left on the African American society is the lost their own sense of identity. Their true identify were totally ignored, and their new master or the person who raised them, their usually try to make them become a new human being without any consideration who they use to be

It is undeniable that slavery has affected the American culture, our ancestors who either choose to be in America or were transported here less than 400 years ago. Over an estimated 300,000 slaves were transported to freshly colonized home, laden with diseases and new ordeals (Voyage, 2013). They were forced to work long and hard while their whip-torn bodies lay as an omen to what our freedom is built upon. An omen to how their very own freedom and basic rights are taken all for the advancement of a society that they were marginalized and systematically excluded from. This is the heritage that all Americans, especially African Americans, are so familiar with today. Though African Americans are no longer in the fields being beaten, but the underlying affects of this treatment of their race is irrefutable. Ever since slavery began, African Americans have had to

The enslavement of Africans in the Americas was such a gruesome time in history that we often generalize it into one event not being careful to look closely at the effects it had on the African people: During the course of those 400 years slavery as we knew it single handily shaped the early African American. Starting with the export of the first wave of African Slaves the impact of this would profoundly affect descendants hundreds of years later. Europeans who decided to enslave African people thought only of what monetary value they would be as they were their property who didn't deserve the decency of being anything more. The enslavement destroyed life as they knew it in their native Mother Africa. There they thrived with resources they

Through out this chapter we discover that the Europeans tend to take things that do not belong to them and also like to take credit for numerous things as well. We also learn that they like to kidnap others to do their hard labor while that stand back and making a living off of others hard labor. During this process I do believe it was the start of slavery for the African Americans. For the Europeans it meant the freedom to treat people any kind of way rather than treating someone like another human being.

Further down in the South a majority of slaves lived and also worked on cotton plantations, which consisted of 50 or fewer slaves, with some of the largest containing hundreds. Cotton at this time was among the leading cash crops, however rice, and corn, and sugarcane, and tobacco also were raised by African American workers on plantations. lots of different types of work also took place on plantations or on farms. slaves were to clear new land, to dig ditches, cut/move wood, livestock, and repair building tools. Black women carried the burden of caring for their families. Some slaves were able to work indoors, carrying out services for the master's and their families. Know as house servants. They were constantly under surveillance of their

Slavery was not fun for the African Americans and they found ways to resist this degrading position that they were forced into. The slaves would rearrange the lyrics to Christian music and sung the songs to express themselves and send a message to their masters. The enslaved African Americans would even bring harm to themselves so they would not be any additional benefit to the slave masters in multiple ways.

In this essay, I will use RESOURCES provided to me to form and informed opinion on how to explain how African-American culture took parts from both African and European culture to form its modern association. While African-American culture grabs influences from African and European culture, the foundation as well as a significant portion of practices and behaviors can be found in African culture. Many slaves help on tightly to their African heritage, while a slave culture sought invisibility through assimilating into American culture. These major influences helped shape modern African-American culture.

Slavery is a huge stain on the colored history of the United States of America. From taking people away from their families to enslaving an entire group of people based solely on the color of their skin, slavery is one of the most disgusting things seen in human history. In the book, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself”, Frederick Douglass goes in detail about his life as a slave and why he believed it was morally abhorrent. In the book he gives many examples to why slavery should be abolished in America. He gives accounts on how slaves were dehumanized by their fellow Americans, how slavery corrupted slaveholders with power, and how slavery went against the values that the United States were

The issue of slavery in the United States has been hotly debated for centuries. Historians continuously squabble over the causes and effects of America’s capitalistic, industrial form of slavery. But two of the most heavily discussed questions are whether the institution of slavery destroyed African culture in America, and whether it reduced slaves to a child-like state of dependency and incompetence. Anthropologist Melville Herskovits, and historian Stanley Elkins both weigh in on this debate: Herskovits with, The Myth of the Negro Past, and Elkins with, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life. In, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life, Elkins asserts that African culture was all but destroyed by a repression of the slaves’ rights, at the hands of their masters. He claims that complete dependence on their masters and a lack of collective cultural identity and family bonds, reduced slaves to a child-like state of helplessness and ignorance, and childish behavior called the ‘Sambo’. Herskovits takes a different stance in this debate. In, The Myth of the Negro Past, he claims that African culture was not completely destroyed by slavery, and that the ‘Sambo’ stereotype was no more than a myth or at least a gross generalization. He uses slave revolts and the persistence of African culture in American in music, dance, and language as evidence to prove this.