African Self Autonomy

As children growing up in the United States, educated through our public schools, we learned about the institution of slavery, which was an integral part of life in our country for nearly 300 years. We do not usually question the historical facts we learned about slavery or ask how we know so much about the history of these people (the enslaved Africans in America) who left behind so little written record. In the classroom, archeologists do not receive much credit, but it is largely through their work and research that we have been able to learn about “America’s diverse ethnic heritage” (Singleton 155). In the 1960’s, excavations of slave cabins

Basing on the provided painting of the Virginian luxuries (Unknown, 1800), power dynamics that dominated in the slave society is evident as the slave owner seem to have the authority and taking the advantage over their slave. Physical and sexual abuse is inflicted on the slaves. This describes the roles of races during

The value of this book is that the book gives various evidence of how Africans were treated in the colonial period in Virginia. The book offered evidence from primary sources about how Africans were treated in the colonial period, which proved to be valuable in this essay in disproving the Handlins.

The perspectives of African slave merchants, the female slaves, and the plantation workers in the Americans which are missing in this collection might add other dimensions to our understanding of this commerce in people. Knowing the perspective of the African slave merchants who were present during the slave trade in Africa would have

One of the early historical examinations of African slavery in Mexico is Colin A. Palmer’s Slaves of the White God: Blacks in Mexico, 1570-1650, published in 1976.[7] Palmer sees his book as part of a larger historiographic trend at work in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, as scholars began paying increasing attention to social and cultural aspects of minority groups; as historians sought to investigate the condition of black slaves in the United States, Palmer recognized a need to examine a broader range of African history in the Americas.[8] His study attempts to reconstruct the life of a slave during an 80-year segment of the colonial period by looking at labor conditions, societal roles, relationships to other ethnic groups, and the persistence of African culture through social networks and religious practices.[9] By examining a wide range of documents, including royal and colonial decrees, court transcripts, and Inquisition records, Palmer’s study makes a valuable contribution to the AfroMexican historiography. He successfully places the AfroMexican in a cultural, economic, and legal context, which sheds light on the reality of life for slaves,

Starting from a slave’s birth, this cruel process leads to a continuous cycle of abuse, neglect, and inhumane treatment. To some extent, slave holders succeed because they keep most slaves so concerned with survival that they have no time or energy to consider freedom. This is particularly true for plantation slaves where the conditions of slave life are the most difficult and challenging. However, slave holders fail to realize the damage they inadvertently inflict on themselves by upholding slavery and enforcing these austere laws and attitudes.

“Planter not only held the majority of slaves, but they controlled the most fertile land, enjoyed the highest incomes, and dominated the state and local offices and the leadership of both political parties” (Foner 411). There were fewer than forty-thousand families that possessed about twenty or more slaves that qualified them as planters. There were also fewer than two-thousand families owned about a hundred slaves or more. The ownership of slaves provided the route to wealth, status, and influence. Slavery was the profit-making system, and slave-owners kept a close watch on world priced for their products to invested in enterprises such as railroads and canals.

The narrative by Olaudah Equiano gives an interesting perspective of slavery both within and outside of Africa in the eighteenth century. From these writings we can gain insight into the religion and customs of an African culture. We can also see how developed the system of trade was within Africa, and worldwide by this time. Finally, we hear an insider's view on being enslaved, how slaves were treated in Africa, and what the treatment of African slaves was like at the hands of the Europeans.

Randy Sparks highlights a rare aspect of the history of slavery: the relentless effort of the enslaved to use their privilege to free themselves. Although it is not clear when the European and Africans first encountered each other in Old Calabar, it is evident that the constant trading between both parties built a concrete means of communication. As many individuals who have

In the essay from Dr. Faust’s “Community, Culture, and Conflict on an Antebellum Plantation”, she explores the balance of power between slave owners and their bondsmen, primarily, on the Hammond Plantation, Silver Bluff. She will focus on four areas of research, religion, work patterns, and payments/privileges, escape attempts/rebellion and external influences. She maintains that there was an intricate communal order among the slaves of the Silver Bluff Plantation. Using primary and secondary sources I will either verify or disprove Dr. Faust’s thesis. Dr. Faust has used the journal writings of James Hammond as her main primary source for her essay. I will use Dr. Faust’s essay for my secondary and writings

Smuggling slaves out of bondage and onto freedom up north, was not limited to only African Americans, but also many other helpful people of a variety of races, ethnicities, and genders (Cecelski, 176). The people of differing race were typically lower class, some were Quakers, and the majority did not have much of a hand in the wealthier planters and landowners whose slaves were being led to freedom (Cecelski, 176). What this demonstrates for

Especially, the unknown circumstances behind the diminishing of her great-great-grandmother’s personal accounts of slavery. The difficulty of her finding and tracing back her roots, even though she had the most personal resource of her own grandparents, is what sparked the passion within to discover the situation of slavery more closely. In her words, “to fill in the blank spaces of the historical record and to represent the lives of those deemed unworthy of remembering.” (Hartman,

In the book titled The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, author John Blassingame’s theme, focused on the history of African slave experience throughout the American South. After much research, the author said in the preface that most historians focused more on the planter instead of the slave. He also pointed out that most of the research on slaves by previous historians was based on stereotypes, and do not tell the real history of slave life and a slave’s inner self. Most of these historians, who focused on antebellum southern history, left out the African-American slave experience on purpose. Through much gathering of research, Blassingame hoped to correct this injustice to the history of African-American slaves, and show how slavery affected slaves, but also American life, culture, and thought.

In history, a woman 's experience of slavery is presumed inadequate and useless. Unfortunately, there are many experiences of women during slavery that is untouched and needs some highlight. For instance, did enslaved women work as much as enslaved males? If so, did they work in the same field or was there a difference. Women grew burdensome in that they would spitefully work inefficiently and slower than needed, leading to the resistance. Specifically, this paper 's discussion why are similarities and differences in the roles of enslaved women who resided in both Jamaica and Barbados bring complications to slave owners. I will attempt to understand the percipience of female slaves in the Caribbean, in order to gain a better insight into their lives and daily experience that may or may not have been similar or different as well as what are some possible reasons why an enslaved females’ history is ignored and often generalized.

One of the strongest factors which helped slaves keep their cultural forms alive, according to Hamilton-Willie (2003) “was their stubbornness, rebelliousness and often disregard for the prohibitions against their culture”. This was often in the form of practicing religious practices which were outlawed by the enslavers, and fetes which took place without the planter’s consent. These forms of rebellion kept up the culture of the slaves and promoted a greater, more relevant sense of self.