Harmony and Howling — African and European Roots of Jamaican Music

Slavery dates back to the seventeenth century, when they were brought by ship from Africa to America. Plantation owners has indentured servants from Europe, who was serving time for their actions, and slaves from Africa. There was a prevalent development of degrading treatment towards African slaves and the institution of slavery as a whole in the time period of 1607- 1750 in Virginia which can be seen by slaves getting taken advantage of, children being taken away or runaway ads and also not receiving the same basic human rights as other individuals .

Britain at first sent prisioners over, but these people could not handle the heat or working conditions that America desired and thus they needed more. They then agreed on African slaves, Britain would embark on the transatlantic slave trade, this was where Britain would trade cheap goods and materials also weapos with African

African slaves had influenced the United States with culture and work practices which impacted both the Northern and Southern economy during through the 16th and 19th centuries. Upon arriving in America, slaves were not just people in the minds of most colonists, but a tool to promote economic achievements thrusting American imports and exports on the world stage. Their culture as farmers and their ability to work and cultivate in extremely hot temperatures made the African people suitable for American agricultural needs. However, what made them appropriate for slavery was also combined in the belief that they were born with low academic abilities and their enteral submissive nature made that population perfect for the institution of slavery.

At first Africans were not slaves but servants. Anthony Johnson is an example of African servant who acquired lands and servants (even white servants) after he managed to become free. Due to development of famers in America tobacco in particular settlers needed more labors, and since lands were limited and most of former indentured servants were not able to receive a land, so they were did not want to go back to work, settlers saw African as a good opportunity for cheap labors. Since Africans were not England citizen, they had no rights to claims, as a result, settlers were able to work them for their whole life. Slavery became profitable especially in Virginia, soon rules were made to make slavery legal, and took away any rights that slaves had. Based on the documentary, for a Virginia plantation it was more profitable to work a slave to death and buy a new slave than let slaves to work in a humane condition. Another reason for development of racial slavery was Englishmen projected slaves as aliens and inferior, as Blight stated “as an outsider”, in different factors such as: color, religion, and

The Atlantic slave trade which was inevitably began by the Portuguese, but later in time taken over by the English, was the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and throughout the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa to the New World. Although slavery and slave trading already existed it became well known and practiced in all cultures. During this time while Europeans obtained most slaves through coastal trade with African states, some slaves

Meanwhile in the Americas, European empires were growing, and they realized that they needed a more efficient work force. They had tried using Native Americans, but they usually died from European diseases. Europeans couldn’t work because of the diseases that the tropical climate gave them. It seemed like Africans would be the perfect solution to their problems. They were used to the tropical climate and immune to its diseases, had experience in agriculture, and there was already a market for them. This introduced the slave trade to North America, and in 1619 the first New World slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Most of the earlier slaves to journey the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were from Windward Coast and Senegambia (Present-day Mauritania), but later expanded all along the coast of Africa. The Atlantic Slave Trade was also given the name “Middle Passage”, since it was the middle leg in the Triangular trade.

Through the same brutal process as the original middle passage slave trade, slaves were forcibly kidnapped and tortured in order to be brought to the U.S., or traded within the U.S. as well. Slaves originally were kidnapped and stolen from their tribes or towns in Africa and put onto boats in large number in order to be shipped across the Atlantic ocean to the America. Document B mentions that “a lot of slave speculators in Cheste to buy some slaves for some folks in Alabama...I

With the European discovery of the New World, African slave trade began to grow. Slaves were traded and bought and then shipped to some other place and then sold. Europeans would trade things for slaves then bring them to places like the West Indies and sell them. They would then buy goods and bring the goods back to Europe. This was the triangular trade system. Slaves played a vital role in trade all over the world, old and new. Although African slavery had already existed, there were many reasons as to why it was needed during the Atlantic World and there were many effects of this.

The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the forced intercontinental migration of West Africans across the Middle Passage during the 17th to 19th centuries. Between twelve and fifteen million slaves were exchanged between Africa, Europe and the Americas, together with raw materials and manufactured goods.

African slaves shaped colonial America just by their day to day relationship with their master. When African slaves were first brought over, they had a closer relationship to their master. They worked together to set up a successful industry that would bring profit to the master. As the years went on, large numbers of slaves were needed and their relationship turned strictly master and slave. “By 1726,

In the 1500s to 1900s, Africans were taken from Africa and brought across the Atlantic Ocean where they were traded and sold for labor in the New World, which included the Caribbean Islands, and North and South America. Around the 1600s, the Europeans captured and bought slaves, which began the Atlantic Slave trade and the forced migration of about 24 million people from Africa.

The beginning of slavery in the Caribbean can be traced back to the emergence of piracy in the 16th and 17th centuries. This eventually led to the promotion of slave trading and sugar plantations. While enslaved on the sugar plantations, slaves were treated very poorly. Plantation owners treated their slaves so poorly that most were undernourished and diseased. Slaves were even forced to work on their "spare" time to provide for their own needs. Needless to say, slaves encountered cruel punishment that we can’t even comprehend. The slaves however, continually resisted white supremacy causing much tension between the two social classes. Despite this, a new social class was emerging, the free coloureds. This

Millions and millions of people in the world are familiar with the name Bob Marley. People all over the world love his songs, such as “Buffalo Soldier” and “Three Little Birds”. “Is This Love” is the ultimate song to sit back and relax to. Many people, however, don’t recognize the political impact that Bob Marley had to Jamaica. Jamaica, in the 1970’s, was a political and economic mess.

With the growing international popularity of reggae in the 1970’s, the Rastafarian movement gained headway in Jamaica. Yet this came as both a blessing and curse for the Rastafarian, because it created

The music of Jamaica began five centuries ago, when Columbus colonized the land of the Arawak Indians. This dates the start of oppression by first the Spanish and then the English in this area of the Caribbean. Blacks were brought in as slaves by the English, and although Jamaica has had it's independence since 1963, the tension of authority and control still reigns. Jamaica is a story of injustice, international influence, ineffective governing, and unequal distribution of wealth; all of these elements provide a solid base for the theme of oppression and the need for a revolution and redemption in Jamaican music. Reggae in particular reflects these injustices, and the feelings, needs and desires to change the lifestyle that Jamaicans have historically lived. Reggae music has two meanings. It’s generic name for all Jamaican popular music since 1960, West Indian style of music with a strongly accented subsidiary beat. Reggae can also refer to the particular beat that was extremely popular in