Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory And The Foundations Of Black America

Slavery is a contradictory subject in American history because “one hears…of the staid and gentle patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retainers, ease and happiness; [while] on the other hand on hears of barbarous cruelty and unbridles power and wide oppression of men” (Dubois 2). Dubois’s The Negro in the United States is an autoethnographic text which is a representation “that the so-defined others

Ira Berlin, in his book Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, traces the conditions of African-Americans in North America from their arrival in American colonial life, titled the charter generation, to the plantation generation and even up to the revolutionary generation. Berlin presents an argument in front of his reader that race, specifically in the North American colonies during these times, transitions between what he refers to as societies with slaves to slave societies. This argument can be seen as valid because Berlin does a good job of presenting his case through historical examples while detailing how the institution of race changed over time.

Chapter five in Takaki’s “A Different Mirror” focused primary on the African-American experience 1700s through the end of the Civil War and the failure of Reconstruction. The experience of reading these chapters after learning about the continued degradation of Native Americans lent itself to continued feelings of hopelessness regarding the beginnings of U.S. history. For a moment, I felt deep shame at the actions of the founders of the United States, especially those who were the head of the country, in that time President Andrew Jackson. Slavery was not only a "peculiar institution" but also one that forced landowners to dismiss that they were exploiting fellow human beings for profit. Takaki discussed four major figures before, during, and

John Wesley Blassingame was an important educator in the study of slavery. Blassingame was a well educated individual receiving his “Bachelor’s Degree from Fort Valley State University (1960); Master’s degree from Howard University (1961); and his Doctorate’s Degree from Yale University (1968 and 1971). At Yale University, Blassingame became a professor of African- American Studies, American Studies, and History.” Taking interest, Blassingame became devoted to African American studies, Blassingame took part in the making of his own books and also helped others with theirs. Blassingame used testimonies and evidence from what he studied about african americans to prove stereotypicals wrong in the issues of slavery being viewed in the standpoint of slave owners.

In 1928 Ulrich B. Phillips wrote an argumentative essay about the reasons for the massive support that slavery received from both slaveowners and Southerners who didn’t possess slaves. The essay was well-received and supported by critics in the 1930-s. However, closer to 1950-s critics started doubting the objectivity of Phillip’s writing. It’s important to note that Ulrich B. Phillips is a white historian from the South, writing from a perspective of a white Southerner. When he was writing his article he failed to step back from his bias and provide fully objective support for the main theme of his argument, setting a doubt to the reliability of his work.

Slavery has always been viewed as one of the most scandalous times in American history. It may seem that the entire institution of slavery has been categorized as white masters torturing defenseless African Americans. However, not every slave has encountered this experience. In this essay I will focus on the life of two former slaves Harriet Smith and Mr. George Johnson and how in some cases their experience were similar as well as different in other aspects. The negative aspects of slave life were unquestionably heinous and for that reason especially, it is also important to also reveal the lives of slaves whom were treated fairly and with respect.

In a patriarchal society, regardless of class, women were subjected to their husbands and regarded as inferior beings. An author such as Marie de France used her position as a writer to make use of rhetoric in order to gain textual agency that would help her explore what society would be like with opposite gender roles. Through rhetoric, Gregory Chaucer who is male, evidently used female characters to exert dominance and empowerment. Both authors went against the social norms of the medieval period and rejected what an idealized women would be during that time. During the Medieval ages, women were seen as objects rather than subjects.

Still between 1865 and 1876, there was a culture identity crisis for African Americans. We cannot explain the roots of African American culture without

Slavery had also been present in New York from the earliest days of Dutch settlement. As their role expanded so did slavery in the city, 30 percent of its laborers were slaves. Most came from different cultures, spoke different languages, and practiced many regions. Slavery allowed different individuals who would never otherwise have encountered, their bond was not kinship, language, or even race, but the impressment of slavery. They eventually came together an created a cohesive culture and community that took many years, and it processed at different rates of speed in different regions.

Africans have, since the early settlement of America, has had a great influence in the nation’s growth. These contributions to the United States from enslaved Africans have been greatly portrayed in American culture. Varying from cuisine, to song and dance are not only portrayed today but it has a deep-rooted impact throughout the United States. During the middle passage, enslaved Africans were forced to abandon their everyday lives, their families and their homes and forced to adapt to a new lifestyle they knew nothing of. However, upon arrival into the New World, due to their prior knowledge and wisdom from back home, they were able to quickly adapt and custom themselves to this new lifestyle in order to survive with the hope of potentially one day returning back to Africa. Unfortunately, African contributions to the culture of the United States has received little to no recognition and it has been taken credit for by Europeans and Whites since the early establishment of the United States.

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.

Prior to the publication of any slave narrative, African Americans had been represented by early historians’ interpretations of their race, culture, and situation along with contemporary authors’ fictionalized depictions. Their persona was often “characterized as infantile, incompetent, and...incapable of achievement” (Hunter-Willis 11) while the actions of slaveholders were justified with the arguments that slavery would maintain a cheap labor force and a guarantee that their suffering did not differ to the toils of the rest of the “struggling world” (Hunter-Willis 12). The emergence of the slave narratives created a new voice that discredited all former allegations of inferiority and produced a new perception of resilience and ingenuity.

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.

Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderlos Laclos wrote what was one of the most scandalous writings of his time. He was born October 18th 1741 and died September 5th, 1803 at the age of 61. He was considered a beginners writer and to have a morbid look on human relations which is what he choose to write about in Dangerous Liaisons. Although he was a military official with little literary training his book Les Liaisons Dangereuses came to be literally acclaimed in the 18th century. Laclos was born into a Bourgeois family in 1760 he was sent to Ecole royale d 'artillerie de La Fere . In 1771 he was promoted to Captain and became bored with normal military life and began writing small poems at first and later a opera. He also started an

Drug smuggling is considered as one of the illegal trades responsible for creating diverse negative impacts on the society as well as the global community, hence, the concerted efforts placed by many governments targeting at curbing it. This essay aims at analyzing the prevalence of the problem of drug smuggling in various countries and to point out potential reason that escalate the menace despite existence of efforts targeted at preventing it. Furthermore, the paper targets at offering reasons that prompt an individual to engage in smuggling activities as well as the resultant consequences to the society. Finally, it will offer recommendations on the best course of action that will foster prevention of the problem of drug smuggling in the global community.