Slavery in the US - Fall 2014

Houston Hynes

Oct 12, 2014

Reaction Paper #2

The Development of African American Culture

           

After examining Saltwater Slavery, Major Problems in African American History, Buffalo Dance The Journey of York, among numerous other notable historical literary sources, it remains quite perplexing that a large proportion, if not all, of the African American story is simply left out of most primary school’s American history repertoire. Regardless of whether this exclusion is intentionally or unintentionally left out, it remains even more perplexing when considering this story, culture, is woven into the fabric of all things American (1). In response to things considering American and more specifically African American, the trans-Atlantic journey, the mix of both American and African cultures, and religion played the largest roles in creating the African American culture.

Undoubtedly the first mark of unification among the Yoruba, Akan, Ibo, Angolan, and other West and Central African people’s was the trans-Atlantic experience (2). Some may argue that the initial African-African enslavement due to imperial tendencies of African tribes in the 17^th century was the initialization of unity among enslaved African peoples; it’s difficult to directly link this distant process to America. Instead, memories of highly limited space, extremely unhygienic conditions, malnutrition, loss of family and friends, among others horrendous variables, began the unification of a variety of differing cultures and people headed to the Americas. Although this ‘unification’ is both tentative and undermined when considering the American randomized dispersal of human cargo, it remains one of the most important commonalities among all enslaved Africans with American destinations in their futures. The commonality of social death, enslavement, and oppression is most definitely central to the African American culture, but the trans-Atlantic process seems to stick out as the true initial unification and or transformation of African people into African Americans.

The central debate about the origins of the African American culture is encompassed by ‘Americanization’ and ‘African survival. Frazier and Herskovits created these respective theories, yet one cannot solely explain the complexity of African American culture with out the other (3). Although this debate is ongoing, the combination of American and African cultures is undoubtedly the primary causes for the “mixing and mastering, puzzling and plastering…”of the African American culture (4). Though historians are still unsure if the first African’s to arrive in America were indentured servants or slaves, from this point, circa early to mid 17^th century, marks the original mixing of the two cultures. Sterling Stuckey cites that African “tribalism” was an outlet for many enslaved African Americans, enabling, “…them to go back to the sense of community in the traditional African setting and to include all Africans in their common experience of oppression in North America.”(5). This outlet is most definitely an example of ‘African survival’ culture, yet the America’s were the only place experiencing these African ‘tribalism’s’ outside of Africa. Not one explanation of African American culture development can be excluded in the explanation of this situation Once again demonstrating the combination of both ‘Americanization’ and ‘African survival’ in regards to the development of the African American culture. More specifically,  ‘tribalism’s’ like the ring dance demonstrate the evolution of cultural aspects that are African in scope into central aspects of the African American culture. Stuckey highlights that these circle/ring traditions were spread widely across Africa including tribes like Bakongo, Ibos, Yorubas, Ibibios, Efiks and places like Dahomey and Sierra Leon (6). These circle dances are central to a majority if not all African people and are practiced at funerals, religious functions, special occasions, and to reflect and connect to ancestors. Yet again once translated to American settings these dances and ceremonies translated to new practices in Christianity and also art like music and dance. With African ties and American settings these practices can only be labeled as African American.

Finally, religion had a large roll in the African American culture. Although religion is indeed intertwined with the culture origins debate between ‘Americanization’ and ‘African survival’ due to the time period and the Great Awakening, religion displays a more documented and visible combination of both African and American cultures. In Mechal Sobel’s “How White and Black Cultures Merged: Culture as Social Relations” he explains “after 1750, spiritual revival…began in response to the needs of the lower class, to their conflicts in values, and to their longings for coherence.” and “almost invariably, when it came, it came when and where whites were in extensive and intensive contact with blacks.”(7).  He also cites that small church settings, usually with congregations of lower class whites and blacks, were a portion of the relatively new evangelical revival. In this setting white and black are mingling in an at least semi-formal meeting, in turn developing new sects and practices of Christianity. Although as the 19^th century grew closer and segregation grew more status quo, the 18^th century is a prime example of the development of African American culture in a religious manner.

Although the developmental process of the African American culture is much more complex than the trans-Atlantic journey, the mix of African and American cultures, or religious examples, each of these aspects most definitely plays a role in the cultures development.  Recognizing that these aspects played a roll at different stages, time periods and degrees, the idea that all three aspects are part of African American culture development cannot be refuted.