Kirsten Samuels
16 October 2014
History 205
Cultural Assimilation
Over the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, millions of Africans were taken from their homelands and transformed
into commodities by the institution of slavery.
They were isolated from their traditional culture and ideas, and enslaved
in a strange, foreign land. Despite this
harsh reality, slaves were able to conserve some of their beliefs and
traditions. They formed new identities
through cultural assimilation, which often embodied similar customs from their backgrounds. New slave culture aspects included religion, music
and dancing, social aspects and familial dynamics; yet, this cultural
assimilation also brought with it a threat to traditional American
culture.
In
attempts to assimilate into the culture of their masters, they were able to
merge some African religious customs while also integrating Christianity into a
new religion, “The particular combination of Christian and pre-Christian
religion that coexisted in the slave quarters originated, of course, in the
contact and interaction of African and European cultures and was one component
of the new, African-American culture that resulted from the enslavement of
blacks in America.”[1] Masters attempted to use Christianity as a
way to force their slaves into submission, but the slaves were able to see the
irony in using Christianity to defend the institution of slavery.[2] The Christian idea of being equals before God
completely discredited the practice of slavery. Under what was known as the
“invisible church”, slaves were able to secretly practice their own form of
Christianity without being scolded or preached at by their masters. This formation of a new theology was able to
bring Africans together, give them hope and create a distraction from the cruel
experience of life under bondage.
Enslaved Africans were able to
express themselves through music and dance.
This could have been used a method of distraction and as a way of holding
on to pieces of their past, “They think we just happy to do the work but
singing songs an laughing a little somehow makes the load lighter an keeps the
bitter taste from crawling out our throats an sitting on our tongues ready to
strike.”[3]
Singing and dancing reflected on African rituals and oral traditions. Clapping, dancing and playing instruments
such as the banjo led to the formation of a new African American culture. What people do not recognize is that this slave
music laid the foundation for the huge, future movements of jazz and
blues. The music was incorporated into
the slaves’ new form of religion, used as a way to connect with God. Slaves also took part in song while in the
fields.[4] Anything that offered a distraction from their
grueling workload was taken part in.
To survive and assimilate in
America, slaves created family and social ties.
After the separation of families following the journey across the
Atlantic, slaves provided hope for each other by forming extended families and
social networks. Familial and social
ties provided a sense of community and unity within the desolate institution of
slavery, “I try to keep every word I hear alive in my head so I can carry them
back, an warm the fires at home. I
thinks my people will ‘preciate stories where whoever struggle in the beginning
make out alright in the end.”[5] Parents attempted to teach their children
values of life, despite the societal norms that might contradict these lessons. They were taught to believe that they were
worth more than their worth as slaves.[6] They taught them to act with etiquette and
deference, no matter the situation. The
politics of deference were that, despite one’s age, slaves were subordinate to
all white people.[7] Male slaves were referred to as boy, while
females were referred to as auntie. This
degrading reality enforced the superiority of the master and his family over
their slaves. Both the familial and
social ties molded by slaves provided a sense of normalcy to their daily lives.
With all of this change and hope
created by the spread of a new culture between slaves, masters became
worried. Hope led to a sense of
confidence and possible resistance from slaves, things that could be
detrimental to the institution of slavery.
The creation of a new slave culture had a completely oppositional
relationship with the idea of the traditional American culture.[8] Unity between slaves gave them strength to
start questioning the morality and fairness of slave society. The constitution stated that all people are
created equal, so slaves started questioning why the document that founded our
country and discredited slavery was not being taken seriously in that respect. Communal strength gave slaves the opportunity
to finally start taking their lives and futures into their own hands.
With
a new life as a slave in a foreign land, Africans needed to find a way to
assimilate and survive. They did this by
creating their own culture within American, while also tying in influences from
their previous cultures and traditions.
Religion, music and social dynamic each highly contributed to the brand
new African American culture. Resistance
accompanied new slave culture, yet slaves finally began to control some aspects
of their own lives.
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