Tate Mulligan
Reaction Paper #2
15 October 2014
History of Slavery
Black
Suppression and Culture in the American South: Antebellum Period
The majority of the United States’
society tried to make slaves and the system of slavery invisible in the
day-to-day life and in the official political realm, but the slaves resisted
this continuation of commodification by creating their own culture in the midst
of the white society. The slaves took traditions from all over Africa, and
mixed them with cultural aspects of their masters, the European settlers,
creating an identity for themselves in the United States.
The white society in the United States
rarely spoke about slavery directly. Society did not speak about the
institution of slavery because the more that people talked about it; the more
that people realized the corruptness of the system. In the Constitution of the
United States, “ the American [political] leaders gave ambiguous answers to the
question of slavery.” [1] It
is one of the founding documents of the United States and it does not recognize
slavery directly, but almost every “clause protect[s] slavery.” [2]
The lack of acknowledgement of the institution proves that the American society
did not want to recognize that slavery was a complete injustice to a significant
part of the population for economic reasoning and political power. In fact, the
Founding Fathers were willing to protect the institution of slavery in every
part of the Constitution. They meticulously worded the document and never said
the word slave. [3]
In many instances, slavery was justified in religion and politics, but it was
justified between the lines, so the institution of slavery was never directly
stated. It made it harder for the institution to be blamed. The normality of
not talking about slavery was apart of the continuation of the process of
commodification. [4]
The slaves felt everything a neglected human being would feel; yet the American
society did not even admit that the system was a problem because slavery
created the economic foundation of the United States and power to the Southern
states because of the Three-Fifths Compromise.[5] The Three-Fifths Compromise created an
unbalance in power in favor to the South of the United States. The South was
using slave labor, so when the Compromise passed, the population was larger on
the census in comparison to the population who was qualified to vote. This
advantage helped solidify the power of the slave states, and created more of a
resistance for slavery to be talked about. Slavery was apart of aspect of
society in the United States, and the deeper it was threaded into the fabric of
the United States the more difficult it became to address it. [6]American
slaves resisted the institution of slavery by expressing their humanity through
a new culture that formed.
The culture that the African Americans
created in the United States was an interesting combination of the African
culture the slaves or the slaves’ family members were taken from and the
European culture that they were being dictated by. Many of times the Africans
were from various African countries, so the slaves would find similarities in
culture to share to remember and embrace their African culture. During
ceremonies the men and women would dance in a ring to represent their
“togetherness and containment.” [7]
These cultural commonalities created unity within the communities of slaves,
and through the recreation of traditions the slaves started to create an
African American culture. As well as recreation of African culture, there was
transformation of the European culture into more expressive and non-traditional
ways of worshiping in the Christian faith. Many blacks found comfort in the Old
Testament, specifically the story of Moses. [8]
Many of the masters feared that if the slaves understood these stories, the
stories would create a sense of hope for the slaves, and there would be more attempts
to escape because God would protect them if they did. Along with religion and
dancing, the music that the African American slaves created was a way to get through
their daily struggles and to express them selves through coded lyrics or
rhythms. [9]
The African American culture allowed the slaves to keep their humanity, and
went against the idea of the slaves being invisible.
The
concepts of invisibility of the slaves and African American culture clashed on
the American stage. Many enslaved people did not understand how the blacks fought
for American freedom in the Revolutionary War, but they did not receive the
same equality and liberty that the European settlers received from the British.[10] The
slaves justified their call for freedom by telling the white settlers that they
wanted the same freedoms that they, the white settlers had fought for. It was
an ironic time because the Americans were asking the Englishmen for the same
liberties and freedoms. It was the South’s greatest fear for the slaves to
revolt against this institution that built and sustained the United States. A
slave named Gabriel was one of the slaves that went as far as planning a
rebellion to win over his freedom. He was tried and hung for his actions, but
in this fine example, it installed fear into the slave owners and the made them
look at the their role in the institution and how they were treating these
African Americans.[11]
If the white society had not been afraid, they would not have publically tried
him. Fear was the driver in many of the actions of the white, American,
slave-owners.
To
conclude, the white society in the United States continued to try to transform the
African American slaves into a commodity and justify their actions through
political theories and laws, religious guidelines and class systems. The
African Americans rebelled this suppression in many ways, big and small such as
dancing, religious beliefs and planning rebellions. The constant fear that the
masters had of the institution disintegrating motivated and caused many of the
actions of both the African American slaves and the American white society.
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