Slaves Created Their Own Society

¶ … Slaves Created their Own Society and Culture:

Slavery began in Africa even before the Europeans came into colonization of the African countries. This was evidently seen especially when the whites wanted people to work for them in their firms. The Portuguese brought a few people to work on their sugar plantation and on realizing that this crop, which later spread to other countries, looked for more people to work on their firms. This is the time when the Portuguese came to Africa and specifically West Africa where they took people to work for them in their firms and pay them in turn. While Africa has been ranked poor for a long period of time, the whites knew that Africans could not resist their offers and so they decided to look for them to work as laborers.

The news about laborers spread very fast that Africans turn in large numbers to work in order to get a living and later settled in the Atlantic. It is also here that they decided that there was need to have people who could head them and whom they could tell their grievances. Since the Europeans also wanted people who could work for them, they decided that instead of going all the way to Africa, they use the local headsmen and chiefs to get them laborers. As these efforts succeeded, there was an increasing demand for more slaves by the European countries. The rising demand of slaves by the whites forced the African headsmen to move to the interiors in search of this people and thereby taking even the prisoners ("Chapter Four -- Slavery and Empire," n.d.). These people could walk for long distances even without food and poor hygiene leading to death along the way and since there was no proper method of communication, families that were left behind had a problem of the whereabouts of their kins.

Slave trade was mostly seen upon the arrival of the slaves into America as Africans were forced to face the humiliation of being sold to whites in exchange of whatever things they agree on and this act devastated the African kingdom that depended on the European trade. It was during this period that creation of slavery culture and society started to emerge. Generally, slaves created their own society and culture through various factors including & #8230;.

Intermarriage with Americans:

As the number of Africans getting into America grew, intermarriage also started and an African-American society and culture emerged, which later lead to stable families. In the African culture there are several customs to be followed in marriage therefore the African slaves still followed some of their cultures in marriage. For instance, when these people gave birth to children, they named them in accordance with the African culture. In this case, the naming was carried out in order to create sensitization to retain the African kinship.

As per the African culture, ceremonies like burials included a tendency of singing and dancing, which was a reflection of the respect accorded to the dead. This culture was applied in America leaving the whites to wonder about the African system of burial initially though they later adjusted. One of the major challenges that the Africans faced was speaking in English as it took them time to understand the language since it was the national language, but with the help of the Americans they slowly understood it.

Use for Luxurious Purposes:

The other aspect that helped the slaves in creating their own society and culture is through allowing themselves to be used for luxurious purposes. They were more often used as a means of acquiring wealth and since they adhered to this, they became very close to the Americans, which helped in reducing the issue of slavery. As a result, the Americans no longer practiced racism on the Africans but allowed them to practice their culture. As this practice later pleased the whites, they were soon introduced to the new culture.

Growth of Individualism:

The growth of individualism is another factor that enabled the slaves to create their own culture and society. Slaves achieved this through depending on themselves to an extent that they did anything they wanted to according to their culture, which was unique to the Americans thus admirable as the blacks were given opportunity to continue with their style. The blacks started farming by planting tobacco which they later did it in large scale thus making a big profit. The growth of the slavery society and culture was also fueled by the creation of a society that recognized individual worth and offering room for the development of talent. This in turn rigidly organized the whole life of the slave and provided minimal opportunity for the development of individual skills.

Racial Basis: