Book Summary of Mary Frances Berry and John W. Blassingames Long Memory: The Black Experience in America - Essay Example

?Book Summary of Mary Frances Berry and John W. Blassingame’s Long Memory: The Black Experience in America In their book en d Long Memory: The Black Experience in America, Mary Frances Berry and John W. Blassingame fundamentally trace the root of the African American race to the western region of the African continent. They have identified, in fact, the African ethnic groups of which the present-day American blacks substantially belonged prior to their uprooting toward the New World: Ibo, Hausa, Tshi, Edo, among other groups. Before the dawn of the sixteenth-century world, the ethnic ancestors of the Afro-Americans lived in a society ruled by justice and piety. True, the land and people of 15th-century Africa essentially practiced the system of slavery; yet, the kind of slavery they performed was far from similar to the European type of slavery. The characteristics of slavery prominent in West Africa at that time-period were more humane or fairer than the European institution of slavery. According to R. S. Rattray, slavery system characterized in pre-16th-century West Africa gave more freedom or rights to the slave individual (Berry and Blassingame 5). Rattray states that there are six basic rights of a slave, exercised especially within the Ashanti group: first, the right to marry; second, the right to own property; third, the right to own a slave; fourth, the right to swear an oath; fifth, the right to be a competent witness; and sixth, the right to become his or her master’s heir (qtd. in Berry and Blassingame 5). Berry and Blassingame observe that the praxis of slavery performed in ancient West Africa was significantly different from the slavery institution practiced by the European societies. In contrast to European-type slavery, West African slavery system strictly followed rules and regulations that protect both the slave and the slaveholder. Moreover, African slaveholders were punished if their duties and responsibilities were not properly exercised. If a slaveholder mutilated his slave, for instance, the said slave had the power to obtain freedom from social-instituted servitude. Berry and Blassingame contend that the most salient feature of West African slavery was the “social mobility of the slaves” (6). In this system of servitude -- with the exception in the Dahomey group -- a slave’s status within the society could be elevated into the status of a soldier, high military official, head of a state, or even the tribe’s chief. The two authors of Long Memory note that there were two alien racial groups who colonized the West African people: the Arabs and the Europeans (7). On the one hand, the Arab colonizers pursued an extensive slave trade in the 12th century. Unlike the Europeans, however, the Muslim Arab community was more kind and respectful to its black slaves considering the Koran’s teaching of peace and piety. On the other hand, the European conquistadors were more brutal to the West Africans; in fact, greater than 100 million Africans either perished or were transported from their native country. Berry and Blassingame say that the African people who first arrived in the New World occurred in the year 1502 (7). Coming into America, black slaves experienced tremendous changes in their lives and thoughts. Berry and Blassingame wonder on how the West Africans were able to cope up with the slavery institution practiced by the Europeans (9). Besides difference in the praxis of slavery, they contend that the element of language somehow affected the relationship between the European master and the African slave. The most apparent deviation pertaining to the system of servitude exercised between the Africans and the Europeans in the 16th century was the alteration of the slave’s fundamental rights. In the New World, the right of the black slave was reduced into ownership of land: “a separate plot of land for his own use” (Berry and Blassingame 9). In general contrast to West African type of servitude, the European (i.e., South American) slavery made black slaves and their descendants “bondsmen for life.” In essence, African slaves in the post-16th-century New World had no right for social mobility; they and their children remained slaves for their entire existence. Berry and Blassingame state that the cultural tradition -- such as proverbs, music and folktales brought from West Africa into the New World -- has played an important role for African slaves in adjusting to the new sort of slavery system. The most prominent cultural facet that facilitated the black slaves in coping the harsh foreign environment was the literary device known as proverbs. These Southern slave proverbs have, in fact, connection to the African kind of proverbs. Berry and Blassingame list several of these and they seem to suggest that slaves selected proverbs that were appropriate to their current setting -- that is, Anglo-American slavery setting. A good example of black slave proverb is this: “A scornful dog will eat dirty pudding” (Berry and Blassingame 21). In resistance to the slavery institution characterized in South America -- other than cultural in character -- African slaves rebelled against their foreign masters. Daniel E. Meaders states that African-born slave was more likely to escape away from his Anglo-American captor during the two years of servitude (qtd. in Berry and Blassingame 10). This reveals the reaction of West African slaves who were shipped into the European continent. Furthermore, Berry and Blassingame argue that American-born black slaves participated in conspiracy and rebellion in 19th-century South America due to the inspiration given by their brave African forefathers. Several of these black slaves escaped from the cruelty and slavery of their Anglo-American masters. In their successful escape, they either joined Indian tribes or established communities of run-away slaves. When slavery was abolished in 19th-century United States, by and large, the free African American people felt and experienced the subtle persistence of “slavery” in the form of racism or racial prejudice. At the end of the 19th century, African Americans were and are still in bondage to economic type of slavery. In fact, this slavery has been well documented by many 19th-century African Americans, both slave and free (Berry and Blassingame 33; 69). Berry and Blassingame argue that racism in today’s America is deeply rooted to the inequality of economic opportunity between Black and White (xix; xxi). Indeed, most crimes in America today greatly involve African Americans -- that is, black Americans as suspects or criminals. Berry and Blassingame, however, argue that crimes and other illegal activities spearheaded by Afro-Americans are merely products of economic bondage marked in racist America. Work Cited Frances, Berry Mary, and John W. Blassingame. Long Memory: The Black Experience in America. New York: Oxford UP, 1982. Print. Read More