Life of an American Slave in Early American History - Essay Example

History and Political Science October 23, Life of an American Slave in Early American History       Although slavery in America and the life of slaves has remained a subject in which rigorous researches have been done, the life of a slave in the early American history is quite an ambiguous one. Even in the present era, a little light is thrown into the background of American slave during their early period. “Generations of Captivity” by Ira Berlin and “Creating an American Culture” by Eve Kornfeld are two helpful sources that provide a better understanding of the early American slave life.       “Generations of Captivity” is considered to be the masterpiece, which an erudite historian and scholar named Ira Berlin has delivered. It traces the hidden history of American slaves from the beginning of the seventeenth century to its much awaited funeral after 300 years. In “Creating an American Culture,” Eve Kornfeld has done meticulous research on American culture including a vast amount of original documents from the slave era. According to Eve Kornfeld, American slaves have created a culture of their own, known as the popular culture which was different from the so called elite culture. The introduction of the popular culture through the medium of literature and music has been studied thoroughly by Eve Kornfeld upon which “Creating an American Culture” is based. Slavery originated in America in the seventeenth century. But the early history of slavery is still unavailable. Early American slaves were native Indians and a few exported from West Indies. During the later part of slavery, slaves were imported from the African continent in large numbers. The life of slaves was really pathetic. Atrocious behavior of the elite people made their life even worse. Slaves were put to work in the most heinous conditions in the plantations and domestic premises. The situation of slaves who worked in the plantations was really pitiable. They were not as educated or sophisticated as the domestic slaves. Domestic slaves were mostly women. Most of the men worked in plantations. Domestic slaves were well aware of the happenings in the whole household. They also had deep knowledge in the happenings in the political area. Majority of the slaves were concentrated in the upper south area. The native Indian slaves and the African American slaves tried to reconstruct their lost culture in America. This resulted and contributed in the development of the famous American culture that is unique with its racial diversity and ethnicity. This ethnic culture was later termed as popular culture.        Slangs were introduced to the language and literature by the African slaves and their descendants. This enriched the literature and gave it a fresh outlook with more depth and broadness. Music was the passion of American slaves and they saw music as a source of entertainment and relaxation. Besides, they perceived music as a means of an outcry of the hurt feelings. Jazz music was introduced into the field of music by the slaves. Thus, the contribution made by the slaves to augment the modern American culture was enormous. The contribution of American leaders to develop and unify a culture that enjoyed wide diversity in religion and ethnicity is praiseworthy. Along with the struggle for freedom and emancipation of slavery movement, the American leaders also succeeded in building up a nation with multitude races that were unified and distinct from the rest of the world.        Eve Kornfeld through the book, “Creating an American Culture” (Kornfeld par. 1) tries to expose the efforts made by the eminent leaders like Noah Webster, Benjamin Rush, Judith Sargent Murray, David Ramsay, Mercy Otis Warren and other intellectuals to develop an inimitable national literature that integrated a nation and reconstructed the concept of an exclusive nationhood. Most Americans have a static vision of slavery that existed in America. When we talk about slavery, the picture that comes to our mind is about the situation of nineteenth century slaves in America. During that period, slaves grew cotton and lived in the Deep South. But the history and definition of slavery cannot be completely explained by this picture. A thorough research is essential to describe the nature of slavery that existed in America for about 300 years. To make the things easier, appropriate research was done by the scholarly historian Ira Berlin in the book “Generations of Captivity”.        The definition and history of American slaves is completely reconstructed and reframed in Generations of Captivity. Ira Berlin has created an entirely new and interesting theory about the history of slaves in America. According to Ira Berlin, the developmental history of slaves in America actually constituted a dynamic nature, in which they redefined their captivity terms several times. The author has divided the slave history of America into several periods depending upon the nature of slaves in each period. “Generations of Captivity” supply us with a new vision of the African American slaves which is the driving force of the present American culture. The passions and aspirations of the slaves which were earlier thought to be trivial have contributed a lot in shaping a great nation. In recreating the history of early American slaves, Berlin is very crucial about both the time and place of the extension of slavery. He discusses about the life of the slaves in New Netherland, the Chesapeake, the North, Florida, lower Mississippi etc.        Slavery was generally considered to be the monopoly of the south. But Berlin throws light on the variance in the experiences of the slaves in the South and in the North. Berlin’s “Generation of Captivity” is all about the “making and remaking of slavery” (Berlin par. 1) Antebellum slavery is a subject that is well researched on and well discussed. In Generations of Captivity, Berlin divides the slave history into four generations, each generation contributing a great part to the development of the concept of nationhood. The five neat divisions of slavery according to Berlin are the Charter Generation which existed in the seventeenth century, the plantation generation in the eighteenth century, the revolutionary generation in the nineteenth century, the migration generation in the nineteenth century and the freedom generation in the nineteenth century. Charter Generation of slaves was the first Africans who arrived in America, then termed as the New World. Their position in the New World was not just as slaves. They were sailors and they enjoyed an identity of their own. They had a special privilege which differentiated them from their successors. They were even allowed to buy their own freedom and they could enjoy affluence even though in a restrained way. The Plantation generation of slaves existed in the eighteenth century. They worked in the plantation that mainly grew tobacco and they were responsible for building up a plantation society. The Revolutionary generation of slaves existed in the nineteenth century. They were the generation who was accustomed to much shocking and disturbing changes that has revolutionized the entire history of slaves in America. They were inspired by the ideals and teachings produced from the American and Haitian revolutions. They were benefited by these ideals of liberty in the north. At the same time they underwent a disturbing life in the South due to the same ideals. The migration generation of slaves is familiar to the Americans. This generation witnessed the rise of a powerful and strong republic. They also saw the emergence of cotton as the major crop in the south. This demanded the need for a large labor force which resulted in many atrocities on the part of their owners. This generation saw the migration of slaves into the Deep South. Many families got separated in the process and it resulted in the development of the antebellum society to which most Americans are accustomed.  The last among the five generations of slaves, put forward by Berlin is the freedom generation who has seen the Civil war and finally the emancipation of slaves. Thus, the freedom won by the slaves was really memorable after all these years of struggle. According to Berlin, the early American slaves were the Atlantic creoles. They were limited in number and they had their own specific affluence in the society. They were the natives of the West Indies where they could boast of a long period of European contact. They were unique, influential and also possessed a hold in the society. There were even black African planters among the early Atlantic Creoles. This peculiarity differentiated them from their successors. Racism never existed in a wider perspective during the period of entrance of the Atlantic Creoles to the New World. The freedom they enjoyed was really envious when we consider the situation of the nineteenth century slaves. The life of the early American slave is deeply masked in mystery and ignorance in the history of America. Not much evidence is available of the Atlantic Creoles, the predecessors of the African Americans. The degradation of the slaves began with the plantation generation. The Atlantic Creoles disappeared from the land of America and Africans, who were imported to meet the needs of the larger labor force constituted the majority of slaves. During this period the supply of slaves from the West Indies and Native Americans was not sufficient to meet the labor needs. As a result, large number of slaves was imported from Africa. The rights of the slaves and liberation policies of the planters towards the plantation generations were very few, when compared to the Charter generation. The future of the Atlantic creoles was well defined and they played a major role in the development of the society. But this was not the case with the plantation generation of slaves. Their role was trivial in the society and they were not allowed to contribute anything to the development of society. They had deep rooted connection to the native land, Africa and they tried their best to preserve the culture of their place of origin. Most historians neglected the existence of slavery in the North. But Berlin expands his analysis to the North, without restraining his analysis to the Deep South. According to Berlin, slavery existed also in the North with the advent of the Plantation generation. The revolution generation was the next generation of slaves, according to Berlin. Here a great disparity was seen between the freedom movement in the North and the emergence of cotton as the national crop. The rise of cotton cultivation demanded more number of slaves and hard work on the part of slaves. The slaves were also influenced by the liberating ideas of the revolution. This resulted in the beginning of the rift between the slaves and planters. This was the picture drawn by Ira Berlin, a famous historian, about the life of the early American slave. This was quite a scholarly attempt at drawing a distinct line between the various generations of slaves in America. The greatest contribution of Ira Berlin through “Generations of Captivity” (Berlin 1) is that he has thrown light upon the much neglected part of American history, i.e. the life of an early slave in America. “Generations of Captivity” also proves to be the masterpiece of Ira Berlin, who is considered to be a great scholar on the topic of slavery studies. His contribution to unveil the shroud of mystery that surrounds the life of an early American slave is quite commendable. As mentioned earlier, an early American slave enjoyed larger freedom than their successors. But even then the status of the slaves was really pitiful. They lived in deteriorating conditions and they were wretched. The slaves were classified as belonging to the lowest ranks in the American society. In the early part of the American slavery history, the slaves were not allowed to make money through any kind of trade or labor. Even the law allowed the impoverishment of slaves during the early part of seventeenth century. The masters could determine the future and the identity of slaves. The wretched condition of the slaves was a criterion for determining the prowess of the master. The slaves were given only minimal amount of food, shelter and clothing. The masters went even a step forward to justify their acts towards the slaves by putting forward the theory of Paternalism. According to them the slaves were the people without any privilege. It was their duty and responsibility to protect the slaves. By providing the slaves with shelter, food and clothing, they are actually favoring the slaves. This was the main doctrine that the masters upheld to justify their cruel acts. The spread of Christianity also glorified the ‘Whiteman’s burden’ (Kipling 1) which was spread throughout the colonies of the White people and not only in America. The doctrine of Paternalism was used by the colonizer as an instrument to suppress the slaves throughout the world. Slaves were classified as urban slaves and rural slaves. The urban slaves enjoyed a much better positions than the rural slaves. The urban slaves had to do only minimal labor. They worked in the factories and also as apprentices to their masters. The urban slaves worked in shipyards, warehouses, brickyards and cotton houses. They did not have to work so hard like the rural slaves. Most of the urban slaves also worked as apprentices to masons, tailors, butchers etc. Urban slaves also formed the major labor force in the building industries. Thus, the position of urban slaves was equal to that of the skilled labor. Most of the urban slaves dwelled in the same building as their masters. They had an attic to rest their head. Depending upon their affluence, certain masters even went to the extent to build a separate quarter for the urban slaves, usually for the cooks, housemaids and butchers. But the condition of the urban slaves was equal to those of their rural counterparts in areas where they were put to work in large construction projects. The fireplaces in these areas were not so well constructed. They had to work in the construction projects till sunset. After that they had to prepare their meals to satisfy their bowels. ‘Hiring out’ was a privilege which only the urban slaves enjoyed. In this system, the masters would hire the urban slaves to other people. The money from this system most probably went to the masters. But the slaves were also allowed to keep a part of the money. Thus the urban slaves could preserve for the future. Their rural counterparts were not allowed this kind of mercy by the slave owners. The ‘hiring out’ system provided with the urban slaves a certain sort of independence. The renter who hired out the enslaved people was required to treat them properly. They were not allowed officially to mistreat the rented property, i.e. the slaves. The slaves were also allowed to hire themselves out, with the permission of their masters. The early African slaves who came to America were those who were taken as prisoners in African raids and wars. They were sold to the white traders, who brought them to America through the middle passage. In America, the slaves were brought by the masters at a higher bid. They were not allowed any kind of friendships or relations between each other. The slaves were put to work in the most inhumane conditions. But, certain of the early African slaves became wealthy people and became landowners. Paradoxically, they even became slave owners. The condition of the rural slaves depended on the nature of the agricultural farm in which they worked. Although there were different type of slave categories like rural slaves, urban slaves and household slaves; each of these categories demanded a certain sort of commitment on the part of the slaves. Each category of slaves had their own share of trials and tribulations. The status of the slaves, the satisfaction of their basic needs, all depended upon the category of slaves they belonged to. The weekly rations were distributed to the slaves on Saturdays. The food was not nutritional and this unbalanced diet resulted in many diseases. Clothing was provided to the slaves only once in every year. The food and clothing depended upon the category to which the slaves belonged. The age of slavery is considered to be a dark age in the American history. It is really surprising that a nation whose foundation is based on the principle of liberty was largely constructed by the toiled hands of the enslaved people. Ira Berlin and Eve Kornfeld tried to reconstruct the part of American history that was avoided, through their masterpieces and award winning writings. Their books make us better educated about the life of early American slaves. The efforts of Ira Berlin and Eve Kornfeld are really appreciable. Both of them had evaluated the slave history of America thoroughly, which is really a great contribution to Slavery studies.         Work Cited Berlin, Ira. Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves. Harvard University Press. 2011. Web. 23 October 2011. Kipling, Rudyard. The White Man’s Burden. Department of English. Washington State University. 1998. Web. 23 October 2011. Berlin, Ira. Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves (Review). Project Muse. 2006. Web. 23 October 2011. Kornfeld, Eve. Creating an American Culture, 1775-1800: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History & Culture). Amazone.com. 1996. Web. 23 October 2011. < http://www.amazon.com/Creating-American-Culture-1775-1800-Documents/dp/031219062X> Read More