African Slavery in America - Reduction of Africans to Docile and Dependent Sambos - Literature review Example

African slavery in America: Reduction of Africans’ to docile and dependent Sambos’ In this paper it is my intent to analyze and evaluate how slavery emasculated the Africans’ and how personality alteration happened due to the slave treatment they endured reduced them to docile and dependent Sambos’. Stanley M.Etkins employs new methods to analyze slavery and African slavery especially in North America is considered unique by him which lead to the creation of Sambo a slave personality type defined by him in relation to the authority and freedom they had.1 According to noted historian James Rhodes (1863) “Slavery is a curse to the master and a wrong to the slave” which is in line with the words of Henry clay when he gave his colonization speech in 1836.2 I do not agree with them because the slaves did not come to America by choice but were rather brought here by the Americans to work as labors and slaves for the purpose of capitalization of the country. The slaves were brutally treated, families were separated forcefully and their feelings were not taken into consideration. Elkins’ makes clear the authority the slave owners has over the slaves and to the slave owner the slave was a capitalistic investment, a force of labor under his control. The authority the slave owner had over the slaves was not in any manner controlled by politics, law, religion and there were no moral considerations.3 The slave community was made to work long hours and they were worked hard in an inhuman manner, the punishments for disobedience often being very cruel. Elkins argues about the personality change of the slaves as being turned into perpetual children, docile and obedient without any sense of self esteem or soul. He says that such a slave treatment lead to a type of slave personality he refers to as Sambo “a submissive half man and half child”.4 He refers to the African slaves as Sambos’ as they were docile and made innately submissive by the American slave owners. Blassingame argues opposing such a view of the African slaves saying that “systematic exploration of the African American slaves has not been carried out by historians” and the concentration has only been on the activities of the slave owner so far. He argues that the creating of the Sambo prototype began due to the fear of the Americans’ related to rebels from the Africans’. He further states that both the rebelling nature of the blacks’ and the Sambo extreme character of the Whites’ towards the Africans were present in reality.5 According to Elkins as the capitalists had all the power even when laws were formed the slave masters had “absolute power over the slaves” and “they had no right of personality and were left utterly defenseless”. 6 Apart from the physical brutality the slaves faced, the spiritual and psychological impacts it had on the Africans is high as there were no moral values amongst the slaves owing to the nature of treatment they faced from the slave owners. Historians have criticized Blassingame as his concentration was only on the psychology of the slaves and not on the economy, and little research is done in his book related to the capitalism and political economy prevalent during the slave regime.7 The discussion on African slave history points out that slavery began owing to the need of capitalization of America and brutality came into being in slavery as there were no relevant laws protecting the African slaves and due to the fear of the Americans related to the rebelling nature of the African slaves. The Emancipation proclamation to free the slaves was issued by United States president Abraham Lincoln during the year January 1, 1863. It proclaimed the freedom of nearly 3.1 million slaves and freed 50,000 of them almost immediately. 8 After the civil war came to a conclusion though the emancipation of the Africans came into being many of them chose to stay in the plantation. The general conference presided over the matter of slavery and asserted terms in a manner positive to the Africans and persons owning and holding slaves were excluded from their membership. 9 Only a portion of the Africans had the courage to face disadvantageous factors like racism, prejudice and other such social disadvantages. Most blacks found opportunities in Northern America which was where industries were majorly concentrated and they flourished well there. The Africans were free but their every day rights were abolished, they were not allowed to hold a land and all of them were required to work under an American which is more of paid labor slavery. The laws against the slaves were made more severe and cruelty, misery and evil aspects of the system of law were painfully felt by the freed African slaves.10 For many of the African slaves who were freed religion was a great source of comfort and solace and according to Bennett in his book “once freed the most slaves put all their effort and energy into religion…”.11 The church remained the point of hope for the African slaves and it provided realistic hope to the Africans on during their fight for freedom. The leaders amongst the African groups took charge of the newly freed slave population and such leaders played a major role in the uplift of the Africans. The family tree formation took place after emancipation as during the slavery period there was not fixed family structure amongst the slaves and legal marriages were performed only after emancipation.12 Reconstruction of the African society began during the civil war and after the emancipation of the slaves was carried out, the reconstruction continued until the year 1877. There were many factors like those related to economy and the federal status of the Africans which were considered. In order to uproot the problem of social injustice in relation to racism during reconstruction the fundamental economic, political and social changes were greatly analyzed and only then passed as constitutional laws. The difficult aspect which needed much work was devising a new system of labor to replace what was so far done by slave labors. 13Many of the Americans especially farmers faced poverty as paying the Africans was a major issue they faced. Custom duties and such were levied to meet the monetary challenges faced. Work alone did not lift up the Africans and education was taken up as the major criteria for upliftment of the society on a whole. Liberation through education is discussed in a greater manner by Christopher and he says that “ the African Americans realized the need of education in order to establish themselves in the newly formed American society after emancipation”. 14 Assemblies were formed and schools were built specifically for the African children in order to educate them so that they can become self sufficient and achieve equality. Educate the children, make them learn trades, raise them in an industrious manner became the way that most Africans followed which lead to the success of their race. In America at present Racism does exist and the African American is differentiated from his American peer in terms of color, features and cultural aspects. Especially the middle class Africans face much harsher treatments and even now both the American and the African American community do not live at a common place. There are subtle racial practices still in existence and they exist at work place and in the public.15 According to Duster even in the 20th century there is racial discrimination still prevailing because one generation had built upon the ideals of the one before it like building up on a bank deposit. 16 Stereotyping is a common problem faced by all African Americans at present and even rules and policies made by the government recognizing them as a minority population are affecting their growth opportunities. In marriage and in other cultural aspects African Americans prefer those of their own race and though many reforms have been made so far for liberization of the Africans, reforms in relation to the people culture and society based reforms are still needed. References Stanley Elkins, Slavery: A problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago press, 1959) William Jay, Miscellaneous writings on slavery (The New York public library, February 15th, 2011) pp. 458 John W. Blassingame, The slave community: Plantation life in the Antebellum south (Oxford University press Inc. 1979) Cynthia Clark Northrup, The American economy: A historical encyclopedia (Library of congress, 2011) pp. 458 Stanley L. Engerman , ‘review of the slave community ‘, Journal of political economy 81 (November- December 1973) pp. 1476-1477 Allen C. Guelzo Lincolns’ Emancipation proclamation: The end of slavery in America (Simon & Schuster, 2006) William Logan Harris. The constitutional powers of the general conference: with a special application to the subject of slave holding (B.P. thmopson printer, 1860) James Russell Lowell, The anti slavery papers of James Russell (Boston and New York, 1902) Volume 1 Lerone Bennett Jr. Forced into glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White dream (Johnson publishing company, Chicago 2007), pp.88 Mellissa Ifill, ‘African family structures in the immediate post anticipation era’. Stabroeknews, 2003 < http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/news303/ns3091810.htm> America’s reconstruction, People and politics after the civil war: from slave labor to free labor. < http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/section3/section3_intro.html> Christoper M. Span, From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, (1862-1875, the University of North Carolina Press). Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Tyrone A. Forman, ‘‘ ‘I Am Not a Racist but . . .’: Mapping White College Students’ Racial Ideology in the USA,’’ Discourse and Society 11, no. 1 (2000): 50–85. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield,Everyday Forms of Whiteness,(2004) Read More