Slavery Affect on Gender Roles for African Americans - Essay Example

Module of the Assignment: Slavery Affect on Gender Roles for African Americans of the Number: Submission Date: Word Count: 2985 Introduction Most African Americans in North America can trace their roots to West Africa where they were uprooted by merchant slavers and sold to work in the cotton, rice and tobacco plantations majority of them located in the southern regions of United States (Conservapedia.com, 2009). The slaves who survived the arduous trans-Atlantic journey had their family lives disrupted with both male and females allotted disparate roles that were contrary to their previous normal roles for genders in most patriarchal societies. This was particularly evident in the Ante-Bellum South colonial settler plantations in the south where they were relocated prior to emancipation (Lovejoy, 1989); (Segal, 1995); (BBC, 2007). Background The history of slavery is almost as old as humanity having being practised for centuries in Asia, Africa, Europe and even Americas before European settlement. North America was a late entrant in the human trade as Spanish and Portuguese slavers are approximated to have transported over a million African slaves to South America prior to those in North America (Drescher and Engerman, 1998). Slavery in America can be traced to the first European settlements in the seventeenth century (1619) in Virginia when the Dutch sold the first African slaves (19) to the English colonialist settlers. The number of slaves ballooned with as the importance of cotton and later tobacco trade intensified (Engerman et al, 2003). The original settlers did not regard their slaves as destined for lifelong servitude until the 1660s when Maryland in 1664 declared that all slaves and their children would in future be deemed permanent ‘servants’. This conventional theorem has been disputed by McColley (1988, Pg.280), who asserts that these ‘captives’ were common slaves held against their will and only termed servants by historians due to the lack of records then as the word slave was only introduced from the mid nineteenth century. The decline of slave trade in Europe has though being attributed to the equivalent slavery rise in the New Lands in the Americas (BBC, 2007). The Ante-Bellum South The Ante-Bellum South comprised of the southern American states that were still practising slavery before the American Civil War. The ante-bellum south were the plantation owners who relied on slave labour to operate their expansive farms. The main ‘Black Belt’ segment was made of the cotton growing states of Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas; the tobacco producing states of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Kentucky; hemp growers in Kentucky and Missouri; rice plantations of South Carolina and sugar growing Louisiana. Virginia also upheld this status as slaves started to form the main workforce in the upper South in the same period (Galenson 1996, Pg. 165). However Engerman et al (2003, Pg. 3), argue that by 1690 African American slaves consisted of just 15 percent of the population in Virginia and Maryland as normally labour in the tobacco farms was conducted by white servants. This pattern changed in the eighteenth century as the settlers imported more slaves to work in their farms after 1720 especially in the Lower South colonies generally attributed to the ‘booming demand for Chesapeake tobacco after 1700.’ The newer cotton growing states to the south-west experienced an upsurge in the slave population as the relative wealth of the slavers also escalated estimated at $291 million in 1805 to $3 billion in 1860 or ten times increment (Ransom and Sutch, 1988, Pg.138-139). Most of the slave populations were thus concentrated in the southern United States plantation growing states where they actually outnumbered the settler white slave masters. In these southern states, the slave masters had absolute powers as upheld by then North Carolina Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin in the State v. Mann (1829) ruling that: ‘The power of the master must be absolute, to render the submission of the slave perfect’ (Wahl, 2008). Second Middle Passage The African American families who had been settled in the ‘Old South’ of Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee were again uprooted in a second forceful migration to serve in the emerging economic zones of the south-west plantations. According to Berlin (2003), this was a Second Middle Passage, which was reminiscent of the trans-Atlantic slave trade from West Africa. Families were once again ripped apart with little regard to family ties. According to Kolchin (1993, Pg.96), this forceful migration was catastrophic to the families as they were forced to abandon all they knew and the passage reflected the horrors of the Atlantic voyages. This large-scale disruption of families and communities had devastating effects on them and those left behind with scars prominent even today, ‘the massive deportation traumatized black people, both slave and free’ (Berlin, 2003, Pg. 161). Captive Slaves Households Impact on Gender Dunaway (2003) has disparaged the often flawed view of a two-parent households within the slave plantations establishments as inaccurate due to the conversely adverse situation whereby families were torn apart as women and young girls were sexually assaulted at whim by the slave owners and their sons discouraging any symmetry in African slave households. She argues that contrary to conventional view, majority of slave-owners (88 percent) were in small plantations that tended to be crueller on slaves as opposed to larger plantations. Marriages between slaves were not acknowledged by the slave owners, considering them as own chattels in line with other assets and any freed slave was required to abandon his family to settle elsewhere from the state or otherwise remain in custody. This meant that families could be dismantled at whim whether to be resold or rent to other white families without any regard to their status. Similarly, the slaves were not allowed to own any property apart from upholding those of their masters. Gender Roles and Child Rearing White settlers enhanced the number of their slaves by impregnating the women slaves as the statute authorising the freedom of children sired by European fathers was substituted to exclude African American women’s children in the seventeen and eighteen centuries (Giddings, 1984). Thus according to Giddings, ‘a master could save the cost of buying new slaves by impregnating his own slave, or for that matter, having anyone impregnate her’ (Pg. 37). This went on despite the outlawing of interracial unions that were in existence as early as 1662 in Virginia [Act XII, 2 Laws of Va. 170, 170]. Slave children were yanked away from their parents and raised in the slave-owners homestead to become their house servants hence disassociating them from their immediate families, which in effect deprived them of the comfort of their own community inbred in the slave quarters (Thompson and Hine, 2000, Pg.70). Burns (2008) in her analysis of Toni Morrison’s Beloved observed the practice of hiding the slaves’ children as collateral to guard against the existing practise of slaves families torn apart running away to join their spouses. The mothers were hindered in their plans of escaping extreme cruelty though the slavers tended to regard them as brooding mares as a breeding mentality emerged due to the enactment of anti-importation of more slaves in 1808 when the value of internal trade become more entrenched (Burns, 2008). Slave households were therefore limited in their efforts to establish independent households as the masters could disrupt the family unit at whim with no legal protection or support from the church that accepted this arrangement as a normal religious biblical occurrence (Berlin et al, 2007). To enhance their labour force women were forced to bear children early and thereafter every two and half year later. To encourage this, pregnant women were accorded more privileges including less labour, more food and less likelihood of being sold away from their families. Infertile women were sold off like other breeding animals in the plantations. The mothers were more traumatised when they witnessed the same cycle befall their daughters as men eventually contemplated escaping the farms and bondage hence further burdening the gender role of the mothers (Hallam, 2004). Role of Slave Mothers Although the African American families were largely dysfunctional, black slave mothers taught their children how to survive amidst the inhuman conditions administered against them through diverse ways. Thompson and Hine (2000, Pg.71) describe how women taught their daughters to mask their ‘inner person’ or develop ‘two faces’ thus outwardly depict submissiveness but inwardly preserve their dignity, true feelings and contempt for their masters. Young girls were programmed by their mothers to expect indignity from their white slavers teaching them guile and deception in efforts to safeguard their sexual veracity. Slave-born children however were deemed to have very limited childhood as they were introduced to servitude even before the onset of their adolescence, even as early as four years. This was very traumatising not only on the child but also on the parents who were helpless to intervene as they were also engaged all round the clock (Berlin, 2003, Pg.168). The children therefore, lacked formal training and proper childhood thrust into responsible duties at an early age. The congenital gender role of mothers in child bearing was thus more profound between mother and child than that existing between spouses hence was ‘more sacred than the husband-wife bond’. The cruelty extended to instances where the children were punished or whipped by the slave-masters in their presence, as they stood by impotent to assist unless they sacrificed their bodies offering sexual favours to spare their children’s suffering (Dunaway, 2003). Gender roles in the African American families were hence more predisposed to favour women as the main emotional and social support for their children, since men were not allowed by their difficult circumstances to cultivate a more personal role with their children. The larger family of men including uncles, brothers, and grandfathers in the community just like in their African roots took care of the family in all ways. The extended family structure, whereby community members offer support in the form of the capital, occasion, childcare, and poignant support is a significant aspect of most African-American families (McCandies and Barbarin, 2001). Gender Roles and Communal Support African American families during this period maintained their dignity by evolving close-knit family and community units made up of slave quarters that were reminiscent of their African roots villages. Due to their congested living quarters, they emotionally supported each other even against the injustices of tyranny and inhuman punishments visited on them by their masters. They thus engaged in customary communal rituals like dances, funerals, and weddings particularly in the southern antebellum region with expansive slave populations (Kolchin, 1993). Ever since their induction to North America as indentured servants and slaves, African-American families have risen above misfortune in part by relying on significant enriching and communal means such as religion, reciprocal support, cultural uniqueness, and adaptive extended family structures. Sanctified bodies, principally Christian churches, have been critical in the African-American society both for the spiritual beliefs that bestows value to disorderly and painful survival deeds and for the heart-rending support and realistic assistance, they frequently offer (Lincoln and Mamiya, 1990). Role of the Fathers The role of the fathers was disrupted and minimised due to the nature of the males serving different masters especially when they were relocated after being sold outside the resident plantations homesteads. Two parent households were rare and even mothers had to suffer the indignity of having their own children snatched by the slavers who brought them up in the main plantation masters homes hence limiting the role of the parent. This meant they lost some identity of their roots that had to be ingrained in them when they eventually realised that they were born into servitude. Eventually they dissociated their close links with the slave masters family identifying themselves more with the other slaves who resented their ‘easier’ upbringing (Dunaway, 2003). Nevertheless, the role of women in African American families has always been very strong with the women largely carrying the burden of rearing their children as cultural African ties with polygamous households similarly left the task to women with men as the head of the family. The fragile slave existence however made this arrangement almost untenable as both the parents and children were deemed as mere properties of the slave owners to be disposed at will without due consideration of the damage to both parents and children (Browne, 1974). Property rights for the plantation owners or slave masters had to take precedence over the family ties of the slaves though in some instances the sale price could be adjusted to incorporate both set of families to prevent disruption of the economic welfare of the owner (Becker, 1999). Role of Religion in African American Families Although religion for African American communities or slaves provided psychological sustenance as human beings in the face of their degradation by white slavers as sub humans, the church offered minimal support to alleviate their suffering apart from preaching obedience and salvation in the afterlife. Nonetheless, they enjoyed much following among slaves as it conformed to their African traditional religious beliefs of the existence of a Supreme Being and life after death (Sobel, 1987, Pg.184); (American Eras, 1997). American Revolution and Gender Roles During the American Revolution war of independence, African Americans were more inclined to side with Britain, which had already proclaimed emancipation of all slaves ostensibly to humble the aristocratic southern American plantation owners. In April 1775, the governor of Virginia Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation declaring martial all and calling for ‘all indentured servants, negroes and Indians to join the British in fighting the colonialists. African American women were engaged as cooks, cleaners and nurses. The women joined the fellow black men on public works including farming for food, carpenters, blacksmiths and builders among other duties (Nash, 2006). In the rebel south states, the slaves were herded into camps to guard against escape but later George Washington their leader enlisted their support however only engaging them as a workforce not as a fighting unit. The gender role in the year leading to the revolution was therefore more pronounced with women taking a more proactive role in their families as most men fled to the north to join the freedman leaving their families in the south still under the yoke of their slavers (Jones, 1989). Dysfunctional Gender Roles and Slavery Holocaust Shirley (2006) however argues that the nature of slavery as holocaust event is to blame for overhauling the original African family close knit kinship communal ties that led to the emergence of female dominated households bereft of male presence thus matriarchal ties as opposed to the traditional patriarchal family setup. The gender role of men in the family was wrecked as their psyche of male dominance was shattered as they suffered endless humiliation and servitude that greatly eroded their roles as the head of own family irreparably, a phenomenon that has continued to exist even in the 21st century. Shirley therefore contends that African American women were therefore forced to choose between catering for their young ones under impossible circumstances while there male partners in marriage were constrained in safeguarding their families (Hallam, 2004). This difficult choice led the reversal of gender roles with women taking over as the de facto head of their families (Hill, 2006). Decline in Matrimonial Roles Although matrimony is a characteristically gendered establishment, founded on male domination, female subordination, legitimate children, property rights, and distinct tasks for either sex, the onset of slavery fundamentally destabilised this pact (Browne, 1974). Slaves were treated as subhuman animals only fit to breed at the whim of their masters with little regard to them as human beings capable of natural feelings and behaviour. Conventional gender roles progressively eroded as male slaves role in the family generally faded in the background while that of women though also fragile among their children gained prominence. The fact that many of the brutal slavers were male only served to impose on the minds of children the uncaring attitude of men and inherence violence associated with it (Segal, 1995). Among young girls, they learned to become wary of male attention and had minimal contact with their biological fathers while male children were equally disoriented as they lacked a patriarchal figurehead to impart the importance of real families. The gender role of men was therefore the most affected by slavery particularly in the southern plantation states prior to the revolution since there was no hope of escaping the yoke of subservience at the hands of the slave masters (Spruill, 2007); (Conservapedia.com, 2009); (Bullock, 1967). Even though originally more male slaves were shipped to the plantations than female, this was to change as more women were introduced. Gender roles in regards to labour were also affected as the traditional role of women cultivating farms in West Africa were changed, as men were even more likely to be engaged in the labour intensive plantations like rice fields or tobacco fields. Male slaves were also forced to perform conventional household duties like cooking and cleaning previously the preserve of women as the slave masters could apportion them any task. Nevertheless women were allotted almost the same tasks as men in the fields though the more demanding labour was still assigned to men but women could be put in charge of the men which was unheard of in traditional African societies (Dunaway, 2003); (Browne, 1974). Conclusion Slavery during the formative years of the United States was a traumatising even for African Americans yanked from their homes in West Africa to serve as lifelong slaves. The main beneficiaries were the southern plantation states who unleashed inhuman treatment on the slaves disrupting their family setups, gender roles and other cruel acts. The role of fathers as head of families was almost irreparably destroyed while mothers were made to breed like livestock and their children taken away. The resultant phenomenon was a diminished role of parents particularly fathers and communal support playing a greater role to augment this. 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