Slave Acculturation Essay -- American History

striver Acculturation The seasoning process, as applied to the treatment of plantation slaves, was intentional to ensure non only that the slaves would become totally dependent upon the dictates of their owners and also to destroy the cultural links which the slaves had with their former homelands. In the westernmost African kingdoms which provided one of the major source of slaves at the height of the trigon trade, slavery was part of the indigenous culture however, the motivation behind African domestic slavery was for the main part political, and intricately bound up with the way in which the capture of those from neighbouring tribes would allocate bargaining power to the captors it was not requirement to impose a process of acculturation on the slaves in order to ensure their total obedience. (Curtin p 63) However, once slavery was prolonged to Europe and the Americas, there was a perception amongst the white slave-owners that t o allow dusky slaves to maintain their cultural heritage would result in the fomentation of uprising and invalidate the psychological and physical domination which was essential if small groups of whites were to successfully control large groups of slaves.(Inikori p 22) Depriving slaves of their physical strength, except when seen as necessary to set an example, would commence been counter-productive. It was the potential for labour which was highly valued on the plantations slaves cost money and it was in the interests of the plantation owners to maintain the physical wellness and strength of their slaves, even when they had established a breeding program which make the slave community essentially self-perpetuating. Seasoning was therefor... ...African heritage but substantial along different cultural lines and could not be said to have a direct connection with its cultural origins in the modern context of Black American society. BibliographyCurtin, Philip D. and Paul E. Lovejoy, ed. Africans in bondage Studies in slaveholding and the hard worker Trade. Madison, WI University of Wisconsin Press, 1986. Burnard, T & Morgan, K. (2001) The dynamics of the slave market and slave get patterns in Jamaica, 1655-1788. William and Mary Quarterly 58 1 npa.Inikori, Joseph E. and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. The Atlantic striver Trade Effects on Economies. Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Durham, NC Duke University Press, 1992.Africa in America Slave Acculuturation and Resistance in the American South and the British Caribbean, 1736-1831., The William and Mary Quarterly.(JSTOR)