Slave Acculturation Essay -- American History

buckle down Acculturation The seasoning process, as applied to the treatment of orchard slaves, was designed to ensure not only that the slaves would become totally dependent upon the dictates of their owners but also to destroy the cultural links which the slaves had with their former homelands. In the atomic number 74 African kingdoms which provided one of the major source of slaves at the height of the triangle trade, slavery was part of the indigenous culture however, the motivation behind African domesticated 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 necessary to raise a process of acculturation on the slaves in order to ensure their total obedience. (Curtin p 63) However, once slavery was extended to Europe and the Americas, there was a perception amongst the white slave-owners tha t to allow black slaves to maintain their cultural heritage would result in the fomentation of rebellion 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 puzzle been counter-productive. It was the potential for labour which was extremely valued on the plantations slaves cost money and it was in the interests of the plantation owners to maintain the physical health and strength of their slaves, even when they had established a breeding program which made the slave community essentially self-perpetuating. Seasoning was therefor... ...African heritage but developed 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 Slavery and the Slave Trade. Madison, WI University of Wisconsin Press, 1986. Burnard, T & Morgan, K. (2001) The dynamics of the slave market and slave purchasing patterns in Jamaica, 1655-1788. William and Mary Quarterly 58 1 npa.Inikori, Joseph E. and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. The Atlantic Slave Trade cause 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)