During the course of the African-American slave trade, slaves experienced a significant loss of culture and customs native to their homelands. When abducted from their homes and brought to their new land, slave-owners often forced their slaves to take new names that were more recognizable to the Caucasian population. The main character in The Book of Negroes, Aminata, is referred to by several names throughout the course of her life. Her African name, Aminata Diallo, has several variations including Miss Diallo or just Aminata. While aboard the slave ship, the ship's doctor gives her the name Mary; while living as a slave, she is referred to as Miss Dee, Meena Dee, or Meena. Those who found themselves in captivity also adopted a new language …show more content…
Christian missionaries and owners of slaves tried to erase African religious beliefs altogether. As a result, "in the United States, many African religious rites were fused into one" (Blassingame, John). Aminata was influenced not only by her father's religion as a Muslim, but also from the religion of one of her owners. Aminata identified with Solomon Lindo's Judaism: "The Jews in Charles Town had taught one of their slaves to butcher meat according to their beliefs… Solomon Lindo and his wife also avoided pork. Perhaps he was right in saying that we were similar" (Hill 197). Both Aminata and the Lindo family did not eat pork due to their religious beliefs, however to slaves who did not practice the same beliefs, this would have come as a culture shock. Aminata was also immersed in the Methodist church because of her friendship with Daddy Moses, although she never converted to that religion: "'Have you taken Jesus into your arms?' he asked me. 'My arms have been busy, and Jesus hasn't come looking'" (Hill 317). Aminata, along with the millions of slaves living through the slave trade, were exposed to a diverse number of religions; it was difficult to identify with and strictly practice one religion. In her final years, Aminata admits that "I have not embraced a God as might be imagined by a Muslim, Jew, or Christian,"(Hill 233) and a majority of slaves felt the same. The refusal to conform to American or Caucasian religious beliefs, but the inability to practice their own purely out of fear, left thousands of African-Americans believing in no religion
Aminata Diallo is an eleven years old African girl, when her life changes completely, as she goes from a beloved daughter to an orphan that is captured and enslaved. Aminata is shown in the novel Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill as a strong young protagonist that is able to survive the odyssey around the world first as a slave and later as a free activist agent of the British. In the book, her various stages of her life are always connected with the clothes that she is wearing or the lack of clothes and show the degree of dehumanization that accompanies slavery.
Boser, Ulrich. "The Black Man's Burden." U.S. News & World Report 133.8 (2002): 50. Academic
That was her first formal language lesson. Then she was sold to Solomon Lindo, from where, she got an opportunity to truly enter the literature world.Mr. Lindo taught her arithmetic, coins and keeping ledgers (Hill, 2011) and Mrs. Lindo gave her lessons in the art of writing. On account of her reading and writing ability, Aminata then became Mr. Lindo’s some sort of secretary. She was built to an academic since then. She wrote business letters for Mr.Lindo and managed accounts for him. After she got rid of Solomon Lindo during the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, she announced notices to other Africans, read news in the café and taught people to read and write. Aminata Diallo was almost famous as a spirit leader, both in African community and buckra community. So she helped finish The Book of Negroes, which is a list of all the slaves’ names, due to her extraordinary language
In his book, The Miseducation of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson addresses many issues that have been and are still prevalent in the African American community. Woodson believed that in the midst of receiving education, blacks lost sight of their original reasons for becoming educated. He believed that many blacks became educated only to assimilate to white culture and attempt to become successful under white standards, instead of investing in their communities and applying their knowledge to help other blacks.
Slave-owners forced a perverse form of Christianity, one that condoned slavery, upon slaves. According to this false Christianity the enslavement of “black Africans is justified because they are the descendants of Ham, one of Noah's sons; in one Biblical story, Noah cursed Ham's descendants to be slaves” (Tolson 272). Slavery was further validated by the numerous examples of it within the bible. It was reasoned that these examples were confirmation that God condoned slavery. Douglass’s master...
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
Kyles, Perry L.. "Resistance and Collaboration: Political Strategies within the Afro-Carolinian Slave Community, 1700-1750." The Journal of African History 93: 497-508.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
Abstract from Essay The reader can contemplate the passage of Du Bois' essay to substitute the words "colored" and "Negro" with African-American, Nigger, illegal alien, Mexican, inner-city dwellers, and other meanings that articulate people that are not listed as a majority. Du Bois' essay is considered a classic because its words can easily reflect the modern day. -------------------------------------------- The Souls of Black Folk broadens the minds of the readers, and gives the reader a deeper understanding into the lives of people of African heritage.
As the United States grew, the institution of slavery became a way of life in the southern states, while northern states began to abolish it. While the majority of free blacks lived in poverty, some were able to establish successful businesses that helped the Black community. Racial discrimination often meant that Blacks were not welcome or would be mistreated in White businesses and other establishments. A comparison of the narratives of Douglass and Jacobs demonstrates the full range of demands and situations that slaves experienced, and the mistreatment that they experienced as well. Jacobs experienced the ongoing sexual harassment from James Norcom, just like numerous slave women experienced sexual abuse or harassment during the slave era. Another issue that faced blacks was the incompetence of the white slave owners and people. In ...
When one thinks of slavery, they may consider chains holding captives, beaten into submission, and forced to work indefinitely for no money. The other thing that often comes to mind? Stereotypical African slaves, shipped to America in the seventeenth century. The kind of slavery that was outlawed by the 18th amendment, nearly a century and a half ago. As author of Modern Slavery: The Secret World of 27 Million People, Kevin Bales, states, the stereotypes surrounding slavery often confuse and blur the reality of slavery. Although slavery surely consists of physical chains, beatings, and forced labor, there is much more depth to the issue, making slavery much more complex today than ever before.
Raboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion: The "invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford UP, 1978. Print.
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
Between 1619 and 1862 it was very common to come across free men or enslaved blacks in America, however, it was something special to encounter a man both free and black during this time. Although, as Frado soon learned, “ Freedom from slavery did not mean equality of citizenship” ( Higginbotham 160). The mindset of the elite, white ruling class was to discourage free blacks in every conceivable way, “ not only have we created laws to expel them at will, but we hamper them in a thousand ways.” ( Tocquville). The communities of free A...