Making African-American Culture

The First Generation

African slavery took off slowly in British North America.

“Atlantic Creole” slaves were not necessarily treated differently than white indentured servants.

The slave population took off after 1675:• expansion of tobacco cultivation in Virginia & Maryland• Atlantic slave trade opened to British & North American slavers (1698)

After 1675: • ratio of slave to free population increased in Upper South• ratio of African to Atlantic Creole population increased• necessitated “Black Codes.”

Sugar Plantation

North American Plantation Labor

Growth of Slave Population in Colonies

3.18%

96.82%

1650

Percent BlackPercent White

11.09%

88.91%

1700

20.19%

79.81%

1750

19.27%

80.73%

1790

Slavery in Colonial America

Slavery in the North

First slaves believed to have arrived in 1638, when Capt. William Pierce of Salem, MA brought a shipment of “salt, cotton, tobacco & Negroes” from the West Indies.

New England merchants began trading in slaves in 1644, but could not compete with British & Dutch monopolies. The region benefitted from the Triangular Trade:

1. As a carrier of slaves;2. As a shipbuilder of well-respected “trim, sturdy” slave

ships;3. As rum distiller;4. As insurer of slave ships & slave cargoes.5. Growing foodstuffs & manufacturing for the Sugar Islands.6. Colonies collected a per Capita taxes on imported slaves.

Slave Labor in the North

Slaves brought to New England to satisfy “not a specific but a general demand.” Specialized plantation labor uncommon.

Unlike the South, the gender ratio in 17th-century New England was skewed toward slave males—a nearly 2:1 ratio.

New England slave “had to be more skilled & versatile than the average plantation” slave.

Unlike Southern slaves, who were often advertised as “likely looking,” those sold in New England were advertised as “Jacks of all Trades,” as “fit for town or country work,” either “indoors or without.”

Slave Societies

All regions of British North America had slaves, but historians draw a distinction between:

1. A Society with SlavesA.New EnglandB.Most of the Middle States

2. A Slave SocietyC.Parts of the Middle StatesD.Virginia, Maryland & the Carolinas

Forging a Common Identity

African-American identity developed in the crucible of the New World, amidst a background in which black people were:

1. Outnumbered by a white majority2. Surrounded by a strange religion3. Surrounded by new languages4. Sharing a common oppression as a

racialized minority5. Sharing common heritage as a diasporal

people

Shared Cultural Practices

Between 1650 – 1750, enslaved blacks formed a common identity on larger plantations, an “African-American” culture.

African-American cultural practices were “syncretic,” drawing upon mixture of beliefs, including:• African traditions• European practices• Indian influences

Can be seen in such cultural forms as:• African-American Music & Dance• Folk Tales• African-American Christianity• African-American Speech

Tituba, “the Witch”

“Tituba, the accused witch, telling the children of Salem Village mysterious tales of the Devil."

This postcard shows one of the dioramas in the Salem Witch Museum. It depicts the scene of Betty Parris and Betty Williams in the kitchen of the Rev. Samuel Parris house, listening to Tituba.

Mother Bethel Church

Baptist AME Church: Black Egalitarianism

The Black Church