Black And White Southerners: A Cultural Heritage Analysis

In the novel, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, the antebellum whites were able to control the black race by using methods of control, such as fear, sense of inferiority, and divide and conquer. For example, in chapter 3 it shows how a slave is whipped in front of other slaves, “The whipping served its purpose as far as I was concerned. It scared me, made me wonder how long it would be before I made a mistake that would give someone reason to whip me. Or had I already made that mistake?,” (92). As a general rule, when slaves witness other slaves being whipped, the slaves will most likely have a sense of fear which will cause them to not produce any trouble. It is also human nature to avoid all

For many people, the idea of a slave culture or of slaves exercising control and autonomy within the context of the master-slave relationship seems impossible. After all, the entire concept of the system of slavery is based upon the ownership of another person, which implies total control. However, Drew Gilpin Faust's essay, "Culture, Conflict, and Community on the Antebellum Plantation," which is based upon meticulous records kept by slave-owner James Henry Hammond, reveal that the master-slave relationship was far more complex than one might believe. Even when faced with rigid systems of control, slaves exercised some autonomy. Even with a rigid master, such as Hammond, these efforts at self-control frequently modified behavior on the plantation. In fact, while it is almost certain that some masters ruled through tyranny alone, it appears that the back-and-forth nature of the master-slave relationship meant that masters had to provide some inducements to produce work from their slaves.

The Black Codes in the Southern society which had many provisions of orders was published in 1865 and 1866 to restrict the freedom of black people (African Americans) and to reinforce strength of white people. In a deeper meaning, this law was created to be like a way to preserve the slavery system.

The mulatto elite separated themselves from the black masses by assimilating the morals and manners of the slaveholding aristocracy. They acquired as a part of their family traditions the patterns of behavior which were associated with the idea of the southern lady and southern gentleman. As a rule, these families formed a closed circle from which were excluded all who could not boast of similar ancestry and did not conform to the same standards of morals and manners. They were self-conscious of their “culture” which consisted of the enjoyment of English and, in Louisiana, French classical literature music. They maintained literary societies in which they could enjoy and foster their “culture.” The patterns found in rural as compared to urban black communities changed. The folk tradition of the

A number of states experienced decades of Black population decline, especially across the deep South known as the “Black Belt” where cotton had been king identifier. In 1920 however a large percentage of the African American population was concentrated in Chicago, Detroit, New York, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. By 1910 African Americans constituted more that half the population of South Carolina and Mississippi and more than 40 percent in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana by 1970. Mississippi was the only state that maintained an African American representation above 30 percent. Today, the effects of the Great Migration can be seen in the Music we hear, the food we eat, and even the look and feel of cities throughout the

They were freed when Lincoln said the words of the Emancipation Proclamation. After that they were persecuted and prejudiced by the people of the South who kept a firm grasp on their beliefs. Before that, African Americans born in the antebellum South, and brought there, were slaves to white masters. Some slaves lived a good, enjoyable life, some lived through neverending pain, some were average and spent their days being invisible, but slaves are an important part of the history of the United States, and the lives of those who lived through slavery should not be ignored.

Culture is such a broad and complex term that can be defined in numerous ways. It is said that in part is the integrated pattern of human knowledge, communication, belief, art, literature, and music one acquires upon learning and transmitting characteristics from previous generations. Culture is symbolic communication, and its symbols are learned and carefully perpetuated in a society through its institutions. In Black Culture and Black Consciousness by Lawrence W. Levine, he carefully attempts to uncover Afro-American culture during the antebellum and postbellum periods. More often than none, historians like to emphasize the things that get lost in the culture of Afro-Americans when they are taken from Africa and forced to live as enslaved people in North America. However, in Levine’s book, we discover that he carefully

I would classify the Old South as a “slave society.” Our previous discussion refers to slave societies as “societies in which slavery is a dominant socio-economic factor.” During the 1850s slavery was lucrative and profitable in the south as a result of the production of cotton, tobacco, rice, indigo, and sugarcane all which made the plantations” dependent upon slavery. The most profitable cash crop of this period was cotton which was labor-intensive, thus causing the need for slaves. Slavery strengthened the economy of the old south, but caused separation and conflict within other states in the United States as well as with other southern states that did not believe in or support slavery as the old south had, especially after the Turner Rebellion.

Regardless of their race, people need to know where they came from and why. Historically, we know that at least 450 years ago, or more, Africans were captured in their home and forcibly brought to the Americas on slave ships to work for landowners. Unfortunately, the Africans brought to the colonies were seen as inferior to the European settlers. Because of this feeling of superiority, the Africans were thought to be the property of the settlers and as such a vast majority were treated harshly. At that point in history, the Africans had lost their identity, and now that hundreds of years had passed the African-Americans have regained their identity. What constitutes the National Museum of African-American History and Culture as special

The Mary Celeste is a ship that set sail November 7th 1872. Sailing with 7 crewman Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs his wife Sarah and their two-year-old daughter Sophia. The ship battled heavy weather for two weeks to reach Azores were the ships last log entry was recorded at 5 a.m. on November 25th. The ship was spotted by the Dei Gratia crew 10 days after their fast log entry. The ship was found with all the ships charts tossed about and all the passengers belongings still in their rooms. There was three and a half feet of water in the ship's bottom deck, the cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol was largely intact. The ships only lifeboat was gone and one of its two pumps have been disabled though nobody knows what happened to the passengers.

The color of their skin, regardless of abolishment of slavery and social and economic well being was the only obstacle they faced every day to achieve the same opportunities as the whites did and other immigrants. George Edmund Haynes article, “Conditions Among Negroes in the Cities,” investigates reason and explains why certain situation were often ignored, He states, “There is growing up in the cities of America a distinct Negro world, isolated from many of the impulses of the common life and little known and understood by the white world about it” (110). Flaws of their culture and color of their skin affected African Americans as urban dwellers. As Haynes states, they had

African Americans during the eighteenth century lived in small minimalist log cabins with dirt floors, brick fireplaces, and wooden chimneys.  In coastal South Carolina and Georgia, African architecture were very common  They had little furniture and a few kitchen supplies, but as time went by, the families got more supplies and the homes became more substantial (Hine, 65).  When making clothes, blacks steered toward style resembling West African culture.  African American people Africanized the South with many other things such as their religious concepts and practices, African words and modes of expression, music, cooking methods and foods, literature and art.  They also were heavy on their notions of kinship and by preserving the West African extended family, a structure for African American culture was created (Hine, 67) .

African American class is one of my favorite classes. I have learned some new things about the African American art history during the 20th century. Also, I have known some of the important artist, and being able to discover their lives. However, one of those artists was George Washington Carver, who was a American botanist and inventor. He was a Muslim scientist. He was born into slavery in Missouri in 1864. He has a wild reputation because he had changed the way that poor family lives on. In addition, Carver had made some recherché about promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. He also had developed many products that made from peanuts, and that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics,

The subject for the Polypharmacy in Older Adults interview is an 86-year-old female whom was interviewed in her private residence. For the purposes of confidentiality, we will address her by the name “Janet” throughout the study. Her present and past medical history includes, autoimmune hepatitis with severe cirrhosis of the liver, a cerebellar stroke at age 75, and a history of complete heart block requiring pacemaker insertion.

African American culture took parts from both African and European culture to form its modern association. While there are claims that all traces of African heritage were beaten and stolen through processes of enculturation, I believe that the foundation, as well as a significant portion of practices and behaviors can be found in African culture. Many slaves held on tightly to their African heritage, while a slave culture sought invisibility through assimilating into American culture. These major influences helped shape modern African American culture.