Human beings are born with a tabula rasa. This is a theory that explains that people are born without a pre-existing knowledge of their identity. It further describes that human knowledge and the development of their nature comes from experiences and interactions with other human beings. These types of interactions can turn into relationships, which can aid in personal growth and also bring in a strong support system during times of crisis. One of the first places a person may find this type of support and connection is in a stable family. The meaning of the word family can vary depending on the person and other environmental factors like culture, religion, etc. The Oxford English Dictionary defines family as “a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit.” (AskOxford.com, 2008). This is the most general definition of a family in America. However, querying individuals from American society about their own experience with family may expose a new definition. This is mainly due the fact that over the last few decades, Americans have seen the development of single parenthood and the common transaction of blended families because of the nature of divorces. Nevertheless, the focus here is not on just the word family, but on the idea of a “stable family”. The meaning of this leads us back to the Oxford definition, which helps characterize the structure of a stable family as having one household with a mother and father who have been married for a long time. This is the type of family where people find solace and security when everything else seems dire. When trouble starts brewing, individuals tend to find support and comfort in their mother’s love, in their father’s wisdom and in their siblings’ understa... ... middle of paper ... ...w.blackpast.org/?q=primary/moynihan-report-1965>. Novkov, Julie. "Racial Constructions: The Legal Regulation of Miscegenation in Alabama, 1890?1934." Law and History Review 20.2 (2002). History Cooperative Database. University of Illinois. Web. 1 May 2010. "Scott Bond Interview." Interview. New Deal Network. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. Web. 1 May 2010. . "The Enslaved Family: Selection from WPA Interviews of Formerly Enslaved African Americans, 1936-1938." National Humanities Center. Library of Congress, 2007. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text1/enslavedfamilywpa.pdf "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account." Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Web. 1 May 2010. .
African American slavery was used to grow economies in the North and South before the Civil War. Although the North and South had different styles of slavery, they still had an owner/slave relationship that remained demeaning when a person owns a person. Narratives of interviews with Charlie Smith and Fountain Hughes are discussed as the slaves share their memories of their life as a slave.
Reynolds, Mary. The American Slave. Vol. 5, by Che Rawick, 236-246. Westport , Conneticut: Greenwood Press, Inc, 1972.
Rawick, George P. "American Slave Narratives." American Slave Narratives. Greenwood Press, 06 Mar. 1998. Web. 05 Jan. 2014.
The definition of family has changes dramatically over the course of history, especially from culture to culture. It is quite interesting to research the definition of family within slave communities because the slave definition of family not only changed from plantation to plantation, but also slave to slave. Upon reading the secondary sources, “The Shaping of the Afro-American Family,” by Steven Mintz, & Susan Kellogg, "Marriage in Slavery," by Brenda Stevenson, and “Motherhood in Slavery” by Stephanie Shaw, and the primary sources WPA Interviews of former slaves conducted in the 1930s. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, throughout all of these readings there seemed to be some definite themes. One is the roles between mother and father and their children, second is the role slave owners and their families, and another is the fact that for many slaves the definition of family was broad based. It seems that these accounts from the primary sources did not really capture the brutality that many history books seem to illustrate; instead many of the slaves had complete faithfulness for their owners. It seems really interesting that there would be this sort of “Stockholm” quality to the slaves. It seems slave life was very isolating, which created this dedication, which preserved what really happened on some plantation in the United States.
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.
Slavery has always been viewed as one of the most scandalous times in American history. It appears that the entire institution of slavery has been capsulized as white masters torturing defenseless African Americans. However, not every slave has encountered this experience. In this essay I will present the life of two former slaves Harriet Smith and Mr. George Johnson and how similar as well as different their experiences were based on interviews conducted with each of them. The negative aspects of slave life were undeniably heinous and for that reason especially, it is also important to also reveal the lives of slaves whom were treated with dignity and respect.
Slavery was an intrinsic part of North American history from the founding of the Jamestown colony in 1607 to the legal abolition of servitude in 1865. But our nation continues to grapple with the economic, political, social, and cultural impact of that peculiar institution to this day. Over seventy years after the end of the Civil War, the WPA Federal Writer’s Project sought to understand the impact which slavery had on the lives of African Americans who once lived under its yoke. In 1936-38, the Writer’s Project sent out-of-work writers to seventeen states to record the personal narratives of former slaves; the result was an outpouring of nearly 3,000 stories from men and women who were born into bondage and released into uncertain freedom early in their lives. The relatively small collection of 26 narratives gathered in Mississippi in these years reveals the complexities of African American life before and after emancipation. While this sample should not be read as indicative of the memory and experience of former slaves at large, it does raise important questions about the meaning of freedom, the failures of Reconstruction, and the perceived quality of life for blacks during and after slavery. A careful reading of the Mississippi narratives reveals nostalgia for the security and stability of slavery and an overwhelming dissatisfaction with the failed promises of freedom: “turned … loose, … lak a passel o’ cattle,” former slaves struggled to realize the concrete benefits of an abstract freedom and longed for better days;[1] This weary nostalgia must be recognized not as a rejection of freedom, but as a denunciation of the powers, which declared them fr...
Graham, Pearl. "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings." Journal of Negro History 46.2 (1941): 89-103. Print.
Moore, W. E. (1971). American Negro Slavery and Abolition: a socialogical study. United states of America: Arno press Inc.
Brodie, Fawn M. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1974.
African Americans have overcome many obstacles throughout their journey to freedom. Slavery began in the United States in 1619, in Jamestown, Virginia. Although the Union’s victory in the Civil War ended slavery, it continues to be a huge part of history to the United States. The culture of African Americans has been greatly shaped by the tribulations their ancestors suffered throughout their journey to freedom. African American slaves lived lives in which they were consistently treated inhumanely on a number of different levels, yet they found methods to endure and overcome these cruel times (Facts).
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
My motivation to research, discover, and stimulate social change is rooted in my childhood experiences. As a young child I grew up in a household filled with domestic violence, which ultimately ended with the suicide of my father. I subsequently came to know a variation of the typical American nuclear family: a single parent household. As I began to study family dynamics further, I was able to see my life experiences in a broader context. In hindsight, I now realize the impact and weight my own mother had on my personal development. It was through her strength, determination, and optimism that I was able to find the spark within myself to set goals and dreams for my future. She encouraged me never to accept anything at face value, including the way our society attempts to define my womanhood. As a result of this, I now question American culture’s classification of a ‘successful’ family and the factors that determine a ‘stable’ family.
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.