Impact of slavery on Black Americans
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What was the impact of slavery on Black Americans?
The enslavement of Black Americans by the white masters was an undoubtedly dehumanizing experience that impacted them negatively. Many African-American writers have delved into the past experiences of the black people in their writing. The indefatigable black writers explored the historical injustices that were perpetrated by the white masters. They reflect on the domination of black people and their fight for equality through violence and other means. I find it essential to find out why the racial divide between the black and white people still exists in the present, especially with the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. I am convinced that to understand the modern racial problems, I have to look back in history and discover what the journey has been for the black people. In this paper, I will endeavor to dig deeper into the literature to establish the impact of slavery on black people in America, the prominent advocates for freedom of African Americans, and the methods that African-American used to break free from the fetters of slavery. I will also seek to find out if African-Americans living in America today enjoy freedom from racial discrimination.
Black Americans were not treated as equal to their white counterparts. They were “Regarded as inferiors who were discriminated and segregated by the white people. Facing this fact the black people struggled for equality” (Mu’in 2016). One of the most significant slavery outcomes was the treatment of black people as inferior to the white. The white people reduced their human dignity, and they were left with the option of struggling for equality, for better treatment. In addition to that, “Blacks were taught to defer to their masters and to accept their own inferiority…The Blacks were regarded as powerless, unskilled and landless.” (Mu’in 2016). Slavery, which in one form was white domination of the black people, was also a form of alienation of the people from their identities as decent human beings. They were stripped of all decency and made powerless and homeless in the treatment. Besides, the “Afro-American community…had to endure an environment of brutal racism and endless hunger and poverty.” (Annadurai 2017). The consequences of slavery on black Americans were far-reaching. Besides treating them as inferiors and as landless beings, the white people pushed the Blacks so that they did not own property and remained poor.
The physical impact of slavery was evident in the lives of black people. “Physical punishment and violation of slave’s body was his way of testing their be-arability of oppression. The worst thing that could ever be used as means of discipline was wearing an iron bit in their mouth. It was meant to animalize and dehumanize slaves since it prevented them from using the only thing which makes human beings different from animals- language- and it was used at all ages.” (Vincelj 2018). The slave masters would whip people and inflict physical pain on them to measure if they could bear the brunt of oppression. This treatment in itself was inhuman.
The enslavement of Black people inflicted psychological torture. “What is even worse than physical impact of slavery is the psychological impact that it leaves. Bruises from the beatings fade and the iron bit is taken out of the mouth, but the trauma that the whole experience leaves is indelible an needs a lot of efforts to learn and deal with it properly.” (Vincelj 2018). The slave masters used various methods to inflict horrible psychological trauma on their black subjects. They ensured that there was a weak link between parents and their children. As soon as a child was born, he or she would be taken away from the mother and sold to a distant slave. This was done to alienate the children from their parents. It ensured that they grew without the love and teachings of a parent. That inflicted psychological trauma to both the children and the parents. Also, they were not allowed to choose spouses for themselves. And when they were bequeathed one, their intimate relations were reduced to giving birth to children who would work on the white plantations.
Who advocated for the rights of Black Americans?
Among the people who stood up against the white people’s racial injustices and raised their voices were Black writers. They included Richard Wright and Frederick Douglass. Both of them had endured the tribulations of slavery and found their voices to defend their people, triggering a revolution. Their contribution is widely found in their writings. “African-American Literature is the part of American literature that consists of works produced in America by writers of African lineage and directly related to African-Americans’ lives and perspectives.” (Sadeq 2016). It means that to understand the treatment of Black people by the white, and the efforts to liberate themselves, one has to interrogate the literature of Black American writers. “The black people were the first community to arrive in the United States on the eve of 1619…Slavery adversely influenced their individuality. Certainly, the only American who had tamed to depend wholly on the American environment was the black American to rebuild his identity. In their writings, the American identity of blacks was mirrored.” (Sadeq 2016). Writers played an integral role in recreating Black Americans’ identities after they had been destroyed during slavery. That was one way to create awareness and proclaim that Black Americans had a human identity, unlike what the white man created.
Slaves who told their stories played a significant role in reconstructing the history of Black Americans. “Slave narratives are a major part of Black American Literature. The stories of slavery and injustice were narrated through pamphlets and short stories by the blacks, which helped to find the groundwork for black texts and which were eventually called ‘Slave Narrative.’ (Sadeq 2016).
What methods did black rights activists use?
Black writers and slaves fought for the humanization and dignifying of the slaves. They used their voices to speak up against all forms of injustices that dehumanized the black Americans, stripped them of their dignity and rights. Additionally, “While some of the slaves preferred to delve into religious practices to escape the boredom of their lives, others turned to writing, the art of writing, however, proved to be more pivotal means to express their plight, especially for the more educated ones among the slaves. They would use this art as means to achieve what they craved for the most of their lives: Freedom.” (Sadeq 2016). It is interesting to note that the Black Americans who fought for the abolition of slavery and its institutions used writing as the primary method for agitating for their human rights.
Are Black Americans free from racial discrimination?
Slavery manifested itself widely through racism. Black Americans were segregated and discriminated against on account of their skin color. “Whiteness was thus used to assert the superiority of “all whites” over non-whites, whether possessed of property or not, the racial construction of whiteness ended up functioning, nonetheless, as a double-edged sword, reinforcing the class if not racial subordination of poor whites to the gentry.” (Armengol 2017). The race system was one of the strongest pillars that supported slavery. As such, to establish whether slavery ended is to find out if racial discrimination ended. “The statistical significance of race in correlation and multiple regression models largely confirms the strong social boundaries between blacks and whites…By acknowledging racial discrimination, blacks and whites are more likely to support policies to combat and redress racial inequalities.” (Silva 2016). To end racism, there is a great need to establish if the boundaries that exist between the black and the white race has been abolished. In other words, it is imperative to figure out if there have been anti-racism strategies to fight for black freedom. “Perceptions about racial mixture, and the consequent denial of rigid symbolic boundaries between blacks and whites, should be recognized as legitimate anti-racism strategies.” (Silva 2016). “The right to life for blacks depends on strict adherence to white law” (Gee 2016). This implies that black people are and will only be free from racial discrimination when they stop being governed using the white man’s laws. Frederick Douglass pointed out that the black person would be free if they were allowed to lead their lives uninterrupted. “Until a very little while after I went there, white and black-ship carpenters worked side by side, and no one seemed to see any impropriety in it. All hands seemed to be very well satisfied.” (Douglass 2018). Frederick Douglass points out that Blacks will feel true freedom by breaking racial boundaries and working together with their white counterparts.
Conclusion
The enslavement of black people was majorly founded on the racial system. The white segregated ad discriminated against the black based on their color. However, the slaves fought back to gain their freedom from the whites. They wrote their histories and agitated for their identities. They sought to be free and to be recognized as human beings with dignity. I have established that abolishing all racial systems is the ultimate way to be free for black people.
References
Annadurai, C. N. (2017). Impact of Racism and Oppression of the Afro-American Psyche-A Study of Richard Wright’s Select Works. Language in India, 17(6).
Armengol, J. M. (2017). Slavery in black and white: the racialisation of (male) slavery in Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and/vs. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Postcolonial Studies, 20(4), 479-493.
Douglass, F. (2018). Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape From Bondage and His Complete Life Story. e-artnow.
Gee, A. M. (2016). Violence and Identity in Richard Wright’s Native Son. Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism, 9(2), 5.
Mu’in, F. (2016). Experiences of African-Americans as Reflected in Richard Wright’s Native Son 1940. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), Special Issue on Literature, (4), 58-72.
Sadeq, D. A. (2016). THE PROJECTION OF RACISM IN RICHARD WRIGHT’S BLACK BOY (Doctoral dissertation, ISTANBUL AYDIN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES).
Silva, G. M. (2016). After racial democracy: Contemporary puzzles in race relations in Brazil, Latin America and beyond from a boundaries perspective. Current Sociology, 64(5), 794-812.
Vincelj, M. (2018). The Impact of Slavery: Dealing with Experiences and Memories in” Beloved” (Doctoral dissertation, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Department of English Language and Literature.).