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Slave Acculturation. Slave Acculturation The seasoning process, as applied
to the treatment of plantation slaves, was designed to ...
... Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of Africanisms
in the slave community indicated salve resistance to acculturation. ...
... Blessingame points out that acculturation, meaning the the process of adopting the ...
points out, however, that their was a distinct African slave culture that ...
... Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of Africanisms
in the slave community indicated salve resistance to acculturation. ...
... The lowest level of the hierarchy was the "Bozal." These were slave born on the
African continent with little or no acculturation with the Spaniards and ...
Submitted by hardwork on June 19, 2008
Category: American History
Words: 1310 | Pages: 6
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Slave Acculturation
The seasoning process, as applied to the treatment of plantation slaves, was designed to ensure not only that the slaves would become totally dependent upon the dictates of their owners but also to destroy the cultural links which the slaves had with their former homelands. In the West African kingdoms which provided one of the major source of slaves at the height of the triangle trade, slavery was part of the indigenous culture; however, the motivation behind African domestic slavery was for the main part political, and intricately bound up with the way in which the capture of those from neighbouring tribes would allocate bargaining power to the captors; it was not necessary to impose a process of acculturation on the slaves in order to ensure their total obedience. (Curtin p 63)
However, once slavery was extended to Europe and the Americas, there was a perception amongst the white slave-owners that to allow black slaves to maintain their cultural heritage would result in the fomentation of rebellion and invalidate the psychological and physical domination which was essential if small groups of whites were to successfully control large groups of slaves.(Inikori p 22) Depriving slaves of their physical strength, except when seen as necessary to set an example, would have been counter-productive. It was the potential for labour which was highly valued on the plantations; slaves cost money and it was in the interests of the plantation owners to maintain the physical health and strength of their slaves, even when they had established a breeding program which made the slave community essentially self-perpetuating.
Seasoning was therefore designed to establish the slavers’ psychological superiority over the newly arrived slaves, rather than to render them physically incapable of resistance: it was a matter of breaking the spirit rather...
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