Nowadays the media has shown groups of young people fashion and music styles that have originated from the African-American culture. Some of them, such as hip-hop, jazz, rap, gangster rap, and R&B have come from the black culture. African-American culture is deeply rooted and influenced in America. African-American culture and community are very conservative and characteristic. It was not easy to assimilate into the white society. Even they have still existed with their own nuances, soul sprits and Black English.
African-American culture cannot be neglected in American culture and history. Unlike most other immigrants in America, African Americans and their children were a very different kind immigrants based on the history of the slave trade and being torn from their homes. So I now know why Black history is important in America nowadays.
African American life in the United States has been framed by migrations, forced and free. Middle Passage from Africa to America was more important than others.
The transatlantic slave trade had its beginning in the middle of the fifteenth century when Portuguese ships sailed down the West African coast. The first black men and women arrived in the mainland of North America in the sixteenth century, often accompanying European explorers. With the advent of the plantation in mainland North America, the nature of slavery and then the slave trade changed. Slaves imported directly from Africa first landed in the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century. At the start of the American Revolution, the first Great Migration was over in the Chesapeake area. Native people began to take root in soils of mainland North America.
The transatlantic slave trade had its beginning in the middle of the fifteenth century when Portuguese ships sailed down the West African coast. The first black men and women arrived in the mainland of North America in the sixteenth century, often accompanying European explorers. With the advent of the plantation in mainland North America, the nature of slavery and then the slave trade changed. Slaves imported directly from Africa first landed in the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century. At the start of the American Revolution, the first Great Migration was over in the Chesapeake area. Native people began to take root in soils of mainland North America.
The slave trade continued in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia. For much of eighteenth century, black people in South Carolina and Georgia-unlike those in Maryland and Virginia-resided in an immigrant society, more an extension of Africa than of Europe. Mainland North American became a jumble of African nationalities (Ira Berlin).
Slowly the survivors made the new land their own. Their children struck root in American soil. They were the children of immigrants- but immigrants of a very different kind.
Slavery is one of the biggest issues in American history and Black history. There was nothing especially new about slavery as a system of labor and the exploitation of people. The Spanish and the Portuguese first began bringing slaves in 1503 from Western Africa to replace Native Americans in the gold mines of Caribbean and Central America. The extent and impact, however, of the vast numbers of enslaved Africans thereafter brought to the New World to work the sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and cotton plantations was simply phenomenal. This transatlantic trade created a new global economy and an international world. This new Atlantic World was unlike anything ever known before-linking the Americas to Africa and Europe in ways that resulted in the development of Europe and North America and the undevelopment of Africa and the rest of the Americas. It is not too much to say that profits made from slavery and the slave trade in the years from 1600 to 1860 greatly contributed to the emergence of Western Europe and the United States as the dominant nations of the world.
Slowly the survivors made the new land their own. Their children struck root in American soil. They were the children of immigrants- but immigrants of a very different kind.
Slavery is one of the biggest issues in American history and Black history. There was nothing especially new about slavery as a system of labor and the exploitation of people. The Spanish and the Portuguese first began bringing slaves in 1503 from Western Africa to replace Native Americans in the gold mines of Caribbean and Central America. The extent and impact, however, of the vast numbers of enslaved Africans thereafter brought to the New World to work the sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and cotton plantations was simply phenomenal. This transatlantic trade created a new global economy and an international world. This new Atlantic World was unlike anything ever known before-linking the Americas to Africa and Europe in ways that resulted in the development of Europe and North America and the undevelopment of Africa and the rest of the Americas. It is not too much to say that profits made from slavery and the slave trade in the years from 1600 to 1860 greatly contributed to the emergence of Western Europe and the United States as the dominant nations of the world.
References:
Berlin, Ira. "African Immigration to Colonial America." History & Now.
Roach, Ronald. "Decoding Hip-hop's Cultural Impact: Scholars are poised to take a close look at the influence of hip-hop on the social identity, values of today's youth." Black Issues in Higher Education, 22 April 2004.
3 comments:
I'm a little confused about what your aspect of impact the African American culture has had on America. As an African American, I can tell you that we have impacted America in so many ways that your entire blog for the next 8 weeks can be on just one of them. You hit right on two major ones.....fashion and music.
However although I could talk about this topic in much greater length, the main point that I would like to challenge is your statement "It was not easy to assimilate into the white society". I guess my first question would be what do you mean by assimilate? Because the history of blacks in this country will show you that we did not try to assimilate into white society. We were ostracized and criticized about how we looked, how we acted and what we ate. We created our own unique sounds in music and revolutionized music in every era from gospel hymns, to jazz to swing to rock-n-roll to R&B and to rap.
We couldn't afford to dress like "whitey" so we adopted our own style and flavor that now you can not even turn on the t.v. or open a magazine withouth seeing the influence that we have had on America.....not the other way around.
Darlene brings up some excellent points, especially the one that you could spend the next 8 weeks, or even 8 months, writing about the cultural impacts of African Americans on American society, especially current society. It's a huge, broad, and sometimes difficult topic because of the significant problems we had in america through slavery, Jim Crow Laws and discrimination (some that exist to this day!), and what is deemed acceptable culturally.
Keep exploring this issue...it will be good to write about it and talk with others who experience all the cultural significance of black experiences in the U.S.
I agree with Darlene. I myself learned about slavery only a short time after I got to the U.S. I was extremely sheltered so that was one of the things my parents wanted to keep away from me. I later found out my family faught in the Kenyan civil war. It's very interesting to see what other cultures or races even think about or culture. It is still astonishing to walk down the street and have someone hold tight to their purse and move clear across to the other side of the street. Sometimes I am dressed way better than they are and still it never seizes to amaze me. The other suprising thing is the recent changes lately. I don't understand at all why people thing just because the rappers sing something its way they are. I personally still don't like the way African Americans are treated in this country. You've made great points on this piece I would urge you to read more into our wonderful culture.
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