When you think of African-Americans today what's the first thing that comes to mind? Reverse Racism? Angry? Thugs? Mean? Armed and Dangerous? Threatening? While I tend to think Blacks are resilient kings and queens, I thoroughly understand that the media constantly force feeds us negative representations and perpetuates disheartening stereotypes of people of color. A majority of these media outlets and huge propaganda corporations are owned by White, heterosexual men who have absolutely no idea of the Black life experience in "post-racial" America. Though some of these stereotypes may be true -- except reverse racism because that's literally impossible -- has anyone stopped to think that African Americans have the right to be angry? Has anyone stopped to think of the past 500 years where Blacks were on the receiving end of oppression, hate, brutal crimes, and degradation simply because of the color of their skin? Black people are the strongest people on earth. They have endured centuries of mental, physical and emotional abuse and yet they still remain resilient.
There are a multitude of underlying themes in the lives of African Americans throughout history. One of the most prominent themes is resistance. In the Antebellum South, enslaved Africans resisted passively in day-to-day activities with small acts of rebellion such as learning to read. They also resisted in more active ways, such as hiding, running away, and revolting. After the Civil War, African Americans maintained that resistance within them by fighting in the Civil War, demanding equality, striking, and organizing. Ultimately, African Americans resisted the oppressive conditions of the United States as discussed throughout the documents of Timbuktu to Katrina: Readings in African-American History.
Resistance among Africans can be traced all the way back to the 1600's in Africa when they were captured and bound together on slave ships to face the harsh realities of The Middle Passage and The New World.
In order for one to truly understand the views of African Americans you must read and understand past and present literature written by African Americans. ... All works cited in this paper are from The Norton Anthology, African American Literature. ... resistance! RESISTANCE!"... African Americans have always taken a stance against slavery through writings. ...
When Europeans took thousands of Africans from their native land against their will, one can only expect resistance. ... Very few, African-Americans accepted their status as slaves. Full scale slave rebellions as those planned by Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, and Gabriel Prosser were not common among the African American community in the United States in the nineteenth century. Most, slave-owners were completely aware of this and they lived in fear of the African-Americans under their control. The fact that most slaves were able to have families and feel a sense of community lessoned resistance ...
White servants were more cherished then the Africans. ... There were also resistance movements from both slaves and white indentured servants. The outcome of the resistance movements did nothing to help the servants nor the slaves, they ended in execution. Africans faces harsh conditions. ... Slaves and servants were enormously valuable for the colonies of America, but the treatment of the slaves and servants were ruthless and unjust. ...
African capacity to resist Europeans ensured that sugar plantations were established in the Americas rather than in Africa. But if Africans, aided by tropical pathogens, were able to resist the potential invaders, some Africans were prepared to sell slaves to Europeans for use in the Americas. ... Without this dissonance, there would have been no African slavery in the Americas. ... African Agency and Resistance If demand for slave-grown produce, social identity, and the Atlantic environment were three key factors shaping the traffic, the agency of Africans comprised a fourth major influence,...
The history of the African-American has been a story of assimilation and resistance. ... However, resistance, as it was for the slaves, is sometimes futile. ... This fear of how resistance could be met compelled many African slaves to assimilate to their new life. ... Thus, many slaves left behind the beliefs and traditions that had been taught to them in Africa. Many of the African slaves in America had the "Fanta Mentality." ...
African American music has been called "( ) the musical Lingua Franca of the world [because] everyone listens to African American music and relates to it."... First, let us look at the history of the first era of African American music, "Slave music (1600s -1860s)." ... A civil war broke out in America and when it was over the slaves were free; the slave community had just become the black community. ... The next era of African American music was called, "Classical African American Music (1860s -1950s)." ... Lastly, African American music leads to the establishment of various schools, for A...
African American History It is often taught that the social and economic conditions of African Americans have been one of America's greatest struggles. ... Soon may colonies started importing African slaves. ... African Americans has come a far way. ... African Americans achievements continued when L. ... In 1983 Vanessa Williams became the first African American to win the Miss America Contest. ...
Examining the role that religion played in the African-American community, primarily pre-civil war, can be a difficult task due to the limited amount of evidence available.1 While it is a common notion that slavery life was embedded with Christian ideals, a Christian-like ideology is likely more accurate.2 Syncretism occurred with the combining of African tradition and Christian principles to create an African-American spirituality specific to its people. ... This conglomeration of ideals to form an authentic African-American spirituality with Christian and African overtones has been descri...
There have been different types of slavery from Indian slaves, to English indentured servants, and African slaves. ... African slaves were not necessary, because the Spanish Americans forced tens of thousands of Indians to work for them. ... Because slaves could be sold in America for twenty to thirty times the price in Africa, men, women, and children were forced to aboard small vessels and travel to the New World. ... Due to large numbers of African slaves that had to work on the plantations it was very important for the Englishmen to establish a police system to maintain slave resistance. ....