Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Nature of Slavery in Ante-Bellum South

In his book Singing the Master, Roger D. Abrahams examines the nature of slavery in the ante-bellum South, how some of the institutions of slavery developed, and what those institutions meant to slave and master. He shows in the course of his book how what can be called a specifically African-American culture developed on the plantations, a culture that would emerge after the war and expand into something different from white society and from the slave society of earlier times. One of the more important social institutions examined by Abrahams is the corn-shucking festival, and Abrahams bases his text on stories told by ex-slaves, accounts written by slaves and masters, and other sources telling of this festival. Abrahams delves into these stories to determine the nature of the festival, its meaning to both master and slave, and its legacy in terms of how black society developed.

The author indicates that while many may believe there is nothing new to determine about the era of slavery, there is in fact a good deal to be learned:

Yet there remains a lack of understanding of how African American cultural forms emerged in the midst of a society that systematically repressed the slaves. The cultural production of slaves needs to be reconsidered if we are to begin to describe effectively the dynamic, expressive interrelations of the two cultures living side by side, which has never been adequately described (xvii).

Abrahams says he will use the harvest corn shucking as a representative scene in which some of the dynamic forms of interaction between blacks and whites can be demonstrated. As Abrahams shows, this festival was as much a form of theater as it was an occasion for harvesting corn, and the interaction between slave and master that was most common in these festivals was that the slave would provide the entertainment appreciated by the masters. He shows how the blacks would make use of their singing and dancing both ...

Page 1 of 6 Next >

More on Nature of Slavery in Ante-Bellum South...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Nature of Slavery in Ante-Bellum South. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 17:14, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689629.html