The History of Slavery and American History Essay

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Mandatory Essay: “Resistance is Never Futile: The Ongoing Struggle for Liberation”

Fossils from the Great Rift Valley offer testimony that all human beings descended from their roots in Africa. Because all humans are essentially in diaspora from our original ancestors, it can be especially fruitful to Africanize all history. Finding Africanisms in Black Culture means detailing the different ways Blacks have preserved identity and culture, while also reconstructing identities and culture in diaspora. The Gullah culture is one of the best examples of Africanisms in Black American culture. Although African Americans had been systematically stripped of language and tradition during the process of enslavement and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, it is nevertheless possible—and necessary—to trace Africanisms to their source. Prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, pan-African history evolved as civilizations with coherent language and culture migrated throughout the continent. The most notable of all cultural migrations was the Bantu, which was in many ways the proto-civilization of most of Western, Central, and Southern Africa. Often overlooked in Euro-centric histories of the world are the key figures and facts of African history. One of the most remarkable figures in African history was Queen Njinga. Queen Njinga symbolizes the ongoing resistance to oppression that has for too long characterized African and African American societies.

Enslavement, and resistance to enslavement, are inseparable from African history and identity. The politics of slavery were complex long before the global slave trade began to thrive. In spite of the attempts by African leaders like Queen Njinga to withstand the encroachment of European capitalists, the slave trade was well underway by the 17th century. The lure of purchasing a free labor force captivated European colonialists. Enslavement characteristics included kidnapping, physical bondage, torture, and racism. Ethnology was used to justify racism, too.

Oddly enough, African Americans have historically fought for the very nation that oppressed them. Crispus Attucks was in fact the first documented casualty of the American Revolution because he was the first American to die in the Boston Massacre (Franklin and Higginbotham 87). Attucks also happened to be black. Resistance to oppression and slavery took on a number of different shapes and forms, with some choosing to use the creative arts as a form of protest. Phillis Wheatley, who was born in West Africa and sold into slavery at a young age, rose to prominence as a poet in colonial America.

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Although all African Americans were in some ways affected by slavery, not all African Americans were enslaved. Geographical, historical, and cultural differences contributed to the diversity of African American culture. In New Orleans, a free and liberated African American and Creole culture burgeoned with figures like Thomy Lafon and Julien Hudson.

Prominent early abolitionists like David Walker, Frederick Douglass, John Parker, and William Lloyd Garrison laid the groundwork for revolts and rebellions like those of Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad, which helped lead innumerable former slaves to freedom. Moreover, abolitionist discourse enabled the self-empowerment of African Americans and helped create a cohesive culture that was forged in opposition to slavery but evolved as an attempt to improve American society as a whole.

Compromises like the 1850 Compromise characterized the insipid politics of America. As America expanded Westward through the policy of Manifest Destiny, policy like the Kansas-Nebraska Act led to the Civil War. The Dred Scott decision also symbolized how deeply racist American society had become after centuries of indoctrination into the concept of white supremacy. Yet the struggle for freedom and liberation continued, and was bolstered by the help of white Americans. Some of the nation’s unsung heroes, like Prudence Cranhall, paved the way not only for the abolition of slavery but for gender equality too. The intersections between race, class, gender, and power became more pronounced in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In spite of legislation guaranteeing equal rights for all Americans, people of color continue to struggle for recognition and basic human rights.

The means by which oppressed people created resistance movements throughout African and African American history has varied since Queen Njinga first fought against the Portuguese. Important political figures like Jesse Jackson helped to raise awareness, but ultimately the arts have been the bastion of African American culture. The hip-hop movement combines art and politics in ever-changing ways to promote social justice. As Chuck D. put it in the 1980s, “rap music is CNN for black people,” (Williams 1). The time has come for African American history to become fully integrated into the American historical narrative, rather than considering African American history and culture as being divergent from a presumed white norm.

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