Preview

Enslaved African Americans

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
489 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Enslaved African Americans
The existence of African slavery has been prevailing for centuries before the infamous American slavery. Beginning in the 1500’s, slavery was prominent in the world. During slavery, in places like the West Indies, Jamaica and even Florida, enslaved Africans would rebel against slavery. The first escape occurred in 1512, and since then more enslaved Africans began to escape. The enslaved Africans would escape into the jungles and forests where there was no sign of humanity. Eventually, communities were made from the escaped enslaved Africans and they were called maroon communities.
The etymology of maroon communities is Spanish. In Spanish, the word “maroon” is “cimarrones” means wild or untamed. “These societies ranged from small bands that survived less than a year to powerful states encompassing thousands of members and surviving for generations and even centuries.” (Price,1). Many of the maroon communities were established by men, who would thrive off raids to sustain life. While other communities would remain stable through
…show more content…
In the 1700s, they were visualized and labeled as a group of rebellions. At the time, the majority were the British slave owners, therefore they held the advantage of creating and persuading others to share the same view of the enslaved Africans as they would. The maroon communities created and extended legacies and cultures. The escaped enslaved Africans fought for their humanity. It took a significant amount of bravery for someone who’s enslaved to attempt to escape alone. Each escaped enslaved African sacrificed losing their family, tribe, and most importantly their life. The maroon communities are special because they refused to submit to a foreign way of life that minimized their dignity. The maroon communities were brave beings who rebelled against the extinction of the African culture. Maroon communities’ significance in the world is far beyond

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    For over 400 years,Runaway slaves would all come together and start communities in different parts of Southeast America, South America, even parts of Florida .These new social orders went from small groups that survived not as much as a year to effective states holding a huge number of individuals that made due for eras and even hundreds of years. Today their offspring still shape some independent spaces in a few sections of the world, in French Guiana, Jamaica, Colombia and Belize are proud of where they came from. Maroon or Seminole Communities,known in parts of Florida, were referred to as a group of runaways or castaways who ran away to nowhere and nothing. Which also correlates with where the word maroon comes from. Maroon comes from the spanish word…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who Is De Tocqueville?

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Some of the first Africans to come to the New World had either been captured in wars or by raids done by enemy tribes, and then sold to English settlers (Takaki 51). The Puritans had used the Africans and other whites as indentured slaves but over time it slowly morphed into slavery (Takaki). When both white and black indentured servants would run away, the blacks would more likely receive a punishment of “servitude of life” while a white run away would receive more time added to their service (Takaki 55-56). This “servitude of life” soon became a dejure in 1661 and slavery was born (Takaki). Due to slavery de Tocqueville states that “the Negro has no family: woman is merely the temporary com- panion of his pleasures, and his children are on an equality with himself from the moment of their birth (de Tocqueville 2).…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the seventeenth century indentured servants were the most common form of forced labor. However, by the eighteenth century African Slavery became the most common. This change was brought on by cost. In the seventeenth century it cost more to own an African slave than it did to have a white indentured servant. For that reason, Indentured servants were the more desirable option because they were the more economical option. But the down fall is that many indentured servants would run off, which would cause their masters to ultimately lose money. This is what lead to the shift to African slavery because Africans were easier to find if they ran off. African Slaves and there offspring could also be sold to gain their master money.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gullah

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The recent rise in Black consciousness has created an extraordinary interest in the study of Black heritage and the preservation of Black culture in America. Many scholars and students are turning their attention to A frican-American cultural patterns, which have been long ignored and often scorned. Black people are realizing more and more that these patterns exemplify key features of their heritage and may offer not only clues into the past, but also provide guides to survival in the future. As this interest gains momentum, African-Americans are looking toward the South, particularly to its rural and isolated islands where so many of the unique elements of contemporary Black culture have their roots. The culture of the Sea Islands is such a special case. The lack of contact with the mainland helped to preserve some of the important features of their African culture. Because the Africans that were brought to these islands were not sold and resold as often as those on the mainland, some of their ancestral family patterns remain even to this date.…

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the time of the 1900’s, we have seen the disgusting ways African Americans were treated. We have seen the selling, leasing, and physically punishing someone. There was torment that a human being had to go through because they were taken away from their homeland and were considered “slaves”. Now you would probably think that between enslaved men and women that enslaved women would have less suffering to go through. Completely false. Women were given the hardest workload and the hardest time during enslavement. Enslaved women went through so much more pain and hardship than anybody can ever imagine. The road to freedom was more gruesome and intense for a enslaved women that it would ever be for an enslaved man.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Slavery has existed in Africa since some of it’s earliest times of civilization. It’s believed that the origins of slavery started when Egyptians came to neighboring communities to buy slaves to bring back with them for work. The roles and duties slaves had depended on their genders. Women were more likely to get sold into slavery to perform household chores, spin and dye cotton, and sometimes be shown off to let everyone know of a man’s wealth. Men would usually work outside either farming, doing repairs, or building things. In later years, when European countries came into the slave trade, slaves from Africa could be bought with a trade of goods of clothing, food, firearms, and even liquor. Though, by the 18th century, most slaves were obtained…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The beginning of African slavery started in the 1500’s. There was a trade route called triangular trade. Slaves would get captured and brought to the new world by force. Europeans were immune to diseases that slaves weren't therefor slaves were introduced to these diseases on the ships that brought them to the Americas. These diseases were called smallpox and yellow fever due to tight packing. Dysentery was also a poor result of newtrition. Another disease is malaria brought to America by African slaves. There were no bathrooms on these ships so they would go to the bathroom where they were and then they would lay in it.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Arawak Indians in Jamaica

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages

    During the eighteenth century, the need for slaves was great because of the sugar production on the island. At that point, Jamaica became the center of the English slave trade because of a treaty (Treaty of Utrecht) signed by British, France, and Spain, ending a war. As the sugar gradually gained value and quantity, the ratio of black people (slaves) to white people because fifteen to one (http://www.kwabs.com/jamaica.html). The laws on the island supported slavery, and the sugar production dominated the economy. After awhile, the slaves started running away to live in small bands in the mountains. These people were referred to as ‘Maroons,’ meaning wild men of the Mountains. Eventually, slavery was abolished in Jamaica.…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Slave Owners

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The slave owners that resided in the United States were very unique. Not only did they have total control over the mind and what the slaves thought, for the most of the time, they had a unique role. Not only did the slave owners order to the slaves to do harsh work for long hours, they also used the slaves that were women as their “sex toy”. Several slave owners would go make visits to the slave house or where they let the slaves stay and they would force sexual intercourse among the women and the women had no choice for they would be beaten worse than they already were if they resisted. The result of this would be several women slave would become impregnated with these frequent night visits from the slave owner. The wife of the slave owner for the most part knew that this happened frequently, but taken the context of the situation the wives were not in any position to call out the husband of infidelity.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ex Slaves

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Murray Dolfman, a law Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was teaching one if his classes and he asked his students what the Thirteenth Amendment forbade. Not a single person answered him so Dolfman said, "We have ex-slaves here who should know about the Thirteenth Amendment". After saying this, he also referred to himself as an ex-slave considering he comes from a Jewish background. The black students in the class took offense to this and eventually took it far enough where Professor Dolfman was asked to leave the University for two semesters. Dolfman’s explanation to saying those words made sense. He said that he only said it to get the students going and to try and understand the Thirteenth Amendment better. He never saw any problem in this and thought it was okay because he too considered himself to be an ex-slave. Besides the fact that Dolfman was not allowed to teach for a few semesters, he had to attend racial sensitivity workshops as well. If I were put in Murray Dolfman’s shoes and had to attend such workshops, I would be furious. At these workshops, you are automatically assumed to be racist, sexist, and homophobic. I am none of those and if people were to assume such things of me, I should have every right to assume the same about them. People now are too vulnerable and take problems like this too far. These problems wouldn’t even be problems if the same people would back off and stop being too concerned about their feelings and freedoms. If they are making those whom do not have a single issue with homosexuals, people of other ethnicity, and the opposite gender takes these classes, then they are just as bad as what they are making the people taking the class out to be. They are infringing on other’s personal…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The word maroons is the same in meaning as the Spanish word Cimarron which means “mountaineers”. The maroons were enslaved Africans that ran away from the plantation. The Maroons became widely known at around 1665 when the British conquered the island of Jamaica, causing the majority of the Spanish to create new settlement in Cuba and cause the majority of the slaves to become “runaway slaves” or better known as “The Maroons.” Though majority of the Spaniards moved to Cuba when the English invaded the island of Jamaica, some remained behind as the English were yet still few in numbers and had only occupied the south of the island of Jamaica. The Spaniards had attempted to regain control of the island with help from the maroons, who wanted the English gone as well, but their efforts were futile and soon enough the English had taken full control of the island and had successfully driven out all the Spaniards from the island and to Cuba. The maroons act of defiance against the British enslavement system were what…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reggae

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tradition of African derived dances is upheld in the Maroon community, as an important part of their religious ceremonies. The dance brings the dancers into a spiritual realm.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    My Paper

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What ways did the Maroons prove to be a nuisance to the planters and an inspiration to the slaves?…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Slavery in the Caribbean began in the 16th century, when the first set of slaves was brought to work on plantations. During their journey and their arrival, they were abused, sold like animals, killed. The white slave owners, oppressed, abused and overworked them, with the belief that it would go on forever.…

    • 2973 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Caribbean History S.B.A

    • 1084 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Maroon communities faced great odds to survive against white attackers, obtain food for subsistence living, and to reproduce and increase their numbers. As the planters took over more land for crops, the Maroons began to vanish on the small islands. Only on some of the larger islands were organized Maroon communities able to thrive by growing crops and hunting. Here they grew in number as more slaves escaped from plantations and joined their bands. Seeking to separate themselves from whites, the Maroons gained in power and amid increasing hostilities, they raided and…

    • 1084 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays