The Influence Of Black Slave Culture On Early America

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Term Paper Title	The Influence Of Black Slave Culture On Early America
# of Words	1052
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.21

The Influence of Black Slave Culture on Early America

The Influence of Black Slave Culture on Early America

The Black slaves of colonial America brought their own culture from Africa to
the new land.  Despite their persecution, the "slave culture" has contributed
greatly to the development of America's own music, dance, art, and clothing.

Music

It is understandable that when Africans were torn from their homes and families,
lashed into submission , and forced into lifelong slave labor, they would be, on
the most part, resentful and angry.  Various forms of expression, clandestine
yet lucent, developed out of these feelings. One such form was music.  Native
African music consisted mainly of wind and string melodies punctuated by hand
clapping, xylophones, and drum beats.   Along those lines, an early type of
slave music was the spiritual, which has its roots in Protestant hymns taught to
the slaves.  Spirituals were "long thought to be the spontaneous creation of
African-American slaves and the only original folk music of the U.S."
Spirituals told tales of suffering and struggle, but these true meanings were
often hidden.  An example is in the song "Gospel Train" with the lyrics, "Get on
board, little children/There's room for many a-more/The gospel train's a-leavin'
..."   The "gospel train" of the song likely represented an escape method, such
as the Underground Railroad. Another type of music distinct to African slaves
was gospel.  These songs originated in plantation fields as work songs, and were
later sung in churches of Black congregations.   They were intended to enliven a
crowd, and employed bright music and joyful lyrics.  Gospel music contributed to
the development of musical genres historically considered "white", such as rock'
n'roll and country and western.

Religion

     Before Blacks came to America, they had their own highly developed
religious beliefs.  Most cultures believed in one almighty God, and the ideas of
good and evil.   They also practiced "ancestor worship", believing that dead
family members could influence aspects of their lives.   A main difference
between African and Christian religions, however, is that Africans did not find
it necessary to convert all other cultures to their religion.   Thus Africans
were rather resistant to the preaching of Christian ministers when they came to
America.   The Christian ideas they did absorb, however, were indoctrinated into
their lives with the addition of culture such as gospel music (...

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