The Slave Community

The Slave Community Book Review

Blassingame 's novel regards the nature of slavery in the United States by considering the perspectives of slave owners , more importantly , of the slaves . Through this , he suggested that the slaves were submissive and had slightly relished being under a master-slave relationship . It was pointed out , however , that by studying the slaves back then in the perspective of the slave owners takes away the true context of the slave : he is also a person who has his own culture and thoughts

To expound on this , the author

stated that the culture of these slaves were not completely overtaken by the culture of being a slave , and the slave owner . Moreover , the author also added that by holding onto their original culture , these enslaved men gained meaning to their lives Being continuously controlled and watched over by the 'whites , the slaves were manipulated to change , to lean forward to a how these slave owners thought . But one 's culture will never be replaced , altered but not completely changed

According to his book , the slaves would not have survived the predicament if they did not hold onto their culture . Their resistance to enslavement became their saving grace to survival . Taken the other way if the slaves were completely taken over by slave owners , they would have continued to be slaves to this day . This also supports the fact that looking at American Slavery through the eyes of slave owners , then one would not be able to completely acquire the reasons behind the success of the black Americans

In the novel , it was expressed that there were many attempts to have the African culture eradicated , and have these slaves Americanized Missionaries tried to convert these 'negros ' into the Christian faith the government and the slave owners prohibited them to practice their rituals such as singing and dancing . Despite these constraints , the slaves were able to retain this aspect of their culture

The author also pointed out that there was a cross-cultural exchange between the slaves and the owners . This much can be a natural reaction because the exposure to both cultures can mean an adaptation of either party of each other 's culture . For instance , if one would frequently hear a certain song on the radio , regardless of where he is , that song will be instilled in his head . At some point after , he would be singing the same song . This analogy can be compared to how there was an exchange of cultures . That is , of course , if one assumes that the culture is not heavily rejected by the other . There are strong chances that the 'whites ' are not completely opposed to this culture because an exchanged occurred . It may be hypothesized , instead , that the slave owners demean the culture of their slaves so that their culture remained the dominant and superior culture , especially since the location was their homeland An example from the novel would be that in there were times when there were black enslaved ministers...