A few testimonies verify the Muslim presence in Georgia when items like prayer mats, prayer beads, head coverings, and Qurans were being used by slaves. Additionally, an interesting quote about Islam was “ The last quote is fascinating, for it strongly suggests that Calina and Hannah were Muslim converts, as the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria were not Muslim” (Gomez 1998, 78). This shows that the freedom of religion was practiced by the Africans if some slaves converted to Islam at a certain point of their lives. This common practice religious freedom may of contributed to finding a common identity between the Africans. Even though Islam was introduced to America through the slaves, it did not last. Muslims had trouble keeping Islam because some had no choice but to marry non-Muslim spouses. Likewise, Muslims had no access to madrasas or mosques to practice their religion and gain knowledge. Additionally, another difficulty Islam faced in America was that Muslim people began to attend prayer houses held by the Sapelo community. They began attending Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday Christian prayer houses while still attending Muslim gatherings. Once the First African Baptist Church was established in May of 1866, the practice of Islam began to fade away.
Comparatively, Islam had a major impact on the process of social stratification within the early African American society. It has been noted that the Senegambians were very important to the launching of economies in Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, and Louisiana because of their classification of being skilled black workers. They became one of the most important sources of slaves for North America. Senegambians mainly identified themselves religiously as Muslims. Muslims were deeply affected by the racist views the whites had towards other Africans and they would be encouraged to distance themselves from the average African and African American. This ruined the opportunities of building any sort of relationships between the Muslim and non-Muslim slaves. For example, a Muslim house slave would not be able to build a strong relationship with non-Muslim slaves because he had the perk of working indoors rather than outdoors like everyone else. Islam caused a division between the different Africans and Muslims were treated as higher class slaves.
Likewise, another example of division was by bringing slaves from many different parts of Africa. Each kind of people had their own cultural practice and religious view. The Bambara people because they had a stereotypic image of being rebellious to their masters, and slaves originally from Sierra Leone were classified as farmers,fishers, and hunters. On the other hand, some of the Igbo people, who come from Bight of Biafra, would commit suicide because of their belief in reincarnation and belief that suicide will return them back to Africa. Accordingly, the Bight of Biafra people were claimed to be the largest group responsible for the development of the African-based community in North America.The division in people within Africa played a role in classification and Social Stratification. Through observations, experience, and authority, a Social Stratification was established. Classes formed based on privilege, skill, and proximity to whites. Social stratification resulted in the whites’ ability to describe slaves in slave advertisements, and conclude that Sierra Leonians and Gambians were the slave of choice in the south because of their rice cultivation skills. Additionally, social stratification is responsible for the location of slave populations determined by the nature of the skills they possessed. If they were Sierra Leonians or Gambians, then they typically worked in the south cultivating rice. Cultivating rice is a labor intense job, so it required large amounts of slaves. The north had significantly less slaves than the south. Social stratification began with the perceptions of the slaveholders on the slave society. Some slaveholders would import Africans, convert them to Christianity, and justify the act of holding them in slavery. This resulted in an increase in importation by the end of the seventeenth century. During importation, one similarity that has been observed among slaves is their proof of payment was a royal coat of arms that was burned into each slave’s right breast with a silver instrument, after which another mark is placed that symbolizes ownership on the left breast or arm. Later, change happens when the classification of African Americans from Africans occurred, they were nicknamed “salt-water Negroes” and “country-born Negroes.” Salt water Negroes were blacks that came from Africa, and country-born Negroes were Africans that were born in America. In addition, a major change in identity appears when slave children had the ability to play with the slaveholder’s children and the language, religion, and degree of intimacy that resulted from it. If it was not for slavery, freedom would not be fully understood and change would not have occurred. Enslaved Africans had to learn the significance of race and form a common identity between one another over time. Despite differences, they became aware of their blackness. Their black color is what united them, and sort of defined them. They went through the horrors of slavery together and that was a common factor that brought them together.
Another factor in identifying a division within African and African Americans and how it changed over time, was through acculturation. Acculturation is the process of adopting cultural practices and social characteristics of another group. Islam’s transformation in North America can also be used as an example to prove acculturation on slaves. The muslims were affected by acculturation since slaves began to adopt Christianity as it was dominant in North America. Likewise, acculturation transformed various sects of African people into slaves with one duty, which was to work. Acculturation also formed a unity among the slaves as they all learned a new language in order to communicate between slaveholders and other slaves. They were forced to adopt the social traits of the Americans in order to survive. Not only did they all have to learn the same language, but all these slaves commonly struggled for survival. It is this suffering together and struggle for survival that created a bond between the differing backgrounds. The African slaves differed in cultural backgrounds, heritage, and religion. Slaves had to learn the significance of race, and adapt to their new way of how they were identified. They had to realize that the greatest common factor between the different African and African Americans was their blackness. They could not escape the American way of life because it would be hard to blend in with their black color when they attempted to run away.
On the other hand, acculturation had an impact on America from Africa when it is noted that herbalism, mental healing, and funeral traditions had Congolese and Angolan influences in the American South. Likewise, another example of America acculturating African heritage is because many women slaves were raped by European men for as long as slavery had begun. African men had a disadvantage when they attempted to intervene. However, sometimes intimacy and relationships between slaves and whites would develop and mixed race children would result. These mixed race people were named mulattos. Mulattoes had trouble being accepted with both white people or black people, and this became a lifelong problem.
In conclusion, it is clear that the process of enslavement directly informed the restructuring of a slave’s identity. In fact, a statement from Exchanging Our Country Marks states that “Africans brought to North America did not conceive of human society in terms of race; however, by the end of legalized slavery, the concept of race had crystallized in the community” (Gomez 1998, 209). Race was never introduced until the end of legalized slavery. The Africans shaped an identity of their own. Division between the Africans still remained through religion, and cultural differences, but they still found a common blackness within themselves.
by
bmwm3prince (student)
