Below is an essay on african american culture from anti essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples. Africans represent many different people, each with distinct cultures, religions, and languages. The first africans arrived in america to jamestown, virginia in 1619, just as indentured servants arrived in america from europe, when a dutch ship brought the first slaves from africa to the shores of north america against their will. At first, indentured servants were poor europeans who wanted to escape harsh conditions and take advantage of opportunities in america.

The africans were brought to america’s developing colonies at a time when workers were needed to keep the economy running. The entire southern american economy and the states needed laborers to work on the plantations where they grew tobacco, cotton, and other crops. Slavery was less profitable in the north where economic activity centered on small farms. Most indentured servants had a contract to work without wages for four to seven years, after which they became free. At first the legal status of africans in america was poorly defined, and some, like european indentured servants, managed to become free after several years of service. From 1619 to about 1640, africans could earn their freedom working as laborers for the european settlers. In 1630, english colonists began to make a sharper distinction between the status of white servants and black slaves.

These codes prohibited slaves from owning weapons, receiving an education, and testifying against white. The african american society is filled with many negative attributes which make it analysis of the african american culture in today apos s society, many people state all people are equal and should be treated so. Still trying to recover from the wild night before, i rubbed the sleep from my eyes as the sun blinded me through the window of my one room apartment. The place is a dump, but the landlord lets me slide when i get behind on my rent.

Exploratory Essay on Child Abuse

It is hard to make ends meet on a minimum wage salary, juggling bills and a social life. I have women to impress, not to mention expensive speaking of jobs and salary, i overslept again. Why work when i can get free i had to get off the phone because someone was beating on my door and lying on the car horn outside my apartment. I could give them the payments i owed for the last two months, or they were leaving with my car.

I couldn apos t bust a cap in them in the middle of the day in a public place too many witnesses. You know, not a loan, beginning in the early 1600 apos s and lasting well into the 1800 apos s, the enslavement of african americans was not only a practiced but a common and accepted mode of labor. During this period, many divisions arose between the different african ethnic groups that had been brought to america. But, despite the separations created by ethnic, generational, class, gender, and religious differences, a new culture surfaced from among the many african groups which generated a common identity and built unity within the african american communities. One of the major separations among the africans was that created by generational gaps. Some slaves had been born in africa, others had parents born in africa and others had families that had had two or three generations born on american soil. The slaves that had been brought to america had a hard time relating to those who had been born in america and whose parents had been born in america because of the different experiences and knowledge that they had.

Slaves born in africa knew what it was like to be free and respected and knew that their lives had much more meaning to it than to be serving others. Slaves where many generations of their family line were american born had a harder time identifying with the african culture. Sankofa, the self appointed guard of the sacred ground where the slave trade once took place, calls to all people of african descent to go back to their roots , to familiarize with their ancestors struggles and accomplishments sankofa. A way in which the different generations united was through stories told by each other. The story of king buzzard who allowed his people to be sold into slavery and was then punished by having to wander alone and eat carrion for the rest of his life emphasizes the need for african unity and the importance of remaining a community because larger numbers generate stronger resistances stuckey 5. Although there were many gaps in the different generational groups pf african slaves, they allowed those differences to be ignored in order to bring them together and make them a more tight knit community. Religious differences was also a very common factor that caused schisms between the african slaves but religion also proved to be one of the most uniting aspects of african american culture.

When the african slaves were brought to america, they were brought from different geographical regions as well as different communities in africa and were forced into one community as americans apos slaves. They had very different religious practices and rituals from one another and they believed different myths and stories. Not only were they forced to now live and work together but they were also forced to practice their religions together.