Allison Swann Swann 1

Mr. Mogge

AP World

12/9/19
In the year 1619, the very first ships carrying enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown,

Virgina, the Americas. The rest of the world was facing a time of political and economic turmoil,

with every country trying to create a sustainable system. The same year of 1619, the King of

Turkey was defeated, a primary officer of the Duth East India Company began using broth force

to gain footing in trading posts, and the second year of the Thirty Year War had started. All over

the world countries institutions and systems were being put in place and America was no

different. In the next 131 years after 1619, enslaved people from Africa would grow to nearly

twenty-five percent of the American total population, over 60,000, and be striped of nearly

everything, especially their voices. Just in that short time slavery grew to a booming industry, but

at the expense of enslaved Africans. From 1450-1750, the voices of Enslaved Africans were

completely marginalized cultural and social isolation.

When Africans were brought to the Americans, they were bought for one reason only: to

be enslaved to create and industry that would only benefit their captors. But the question for

white people was how to keep the Africans oppressed enough to fuel that industry. One of the

ways that this was done was through cultural suppression and isolation. Once the Africans were

in American the captors did everything they could to disconnect Africans from their African

roots. This started with religion. As soon as the first slaves were captured they were baptized.

Those same missionaries that traveled to African to “save” Africans and convert them to

chiristianity did the same when the slaves were brought to America. And when Africans did

convert as a survival tactic, laws were put in placed that specified that baptism does not bring
Allison Swann Swann 2

Mr. Mogge

AP World

12/9/19
freedom to slaves. This law put in place suppressed the African voice in a religious sector,

isolating them from a religion that preaches that they should be free.

As time continued, the cultural suppression only got worse. The law stating that baptism

does not bring freedom to slaves was passed in Virginia in 1667. In the same state in 1680, a law

was passed that slaves could never meet at gatherings, no matter the reason, including funerals.

This law intended not only to isolate enslaved Africans from their captors and the rest of society,

but also from each other. The continuation of laws made purely to destroy cultural connections

and freedom was done to keep enslaved Africans oppressed. The neeed to perpetuate the

insutuon of slavery, and keep the idea that enslaved Africans are lesser than white people caused

this continuity of laws to supress African culture.

Another way in which the voices of enslaved Africans were silenced was with social

marginalization by psychological abuse. Enslaved Africans throighout slavery were constenly

being told that they were infeior to Whites as a justfiicatation of their enslavement. The White

captors truly believed that Africans were biologically lesser than because of physical,

intellectual, and moral characteristics and they repeatedly forced this idea into the minds of those

enslaved. The treatment of enslaved Africans was completely dehumanizing, to the point that

White people told them they were less than human. Every abuse don't to enslaved Africans

whether mental or physical was justified on the basis that they somehow deserved it because they

were inherently inferior. Slaves were not allowed to think for themselves or appear not

submissive in any way and that shaped the way that enslaved Africans also thought about

themselves as humans or infact, less than humans.

Allison Swann Swann 3

Mr. Mogge

AP World

12/9/19
Not only were enslaved Africans silenced by psychological abuse but were also socially

marginalized through language and education. Because of the need for White slave masters to

keep enslaved Africans inferior, they had to continue to create new ways to keep Africans

enslaved and believing that they were meant to be. Where as the physcilogical absue started from

1619, from the frist monet enslaved Africns stepped foot in America, these laws were put in

place later and a conointutoty for pysicalolgical and social torture. One of these was by not

allowing them to become educated. Being education was a path to becoming politically

powerful, to being educated enough to free themselves so it was put in law that slaves could not

ear to rwd to write. This further marginalized their voice because it meant they had no way to tell

their story. Enslaved Africans were already excluded from social gatherings outside and inside

the plantation so writing was a way they could tell their stories and that ability was taken away

from them. White slave owners restricted enslaved Africans psychologically and mentally as a

power tactic to ensure that they did not revolt. If the enslaved Africans believe that they were

inghereitly inferior to Whites, there was less of a chance that they would revolt or try to become

free.

One primary document that verifies the cultural and social abuse and marginalization of

African slaves is the image entitled “Whipping of a Fugitive Slave”. This image portrays both

the psychological and physical abuse inflicted on slaves to keep them silenced. The image

depicts a Balck slave tied down and being whipped by another Black slave while the White

master family watches. By making one slave whip another, it perpetuates the same cultural

separation that the law banning public gatherings did. Then, making the other slaves watch
Allison Swann Swann 4

Mr. Mogge

AP World

12/9/19
reinforced the idea that they are just like him and that this could happen to them at any moment.

That psychological terror is the terror the slave masters want the slaves to feel, so they wouldn’t

rebel or try to escape. The fact that neither the White nor the Black children were protected from

seeing this creates a generational fear of the White man for the Balck children and tradition of

racism and a continued hatred of Black slaves for the White children. The White children

viewing this will continue to put laws and social restrictions in place to continue to maragarlize

the enslaved African voice. Therefore, from 1450-1750 and especially in America, enslaved

African voices were silenced through social and cultural maraglization.