Black English
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, su
" This repression of the slave's creativity doubtlessly impeded the development of an African-American art standard. The previous excerpt from The African-American Almanac describes an all too-common situation in African-American history: the accomplishments of Blacks are claimed as those of whites, or not recognized at all. Considering that they had to start as slaves and "work their way up", the contributions of Black Americans are astounding. Most of their expression was religious in nature. 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. Their advancements in music, art, religion, language, and science have helped shape American culture as a whole. But it would be a long time yet before Black art could be fully appreciated, or even accepted as mainstream. These songs originated in plantation fields as work songs, and were later sung in churches of Black congregations. The sad truth of the matter is, as with accomplishments in art, early inventions and scientific discoveries by Blacks were simply not heralded with interest. " "Much in Black English that seems grammatically incorrect actually represents the consistent application of African structural principles. Gospel music contributed to the development of musical genres historically considered "white", such as rock'n'roll and country and western. It was not until much later, after the slaves were freed, that Blacks would be respected as scientists.
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Acceptance Essays
