SLAVE CULTURE &

AFRICAN AMERICANS

DURING THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD

SLAVE CULTURE

HMMMM……….

Considering the conditions in which the slaves were under…..what do YOU think helped them get through from day to day?

RELIGION

RELIGION

The African slaves were very spiritual & religious people who continued to believe that God would hear their prayers.

RELIGION

Slave-owners forced the Africans to become Christians and to abandon their old African religions (including Islam).

SLAVE MASTERS FORBID ISLAM

RELIGIONAlthough the slave-owners desired for the slaves to become Christians……they would NOT allow Blacks into their all-white churches.

RELIGION

Slaves instead held their OWN church services and continued to pray that things would become better.

RELIGIONThe Black slaves worshipped under their created denomination of Christianity called

African

Methodist

Episcopal

AME FOUNDER- RICHARD ALLEN

AME

A.M.E. churches are predominately black churches that serve the spiritual as well as social needs for African Americans.

EXTRA CREDIT !!!!!!!LET’S MEET UP TO WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP TOGETHER.

THIS SUNDAY…AT AN AME CHURCH !

SPIRITUALS

SPIRITUALS Slaves often sang

religious songs that while working, in the fields:

1. To provide comfort2. Give hidden

messages on how to escape

SPIRITUALS Amazing Grace is

probably the most popular slave spiritual ever.

Amazing Grace speaks of comfort and ease in the time of despair

Listen and enjoy

Youtube video: Amazing grace-Yolanda Adams

SPIRITUALS There are other slave spirituals such as:

1. Wade in the Water:

2. Follow the Drinking Gourd

3. Let my People Go

DRUMMING

DRUMMING

The slaves used drums for celebrations

and

communicating secret messages.

DRUMMINGTHE AFRICAN DRUM IS CALLED A

DJEMBE

DRUMS

MANY slave owners BANNED the use of drums on their plantations.

DRUMMING

But the love of drumming has never left the souls of Black people.

Even to THIS day!

DRUMMING

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED WHAT THE MOST POPULAR SECTION OF A PREDOMINATELY BLACK BANDS IS…..

DRUMMING

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED THE EXPRESSION OF A BLACK KID WHEN THEY HEAR THE BEAT OF THEIR FAVORITE RAP SONG?

YOUTUBE CLIP:

African Djembe Drummers in Paris Metro [HD]

DRUMMING Question:

“Why do so many Black people love drums and beats so much?”

Answer:

It’s in their nature.

THINK ABOUT THIS!! You can take the

African out of Africa:

but

you can’t take Africa out of the African.

LANGUAGES

LANGUAGE

Slaves created languages to keep the slave masters from understanding what they were saying.

LANGUAGES

The secret languages that were created by the slaves are STILL SPOKEN TODAY by Black people throughout the WORLD.

GULLAH (aka Geechie) Originated in South

Carolina and is a mixture

of African languages and English._______________

Listen to Gullah speaker

Watch youtube clip of :

“Origins of African-American English”

CREOLE A mixture of either:

English and French

or

English and Spanish

Listen to Creole speakers

Youtube clips:

1.“Andre’s old aunty speaks in Hatian Creole”

&

2. Interview Wyclef en Creole

PATOIS pronounced: pat-wah

____________________

Broken, “non-Standard” English that was created by slaves so that the slave-masters could not understand them talking.

Listen to patois speaker

Youtube clip:

1. FUNNY JAMAICAN WOMEN INTERVIEW

IMPORTANT !!!! Some people look down upon those who

speak Gullah, Creole and Patois. They feel as though these speakers are uneducated because they are not using one main language in its standard form.

Sort of like African Americans and Ebonics.