the BLOG of stuart mcdonald

I thought y’all might be interested by an assignment that I had to do for my African American Studies class, so I’ve posted it below. I know there are many more reasons and a lot more depth that could have been gone into, but I was only required to answer the questions via the textbook reading. I’ll have another one for next week too. I’ll also get back to posting some more personal posts this week.

Discuss the major events/steps leaving to slavery becoming entirely Black/African.

While there were several factors that lead to American slavery becoming exclusively Black or African, I believe it was the underlying cultural history and understandings of the English that had the strongest effect. Historically, the English always distinguished between those the culturally and physically different from themselves and subsequently treated them differently. This is evidenced by the English’s actions towards the Irish, which they tried to conquer for centuries, as well as the Native American population. Blacks and Africans, in this case, had both the cultural and physical differences that were strong and noticeable. This, most likely, lead to a more severe departure from the “normal” way the English would treat those different from themselves. This also fathered the thoughts the English held which assumed the Africans or blacks must be inferior to the English. This thinking, however, was dangerous, because it was strictly an assumption. (more…)