Question

Prompt

Use the passage below to answer parts A, B, and C of the question that follows.

"My thesis is that the religion of Africa disappeared from the consciousness of the American slave; that the slave himself, by contact with a new environment, became a decidedly different person, having a new religion, a primitive Christianity, with the central emphasis, not upon this world, but upon heaven.

My task is to show that the religion of the Negro slave between 1619 and the Civil War did not originate in Africa, but was something totally different . . . and that this distinctive element in the religion of the slave grew out of his contact with Christianity in America. In taking this position I have tried to give due weight to those considerations which tend to support a contrary position, such as the inertia of African habits and traditions in the life of the American slave, and the hostile tendency of his social surroundings to religious development. On the other hand, I have considered the disintegrating effects of the American slave system upon black groups that originated in Africa, together with the American slave's new social contacts, which produced in him the religious attitude found, and out of which arose the early slave-preacher and church.”

G. R. Wilson, "The Religion of the Negro Slave: His Attitude toward Life and Death,” The Journal of Negro History, 1923

a) Identify ONE specific example of the relationship between the transatlantic slave trade and cultural exchange in the New World that would tend to support Wilson’s argument.

b) Identify ONE specific example of the effect of the plantation economy on enslaved people’s culture in the Americas that would tend to support Wilson’s argument.

c) Identify ONE specific example of how religious syncretism emerged as a consequence of exposure to new religious values and cultures that would NOT tend to support Wilson’s thesis.

Answer 1

a. Wilson's argument could be supported by the fact that many slaves grew out of their original environment and culture, being indoctrinated and created within European culture and their religious concepts, this being the only culture that these slaves actually had access to. This was how the exchange of slaves through the transatlantic trade in pits stimulated the adoption of Christianity among Africans, since this was the only reality they knew or could live with.

b. Slave labor generated an admirable economy for European colonies and, consequently, for European crowns, as labor costs were nil. This stimulated the sense of dominance among Europeans over slaves and the dominance would only be complete with the suppression of African religion and culture and the adoption of European culture and religion.

c. One example suffers from the effect of religious syncretism that does not support the thesis whether Wilson is the existence, to this day, of the African religion, such as candoblém, for example, in American countries, where slavery was strong. While Wilson claims that syncretism suppressed African religion, the existence of that religion proves the opposite.

props to annyksl for the answer i just reposted it bc i thought it might help for ppl that cant find it