Song and Literature through Vernacular Tradition For many years African Americans struggled with racism, prejudice inequality and oppression. They were taken from their families deprived of reading, writing, and learning and had their god given rights taken away. Through all the struggle, fighting and battles they never gave up and kept pushing forward for a brighter day. They did this so through music, song and dance known as the Vernacular Tradition. These were forms of expression, which enabled them to make it through those hard times and gave a voice and a form of self -awareness and endurance.
Ciera Johnson Reaction Paper AFA 3104 “Go Sound the Trumpet” Reading the Article Go Sound the Trumpet by Larry Rivers has put into perspective that basically ‘you reap what you sew’. Slave masters had tried to control the slaves every being but could not control their soul. Religion is an outlet to freedom for some. Slaves in this time were using their religious freedom to plan a way out, plan for an escape to a better life. Slave masters were under the impression that slaves were having church so when caught, of course slaves had to ‘pay the price’.
African Americans where fed up with the mistreatment they received in the south. The insulting wages they worked their whole lives for and the fear of dying or being tortured at any given moment for any given reason was devastating. In the Novel The Warmth of other suns by Isabel Wilkerson ties in with the novel Slavery by another name. The Warmth of other suns is like to continuation to the timeline begun in Slavery by another name. Even though The Warmth of other suns is based on the personal stories and lives of 3 people, it explains how African Americans had to do every thing possible to escape the south in search of newer and better lives.
There’s no Success without efforts. Success always wants some efforts and commitment. Rosa parker ignited a fire which burned all injustice imposed by the Whites on Blacks. Atlast all the hard work of Black Community gave them the rights they always deserved. They were treated inhumanely before but their struggle changed society and forced them to respect Blacks as well.
“One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination (1).” In this quote, King compares segregation and discrimination to the manacles and chains because they both held something down. Segregation and discrimination fastened colored people to the lower levels of society, like the manacles and chains that bonded slaves to the land of their masters. This is an example of pathos, as King uses this simile to evoke the emotions of sympathy and empathy out of his audience. Though slavery had end by this period, colored people still felt as if they were being controlled by the effects of segregation and discrimination. The usage of the quote shows how important accomplishing the task of making the audience fully understand the
It is here that I think Douglass makes another significant step, that is when he creates protections for himself and his clan, or as I like to think of it, their own declaration of independence from the slave community. But, like all things thus far in Douglass’s life, things fell through, and he suffered the mean hand of a relentless slave system. Although Douglas had burned his fake protection papers in order to save himself and his allies, the declaration was still clear in his mind. Like a true revolutionary, he stuck to it and eventually experienced life unrestrained by the horrid slave community in which he came from. It truly is amazing how much Douglass went through in order to experience life outside of his own community.
He valued freedom very much and made the point if there is no struggle than there is no progress. Douglass’s element of freedom was by educating the people in displaying the horrors of slavery and the harsh treatments. He made it his mission to exhibit how white slaveholders extend slavery by keeping their slaves oblivious. During the time when Douglass was writing, a lot of people really believed that slavery was something that was normal. They had the belief that blacks were integrally powerless of contributing in civil society and therefore would need to be kept as workers for whites.
We all know what discrimination is, but most of us don’t know how it feels to be discriminated against. It is usually not until we go through something like this ourselves, that we begin to fully realize how cruel prejudice is. Throughout history, African-American people have experienced first hand how hurtful these practices can be. They have had to endure much suffering and negativity, before they were able to rise to the standing they have today in society. The first injustice to this race occurred when they were forced to be slaves.
The passivity of Black people allowed racism to flourish. While Black’s practiced the religion that had been forced upon their ancestors, the descendants of the owners of their ancestors continued to abuse them. White men rapped Afrika, pillaging the culture, enslaving the people and conditioning us to forget. Joe is the epitome of the negative affects of an Afrikan trying to assimilate to a white world. He wanted so bad to be seen as different, as unlike his Afrika embracing mother as he could.
The thought and idea of slavery led people to believe that such a cruel and devastating thing only happen in the South, but the North had its up’s and downs as well. Certain aspects of slavery are portrayed in the novel Narrative of Sojourner Truth. The great amount of loyalty that the slaves had toward their religion and how some masters lacked the respect and loyalty for their slaves was overwhelming. The suffering that the greatly affected families went through due to the unwilling split up from the ones they love such as your husband and children as they were sold to different masters. This novel refreshes the mind on the level of intensity these people were put through, morally, physically and emotionally.