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
Science America's earliest African-American scientists and inventors are largely unknown -- their contributions to America buried in anonymity...While historians increasingly recognize that blacks had a significant impact on the design and construction of plantations and public buildings in the South and that rice farming in the Carolinas might not have been possible without Blacks, the individuals who spearheaded these accomplishments remain anonymous. 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. Some scientific discoveries, however, are duly attributed to famous African-Americans. One such invention was the grain harvester, historically credited to Cyrus McCormick. Though, as new research tells us, "Jo Anderson, one of McCormick's slaves, is believed to have played a major role in the creation of the McCormick harvester..." On the other hand, much more credit for invention was given to freed slaves, such as Henry Blair, the patent-holder for a seed planter, and Augustus Jackson, for the invention of ice cream. As would be expected, they adapted to the English language retaining distinctly African subtleties. The changes made to English by Black slaves are still seen today in the African-American vernacular. This altered language is sometimes referred to as "Black English," and is said to be "spoken at times by as many as 80% to 90% of African-Americans." "M
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1035
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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