| The beginning of what was to become the
United States was characterized by inconsistencies in the values and behavior of
its population, inconsistencies that were reflected by population,
inconsistencies that were reflected by its spokesmen, who took conflicting
stances in many areas, but on the subject of race, the conflicts were
particularly vivid. The idea that the Caucasian race and European civilization
were superior was well entrenched in the culture of the colonists at the very
time that the "egalitarian" republic was founded. Voluminous historical evidence
indicates that, in the mind of the average colonist, the African was a heathen,
he was black, and he was different in crucial philosophical ways. As time
progressed, he was also increasingly captive, adding to the conception of
deviance. The African, therefore, could be justifiaby (and even
philanthropically) treated as property according to the reasoning of
slavetraders and slaveholders. Although slaves were treated as objects, bountiful evidence suggests that they did not view themselves similarly. There are many published autobiographies of slaves. AfricanAmerican scholars are beginning to know enough about West African culture to appreciate the existential climate in which the early captives were raised and which therefore could not be totally destroyed by the enslavement experience. This was a climate that defined individuality in collective terms. Individuals were members of a tribe, within which they had prescribed roles determined by the history of their family within the tribe. Individuals were inherently a part of the natural elements on which they depended, and they were actively related to those tribal members who once lived and to those not yet born. The colonial plantation system which was established and into which Africans were thrust did virtually eliminate tribal affiliations. Individuals were separated from kin. Interrelationships among kin kept together were often transient because of sales. A new identification with those slaves working and living together in a given place could satisfy what was undoubtedly a natural tendency to be a member of a group. New family units became the most important attachments of individual slaves. Thus, as the system of slavery was gradually institutionalized, West African affiliation tendencies adapted to it. This exceedingly complex dual influence is still reflected in black community life, and the double consciousness of black Americans is the major characteristic of African-American mentality. Du Bois articulated this divided consciousness as follows. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife--this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging, he wishes neither of the older selves to be best. Several black political movements have looked upon this duality as destructively conflictual and have variously urged its reconciliation. Thus, the integrationists and the black nationalists, to be crudely general, have both been concerned with resolving the conflict, but in opposite directions. |