Short Essay #3

            In examining the writings of Thornton and Garofalo the question in mind was the importance of African cultural influence on Africans in the Americas. Thornton argued slave trading to be a voluntary endeavor for African societies, both before and during European involvement and that African culture survived in the Americas through religious “witchery”, runaway slave societies and freedom to create attire in African style. Similarly, Garofalo argued that African culture survived the middle passage and was embedded into the Creole culture of black America. Considering the case of Paula de Eguiluz in “Afro-Latino Voices” one can see that despite American, Christian influences, the tribal worship practices from Africa were apparent in the Americas. Both authors made a strong case for strong African influence and survival of African culture in the Americanization and creation of Creole culture among Africans in the Americas.

            Contrasting those ideas is Jeffrey Bolster’s thesis that African Americans saw themselves as African-Americans as opposed to Africans, and that their patriotism to their home in America inhibited sowing the roots of a “black American” culture through seafaring labor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. An underlying topic of Bolster’s writing is that African-American influence in sea trade was not a new concept to Africans, but derived from the maritime African culture which existed long before any European or American influence.

            Having endured hardships of the middle passage and slavery, African-Americans saw life in a different light than whites. The life of a mariner was not an exemption to this idea, as white sailors deemed their employment as slavery and degrading work. Contrarily, life on a sea vessel was an opportunity for a black freeman or a slave sailor, whether a seaman or a “boy” in the crew. Marine life afforded African-Americans the opportunity to involve in petty trade, collect some amounts of wealth and experience limited freedoms in which plantation slaves did not enjoy. (Bolster, 1997) Despite these limited freedoms and opportunities most African-American mariners never became wealthy, or even financially secure, but the opportunity to provide income for one’s family gave a sense of dignity and worth, as well as a sense of traditional manliness, to mariners of African descent.

            Setting apart African-Americans as explained by Bolster and Africans in the Americas outlined by Garofalo and Thornton is their intent in actions.  Both Thornton and Garofalo outlined runaway slaves in similar fashion. Runaway slaves took flight in bargaining attempts, or in attempts to join runaway societies of other Africans, as well as native societies sympathetic to Africans according to Garofalo and Thornton. What separates the African-American in this regard is that runaway slaves generally had the intent of returning to their home. Men that took flight to the seas or Haiti in search of freedom did so to better their lives, potentially buy their freedom and the freedom of their family, and to return back to America. Many African-Americans that found sanctuary in revolutionary Haiti accepted Haitian citizenship, but kept their American “passport” with full intent to return home at some point. (Bolster, 1997)

            The function of the African-American was to be included in American society, to secure necessities of life for their families on American soil and to better their quality of life in America. Sailing allowed for this to happen, and for black culture in America to take root. African-American sailors, and prisoners during the war of 1812, had influence on their white counterparts. Black sailors, while filling traditional cook and servant roles in many cases, found it possible to advance rank in some cases and receive compensation similar to that of their white peers. The ship broke down race lines in favor or rank lines on many occasions and forged bonds between white and black sailors. This fact in itself is indicative of an African-American culture that differs from African culture in the Americas as presented by the two former authors. Africans in America sought emancipation and return to Africa, or sovereign ruling in their own homogenous community, while African-Americans sought inclusion, though not assimilation, into America. (Bolster, 1997)

            Jailing of black sailors in southern port towns, re-sale into slavery and low employment rates during times of scare made the life of an African-American sailor one of hardship, but being on the waterways allowed for the spread of black ideals between northern abolitionists and southern slaves. The port and wharf towns in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the hubs of international news and propaganda, and the spread of the African-American ideals was made possible by black sailors and traders which resulted in many regulations. One of which, being mandatory imprisonment of black sailors while in port. Hardship was a way of life for African-Americans though, and the sea trade allowed for the “African-American community” to be born and grow through its infancy.

            African-Americans, as outlined in “Black Jacks”, were American men of color, both free and enslaved, that took to the seas as a means of opportunity for financial gain and freedom. They took to the sea as a means of gaining respect and dignity in their communities and families, and in doing so planted the seeds for the rise of an African-American culture, dedicated to their nation as well as to their color, with a desire to become accepted and respected as equal American citizens, not to break away from their American colors, as other Africans desired to divide themselves from European culture altogether.