Cultural Cross-Fertilization in Colonial Virginia Looking at The World They Made Together by Mechal Sobel

Cultural Cross-Fertilization in the South
Looking at The World They Made Together by Mechal Sobel 





             Slavery in the Americas still remains a topic causing controversy and hurt even in today's society. While the use of enslaved labor was common throughout the Americas, slavery led to division and a bloody civil war within the United States. Historical research still challenges commonly held notions of slavery. One common assumption is that Africans came to the Americas with little skills and culture. The truth is that most Africans originated from agricultural communities, and those same skills contributed to the prosperity of American agriculture. (For example, see: Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community, by Charles Joyner) Many of the skills the enslaved used were learned in Africa and passed down through the generations. Despite their great contribution, the enslaved still suffered from bondage with no real ability to experience the prosperity wrought by their labor. The late Michel Sobel in her book, The World They Made Together, demonstrates. that the enslaved were not mere blank slates that the slave owners imparted skills and knowledge, but rather the enslaved not only contributed their labor but also brought knowledge and attitudes that shaped the new world. These were men and women with skills, who contributed to society. 

The interactions of the races during slavery are an accepted fact. The nature of plantation labor forced the races to work closely with each other. Some assume that influence went in one direction only from whites towards enslaved blacks. Many still assume that whites influenced blacks, while whites remained unaffected by the enslaved. But a close examination reveals that while white and black cultures differed, much overlap existed and cross-fertilization existed. Southern whites and blacks shared commonalities in speech, food, and customs. While some religious and burial customs differed, both races strongly adhered to an individualistic evangelical Protestant faith. This overlap appeared early in the colonial period as newly arrived Africans and Europeans impacted each other’s worldview. Customs and culture overlapped in religion as revivalist religion became common within both races during the Great Awakening. Ecstatic practices condemned by some Christians as superstitious became a regular practice for both races during the revival. An examination reveals common cultural assumptions and folk practices. 

In her book The World They Made Together, Mechal Sobel professor of history at the University of Haifa in Israel challenges the idea that black culture did not greatly impact the majority white culture through an examination of colonial Virginia. Often blacks and whites shaped each other’s view of the world. The basic proposition that blacks shaped the worldview of whites that led to shared perceptions of time, space, identity, home, causality, and meaning led to a shared understanding that bore fruit during the revivals of the Great Awakening. The starting point is the idea of worldview. How do blacks and whites process their understanding of the world around them? Thomas Luckman defined worldview as “an encompassing system of meaning” and how an integrated mesh of central attitudes and values” form. According to Sobel, African slaves were not blank slates in which white Americans imparted a Western worldview. Rather each culture impacted each other. Africans not only preserved their culture's elements but also imported African culture and worldview to the white population. 

Sobel's study divides into three sections: Attitudes toward time and work, attitudes toward space and the natural world, and understandings of causality and purpose. Her investigation into time and work is discussed below and largely reflects African, and English shared attitudes toward work and how the African attitudes impacted the white worldview. Her examination of space and the natural world reveals a shared attitude of both blacks and whites toward magic and superstitions. While Africans were quick at seeing the supernatural in the physical world Sobel's investigation uncovers similar thinking among British settlers. She even reveals overlapping influences in architecture and living arrangements as she demonstrates African influences in housing design. Her study of causality and purpose revolves mostly around the topic of religion. This area is probably the strongest in her book as she points to African influences on popular religion. This point, in particular, is very significant as many believe Africans were victims of a strategy using religion as a tool of subjugation. While there are aspects of truth here, one must not see African slaves as mere receivers. Rather, they actively changed the culture which sought to subjugate them.

Whites and blacks shared attitudes toward time. Africans and lower-class whites shared similar perceptions of time based on agricultural cycles. For both, the harvest was a time of celebration and joy. Virginia planters possessed a more rigid concept of time due to their use of clocks and enforced this idea of time on both their black and white servants. As the use of clocks and watches spread even slaves began to develop a new sense of time. The races also shared common mindsets toward space and the natural world as their worldview shaped architecture and living space. Most of the white population lived in simple single room houses like the slaves with little room for possessions. Shared space within the large Virginia plantation houses also developed relationships between the races. Many white Virginia children spent time with black household servants. Servants cared for the white children in an intimate way. Black and white children at play also led white children to “imbibe” black manners and speech. Finally, religion served as a source of racial interaction, through which the races began to share common views of the Spirit. Initially, the races held differing beliefs regarding the afterlife and the Spirit. Africans put more emphasis upon the funeral, while whites, still reacting against Catholicism, gave little meaning to funerals. African beliefs about the afterlife varied, but they all believed that the spirit lived on after death.

            The Great Awakening provided a common revival experience that combined the divergent beliefs of the races. Whites began to have spiritual experiences during the revivals and experienced ecstatic conversions in reaction to sermons on judgment and forgiveness. Shaking and fainting attached itself to the conversion experience. The English became more open to experiences and ecstasy. White Virginian funerals subtly reflected African concerns regarding the departure of loved ones. However, blacks became more individualistic as they absorbed English ideas of personal guilt and the need of a Savior. Black understanding of heaven and hell, while sharing some continuities with African thought, began a change due to a Christian worldview. All Christians look for a place in heaven. Slavery provided no impediment to one’s place in Paradise. Blacks shared spiritual experiences with whites. Church meetings, baptisms, and funerals provided opportunities where ecstatic occurrences took place. Both races knew that approaching Christ meant dying to self to be reborn anew. As Baptist churches grew in prominence, the baptism experience became a time of shouting and singing for both races.

During the colonial period in Virginia, the races clearly impacted one another. Common experiences began to shape shared world views. While not holding to identical world views, there is apparent considerable overlap in the world views of blacks and whites by the end of the 18^th century in colonial Virginia. One expects similar experiences in other southern states as racial interaction continued to occur. Evangelical Protestant practices while different also have considerable overlap in basic ideas. The stress on individual salvation and forgiveness is common among the races throughout the South. This common concern for salvation filters into the everyday life of both blacks and whites. 

Sobel's title clearly reveals her thesis. Her book The World They Made Together demonstrates that 18th century Virginia was a unique society in which blacks and whites shared a common culture, values, beliefs, and even worldviews. Slavery was a horrendous and evil institution whose horrors and influence still reverberated through the ages. Yet African Americans still persevered, and their positive influence on American culture is profound. In fact, American and Southern culture would be unrecognizable without African American influence. Mechal Sobel's work is a very entertaining important work of history that ably challenges the prominent ideas which deny African contributions to American culture and history. It is a book well worth reading for anyone interested in American, African-American, or Southern history. 

Find it on Amazon  The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia

See also: 

Black Culture and Black Consciousness by Lawrence W. Levine 

The Forgotten People Cane River’s Creoles of Color by Gary B. Mills

The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860-1880 by Michael Wayne  

The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana's Cane World, 1820--1860  by R. Follett 

Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South by Kenneth M. Stampp         

The Slave Community:Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, John W. Blassingame 

Important Book:Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice

David O. Oshinsky Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice      

This was a book read for a class at Southeastern Louisiana University and the review was written for class. Oshinsky's book is an important contribution to understanding the racial sins of the past and the horrors of Jim Crow. I highly recommend it.     

            Violence characterized much of Southern culture and history before and after slavery. In his book, Worse Than Slavery David O. Oshinsky lays out the violence and racial injustice within Mississippi, especially as demonstrated by the prison system. The book divides into two sections. The first section examines the period after slavery and before Parchman Farm prison while the second section deals with the Parchman Farm period. From the 1830s to the 1930s Mississippi appears as the most violent state in the nation. The antebellum period was the scene of murders, duels, stabbings, and extreme violence among white men. The violence of that time bleeds throughout the history of Mississippi.

            The violence and evils performed upon African American men by the state are clearly evident in the convict lease system. After the Civil War and Reconstruction black men find themselves arrested for the smallest of petty crimes. In 1876 Mississippi passed the ‘pig law” which defined as grand larceny any theft ten dollars or more. The punishment up to five years of hard labor trapped many African American men. During slavery, the punishment of slaves centered on the plantation. State involvement in the punishment of slaves was rare. But a fear of black freedmen moved politicians to crack down on black crime. Most of these men landed in the cruel convict lease system. Working to death became commonplace for men trapped in this unforgiving system. But this system brought great wealth to those who used convict labor. Convicts worked on plantations, railroads, mining, or lumber. The exhausting work and the astronomical mortality rates became the norm. The harsh and unforgiving conditions even led white Mississippians to speak out against its cruelties. The death rate was astounding as few inmates “ever lived long enough to serve a sentence of 10 years or more.''

             The replacement for the convict lease system was Parchman Farm.  In 1904 James K. Vardaman became governor of Mississippi on a platform of white supremacy. Chief among his goals was penal reform. Vardaman’s goal for the Parchman Farm was a replication of plantation life. The Parchman prison farm located in the rich soil of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta made for ideal growing conditions. Parchman became very profitable and even supported half of the education budget for the state. By the early 1900s, the great majority of Mississippi’s felons went to Parchman Farm. There they worked from dawn to dusk. White sergeants like slave overseers supervised the prisoners much like overseers. Underneath the sergeants' trustees armed with rifles or shotguns kept a close watch on prisoners. The trustees received special privileges as a reward for their service and resembled the drivers of the antebellum plantations despised and mistrusted by the general population. Sitting on top of Parchman was the superintendent who operated like a slave master. Parchman was very much like slavery.

            Conditions began to change after World War I as the black population of Mississippi dropped due to the mass migration of African Americans north. As the black population decreased the population of white inmates increased at Parchman. Parchman officials generally believed that white men were not suited for hard plantation labor. White inmates reportedly worked less and complained more about hard labor. The only recorded strikes at the prison were by whites complaining of hard work and long hours. Yet there was one ironic privilege that black inmates enjoyed over their white peers. Blacks received conjugal visits on Sundays with their wives or prostitutes. Officials believed the myth that black men being more primitive in nature thought it prudent to allow black prisoners a sexual outlet.

            As the Civil Rights Movement moved through the South and eventually Mississippi, Parchman developed into a tool against those working for equality. When Freedom Riders found themselves arrested their Parchman tested their commitment. Most heartbreaking though was the story of Clyde Kennard who faced imprisonment at Parchman due to conviction from framed up charges. A World War II paratrooper, Kennard’s only real crime was his application for graduate school at Mississippi Southern College. (now The University of Southern Mississippi) Kennard faced brutal labor and when abdominal pain advanced into cancer, he was accused of indolence. Parchman officials ignored his declining health until he was finally released in the spring of 1963. Rushed to Chicago for emergency surgery Kennard died on July 4, 1963, after cancer ravaged his body.

Clyde Kennard

            After the Civil Rights movement, reform came to Parchman due to the class action lawsuit Gates v. Collier. Integration of the races in the prison and replacement of armed trustees with civilian guards changed the prison immediately.  Yet violence did not end. White and black gangs formed and violence shifted from guards and trustees to the inmates. Local farmers leased the vast farmlands leased to local growers while Parchman developed into a prison similar to other states.   Oshinsky's book is a difficult read as he reveals the depth of depravity and cruelty within Jim Crow Mississippi and the larger South. But this is an atrocity which must be faced if one desires an understanding of our tortured racial past. It's not a pretty picture but one which must be faced if healing is to occur.  

World War One Resource: The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War by David G. Hermann

The causes of World War One have been a constant debate by historians since the ending of the war. Militarism and the accompanying arms buildup often appear as a primary cause of the war. David G. Herrmann in his book, The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War examines the military readiness and capabilities of each of the primary combatants in the war.

Herrmann discusses several factors including military technology, budget issues, overall strategies, and the diplomatic crises which prompted military tensions. An interesting insight is a link between budget concerns and military needs. All the European powers were reluctant in providing every demand that the armies requested. Each country even Russia maintained a balancing act between their military budget and their overall financial necessities. While Germany dedicated a large part of their military budget to their navy as an attempt at achieving parity with Britain the Germans still did not fulfill every request the army presented. Military readiness began in earnest as diplomatic crises revealed the inability of each nation in mobilizing a fully effective armed force.

            Also significant is the relationship between the military and foreign policy. Each country maintained a sensitivity regarding military readiness as the major powers dealt diplomatically each other. During the Moroccan crisis of 1905 German Chancellor Bulow “checked with the military authorities to satisfy himself of the situation before he moved on the diplomatic front.” (p.52) The French also were aware of their relative military strength in comparison to the German army as they dealt with the crisis. They were also aware that the Germans did not desire a war due to their volatile domestic concerns. While the Germans protested French interference in Morocco, the emperor was disturbed about labor strikes and the actions of the Social Democratic party. War was not worth the accompanying political disturbances that might occur.

            Nations were also sensitive to the military readiness of their allies and the impact this had on the balance of power. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the Russian military suffered a humiliating defeat from the armed forces of Japan. This defeat brought caution to Russia’s allies and raised the issue of the balance of power to the forefront of military discussions. Germany kept a careful eye on Russia as the Russian military slowly gathered strength. The embarrassment for Russia over the Bosnia-Herzegovina crisis caused a shock to the Russians and “provoked a genuine rise in military power that at last began to bring the army close to readiness for a European war, watched by the other European states.” (p.131)

            The land arms race became competitive in 1912 and 1913 in reaction to the Second Moroccan crisis and the Balkan Wars. Germany passed laws in 1912 and 1913 aimed at increasing their land-based forces. France and Russia both viewed the German moves with suspicions and responded in kind. France increased the length of military service from two years to three years as a direct response to the German laws. The Russians began a process of increasing their military armaments in response to the German laws and the Balkan Wars. The Russians though were hampered by inefficiency and an incompetent command structure. (p.195) Russian measures still gave the French confidence in their ally but caused the Germans alarm and convinced them that they faced the prospect of a two-front war. Germany and Austria-Hungary saw themselves as surrounded by enemies. Above all the idea of inevitable war formed in the minds of both politicians and military leaders. As the final crisis appeared with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the inevitable war became a bloody reality.  

https://www.amazon.com/Princeton-Studies-International-History-Politics/dp/0691015953