User:Jarradk98/sandbox

slavery's impact on modern black American lives

I'm going to be creating an article on the impacts of technical and contemporary slavery on the lives of modern African Americans. I want to discuss different ways that the lives of modern black people are directly linked to things that happened on American slave plantations. Some examples of the subtopics i want to address are the mental health of black Americans, ethnic makeup of Black Americans, and social habits within and outside of the family structure. Although these are not all i'm going to put in my article, these are some things that I've looked up so far.

My topic is connected to human rights through the issue of slavery, and the neglect to acknowledge the generation transcending trauma and impact of it by society.i haven't found many articles that directly address the subject of mass cause and effect so i'm interested to see what i can find. So far I've looked up a few books and a few websites, but it's hard to find unbiased and reliable sources. i have found information on the ancestral heritage of African Americans, and an article on mental health of black people connected to Slavery. The mental health of black people has been shaped by the aftermath of slavery for over 1 1/2 centuries and one way to cope was through religion. Coping was important as the ways in which slaves were treated were as if they were dogs as seen in the willie Lynch letters which teaches hoe to "break" a slave .

sources

Academic article outline Chains of Love: Slave Couples in Antebellum South Carolina (review) by Kibibi Volaria C. Mack this article is a review of Emily West's "Chains of Love" a book about the marital relationships among slaves in antebellum South Carolina .slave's romantic served as a means of coping with the conditions they lived in. They hoped for small bits of control of their own lives through their marriages and raising of their children. sometimes slaves still had their marriages arranged though which caused tension. .slaves sometimes were sometimes married across different plantations .the work culture was gender influenced. slave women were not as valuable or status holding due childbearing and reproductions reducing their work output. they were also sexually exploited by slave owners, and fro reproduction. .male slaves were stereotyped to be rapists and woman to be inatley immoral. white men were not held accountable for raping slaves. . Emily West argues that marriages and families of slaves were real relationships rather than a pair of slaves thrown together for reproduction purposes. this article relates directly to my topic because it serves as a foundation for African American romantic relationships today.

My article outline

The effects of slavery have a profound impact on the lives of African Americans in the modern day United States. My article will discuss the links between life on plantations during the years where Slavery and the slave trade were legal in the U.S. and modern day black mental health, family and social relationships, religion, genetic makeup, and culture.

main point 1 mental health

. abuse/punishment of slaves/ tools used

.lack of therapy and current mental health of black Americans

main point 2 relationships with family/romantic

.selling and seperation of slave families

.relationships between slave women and white men

. current black divorce rates/lack of two parent households

main point 3 social effects

.creating racism

.Modern direct and systematic racism

.genetic makeup of African Americans

main point 4 Religion

. why black people shifted from African religions to Christianity

main point 5 disconnection from ancestral heritage and from English language

. education of slaves

. modern black illiteracy rates

main point 6 culture

.sub american culture that is a mix of African, European, and sometimes Native American culture through music, food, and traditions that would not have come about without Africans being brought to America as slaves

Article Draft

Slavery's impact on Modern Black American lives

Slavery in the United States has left a heavy mark on the African American Community. Many Aspects of the Modern African American experience are can be directly attributed and traced to life on the plantations. Modern conditions of mental health and family structure of African Americans can be connected through history to the experiences of modern early American slaves in their lives' practices and realities.

Black Mental Health

African American slaves had no legal protection from abuse from their masters. Slaves were forced to work and punished for not satisfying their masters' demands. Punishments included "smoking them", putting slaves in caskets and rolling them down hills, tying rope around a slave's body and raising them from the ground, burning them with grease, beatings from brooms, shovels, tongs, and oak clubs. They were lashed with whips, hung by their necks, had bones broken, iron collars placed on their necks, limbs amputated, castrations, and could be sentenced to death for crimes against a white person.

Slaves who were emancipated in 1865 would have had much psychological trauma. People who are survivors of slavery will often dealt with forms of depression and anxiety and post traumatic stress syndrome. Steps through treatment are needed in order to help victims psychologically heal. Emancipated African Americans who became free after the civil war were not educated on how to cope with the trauma of slavery, nor were they offered psychological therapy. This resulted in generations of African Americans to face the psychological affects of slavery, but no opportunity to heal

Adult African Americans are 20% more likely to report psychological issues than adult White Americans. Black Americans often deal with some form of depression, post traumatic stress syndrome, and schizophrenia.Because of stigmas and misconceptions about Black depression, many African Americans shy away from getting proper treatment.

African American familial relations (marriage and the nuclear family)

Before 1865 slaves could not legally marry in the United States, which meant they had no marital rights.

Nuclear families with a two parents and children were usually only possible when the whole family was owned by the same owner, otherwise families could be broken up among several different plantations. Members of a slave family could be sold or inherited at any moment and be separated from each other for the rest of their lives.

Slaves were often raped by overseers and their masters with disregard of their consent, or their husbands as their rights were non existent. These women would have children for the master of the plantation along with those of their husbands.

Female slaves were seen by white American society as sexually promiscuous, and white men would be absolved of any sexual misconduct; rape of slaves was considered normal by the majority of U.S. society.

The trauma of rape, and the breaking up of families on a ethnic level has had long lasting affects on African American relationships.

Only 45% of modern African American households contain a a married couple, compared to 80% for whites, and 70% among Hispanics according to the U.S. Census, and compared to a century ago there are half as many African American Children living in coupled households. African Americans are the least likely ethnic group to get married, but the most likely to divorce. African American women are also the most likely to become single mothers. High mortality rates caused by poor health care, crime, and growing incarceration rates have decreased the black male population