Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South - Softcover

Gomez, Michael A.

 
9780807846940: Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South

Synopsis

The transatlantic slave trade brought individuals from diverse African regions and cultures to a common destiny in the American South. In this comprehensive study, Michael Gomez establishes tangible links between the African American community and its African origins and traces the process by which African populations exchanged their distinct ethnic identities for one
defined primarily by the conception of race. He examines transformations in the politics, social structures, and religions of slave populations through 1830, by which time the contours of a new African American identity had begun to emerge.


After discussing specific ethnic groups in Africa, Gomez follows their movement to North America, where they tended to be amassed in recognizable concentrations within individual colonies (and, later, states). For this reason, he argues, it is possible to identify particular ethnic cultural influences and ensuing social formations that heretofore have been considered unrecoverable. Using sources pertaining to the African continent
as well as runaway slave advertisements, ex-slave narratives, and folklore, Gomez reveals concrete and specific links between particular African populations and their North American progeny, thereby shedding new light on subsequent African American social formation.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Michael A. Gomez is a professor of history at New York University.

From the Back Cover

Recovers the diverse ethnic roots of Africans brought into slavery in the American South by identifying concrete links between African populations and their North American progeny.

From the Inside Flap

Recovers the diverse ethnic roots of Africans brought into slavery in the American South by identifying concrete links between African populations and their North American progeny.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780807823873: Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0807823872 ISBN 13:  9780807823873
Publisher: The University of North Carolina..., 1998
Hardcover