After completing W. Jeffrey Bolster’s book “Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail,” the perspective of African roles has only strengthened, developed and enriched American culture. Bolster has shown how both white and African Americans can unite and work together. African Americans helped to create a “black America” in the New World working directly with white Americans in such examples as ships, prisons and piracy.
Bolster supports his thesis by showing that African Americans wanted most of the same things that white Americans wanted from life in the Americas. I agree with Bolster’s thesis, it helped African Americans communicate and build backbone in their cultural background in the New World. “Although formal boundaries could flex to accommodate human relationships, they never entirely broke down, and they essentially defined the social combinations and conflicts at the heart of seafaring life” (Bolster, p. 75). Africans strived to get freedom over themselves and not be controlled by others. Many African Americans wanted to become a seaman because they wanted to escape life out in the fields. Being a seaman was an elite job with more benefits for African Americans then the job offered to white Americans. “Whereas white seamen were among the most marginalized men in white society, black seamen found access to privileges, worldliness, and wealth denied to most slaves” (Bolster, p. 36). There was always a chance that African American seamen could still get sold even if they did have citizen papers, their white counterparts could retaliate on African Americans whenever they wanted. The inferiority complex was still in play even when African Americans role was higher up in the New World.
African Americans were not identical to other African descendants from additional parts of the New World. African Americans were however similar though in that their race or color of their skin was a shade of black and that the majority of Africans came from Africa and shared a similar culture. “…American slaves had embraced millennial aspects of Christianity, adapting it to their own dreams of deliverance from oppression” (Bolster, p. 124). But not all African Americans experienced the same cultures when they came to the New World. There was a different personal schemata that was primarily based on the situation that African Americans were faced with. “Forecastle life provided a middle ground in which black men did not necessarily assimilate “white” norms, nor maintain an autonomous “black” culture, but in which black and white men could afford temporarily to suspend attention to racial division” (Bolster, p. 90). All African Americans had to adjust to different playing fields and learn the ropes of their roles and jobs during the slave trade. African Americans were the same race as those who were African Latinos but had struggles that were unique to South American culture when looking at the accounts made by Thornton and McKnight and Garafalo. “In Spanish America, enslaved Africans employed strategies of escape, or marronage, in order to gain their freedom” (Garofalo & McKnight, p. 30).There were different boundaries that these African slaves were subjected to follow depending were they were place in either North or South America. “The African nations of the New World were not simply re-creating Africa; they were developing African concepts in the radically new political and cultural environment of the Americas” (Thornton, p. 326). In North America, African Americans had more of a chance for different types of work, freedom and other opportunities then some African Latinos did.
Bolster was right to a point about making his case on African American sailors and seamen being first Americans and secondly “creoles.” For African American seamen there was less of a harsh line that divided the roles between blacks and whites. There had to be teamwork from both sides together to get their jobs done, even though higher end jobs at sea were handled by white men. “Despite collective work and similar appearances, and an easy familiarity between many black sailors and their white shipmates, social identities still were conditioned significantly by race” (Bolster, p. 93). White Americans still had the upper hand over African Americans and saw them as Africans first and foremost. African American seamen saw themselves as Americans and then secondly as African “creoles” compared to the slaves they were hauling in their undercarriage. “Fearful or not, African American sailors resisted the degradation of southern laws by filing lawsuits, manipulating shipmasters against the state, and spiriting fugitive slaves to freedom” (Bolster, p. 214). African Americans had a purpose on a ship and felt that they were needed and knowledgeable; otherwise they would be out in the fields working with other African slaves.
The argument made by Bolster on African American “Americanism” from the perspective of the displayed behavior of people of African descent are evident and reflected in both Thornton’s work and by McKnight and Garofalo. “Runaways could rarely hope to win complete freedom” (Thornton, p. 278). African slaves in the New World dreamed and strived for gaining their freedom to live a better life. “Maritime wages provided crucial support for black families and underwrote organizations such as churches and benevolent societies through which black America established an institutional presence and a voice” (Bolster, p. 4). African slaves wanted to have better living conditions and job choices. Africans slaves did not wish to assimilate, but rather keep their own cultural backgrounds. In the New World, African Slaves were a part of the inclusion that would forever be a part of American History, many of the aspirations of Northern white Americans were seen by African slaves. “…Lima’s slaves most vigorously defended the right to buy their freedom, to control their own bodies, and to dispose of their labor and their time” (Garofalo & Mcknight, p. 287). The identity of African American slaves was formed both from their own cultural background they were raised up on and the culture surrounding them in the New World they were sometimes forced into.
This is a good summary of Bolster's main argument, especially on your emphasis on African-American desire for inclusion, but resistance to assimilation. I would, however, question your claim that being a seaman was an "elite job." Of course Bolster is arguing that from the African-American point of view, this was essentially true in that it was one of the best opportunities for both enslaved and free blacks.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I feel like he plays down the fact that sailing was not really a respectable occupation in early America. A quick image of a good eighteenth- or early-nineteenth century American means family, property, and mild manners. Sailors don't fit into this image. As Bolster himself notes, sailors' family lives were often strained, if existent at all. They frequented brothels and relied on a dangerous, dirty job to get by.
I liked your essay and agree with you that blacks saw this as a chance to improve their life and be on somewhat equal footing with whites for the first time in their lives. To help strengthen your argument you could have mentioned that while for the most part whites controlled the higher level jobs out at sea and that blacks often got pigeon-holed into being a cook or cabin boy, they occasionally rose to loftier positions on the ship. You could also maybe have mentioned more on how whites and blacks had to work together on the ship. This allowed them to build up camaraderie with each other and sometimes had whites helping blacks escape slavery. Good job overall though.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't necessarily agree with your view of Bolster's main thesis, I do agree that African culture's enrichment in the Americas was important for both sides. Foundational roots in seafaring by Africans afforded them the ability and opportunity to prove themselves as seamen, which gave them a chance to integrate themselves into white culture. I viewed this book more along the lines of slave identity, and the culture that slaves came into and sought.
ReplyDeleteI think you did an excellent job outlining the differences between white and black sailors and the hardships that blacks sailors endured, but think that incorporating those facts into the idea that they aspired to be African-American, thus American, and not African solely, would have really strengthened your argument about them incorporating their culture and enriching American culture in turn.
I also believe that their desire to be African-American in culture validates their desire for freedom, just as a sidebar.
“Bolster supports his thesis by showing that African Americans wanted most of the same things that white Americans wanted from life in the Americas. . . .
ReplyDelete“Being a seaman was an elite job with more benefits for African Americans then the job offered to white Americans. ‘Whereas white seamen were among the most marginalized men in white society, black seamen found access to privileges, worldliness, and wealth denied to most slaves’ (Bolster, p. 36).”
I agree with your argument that Africans desired many of the same things whites did: privileges, worldliness, and wealth. Becoming a seaman was one way to achieve these desired ends. Another way in which Africans achieved these ends was through the negotiating of treaties—like those negotiated between the Jamaican Maroons and the British colonial government in the mid-eighteenth century. (I finished my bibliographic review on the subject just this morning.) In exchange for signing the peace treaty, the Maroons were granted social status, financial incentives, peace, land, and freedom. This was pleasing to the Maroons, just as these rewards enticed the African seamen and the European Americans.