An examination of Martin Delany's ante-bellum novel "Blake" in terms of his methods of promoting his objectives of providing a potent black literary hero and supporting his contention that religion, as practiced by slaves, was counterproductive to the pursuit of freedom. (EH)

Argues that Black families must be judged on their own terms, not by White, western standards. Discusses Africanism in Black kinship networks and extended family structure under slavery and the contemporary Black family. Emphasizes the importance of these characteristics as a source of strength among Blacks. (CMG)

Discusses how slavery affected Blacks' self concepts. Offers a theory describing how the Black self concept is developed as a result of personal experience in a racially biased society. (BE)

Discusses Spielberg's film "Amistad," a production of the dramatization of a 19th-century slave revolt and its repercussions. Focuses on the point that Africans fiercely resisted slavery rather than passively submitted to it. Urges teachers to incorporate this aspect of resistance into their teaching of the history of slavery. (MMU)

Suggests that an examination of urban slavery in Brazil can be valuable both as a means of illustrating general differences between Brazilian and American slavery, and as a means of seeing whether or not cross-cultural generalizations about the urban slave experience can be made. (Author/AM)

Discusses similarities in the contemporary crafts from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Sea Island region of the United States as evidence of African cultural survivals. (GC)

Analyzes the social function of spirituals in relation to African culture and the slavemasters' language restrictions. Describes the role of secret meetings in traditional African cultures and slave society, and the Bible as metaphor. Focuses on themes of freedom and escape, redemption and salvation, and judgment and punishment. (KH)

Examines several writings by female Caribbean writers who address the formation of female identity, mothers as vehicles of culture and history, and the identity confusion that comes when this function is removed. The barriers between blacks and whites under slavery and colonialism and how these conditions affected female identity development in…

Explores the primary sources that document African and African American resistance to slavery (i.e., narratives, diaries, letters, travel accounts) and the issues of accuracy and interpretation that surround these sources. Sources prove the presence of resistance among enslaved Africans. "Eurocentric" views have denied or limited the…

"Falling Apart," a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, indicates that America practices internal colonialism and continues to subject Blacks to "semislavery." The North American slavery system is traced from 1650, and it is shown how characteristics of that system have continued to the present. (PS)