Assignment #3

           Afro-Latino Voices by McKnight and Garofalo expresses the first-hand accounts of African life in the New World specifically focusing on the challenges African’s faced regarding religion, society, community, and rights. The exploration of these experiences is important to anyone learning about the African Slave Trade because it depicts a connection to an old culture, the education of a new culture, and the overall evolvement of a new culture, new identity. Author W. Jeffrey Bolster illustrates a different view of the African Slave Trade, specifically the incorporation of Africans into the American sailing community in the book Black Jacks – African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Bolster explores the world of various African immigrants’ similarities and differences in regards to their experiences on the high seas. Both books are detrimental in contributing to the overall understanding of the African Slave Trade within the New World.

            Bolster explores the concept of African Americanism, making a strong argument in regards to their American identity. The primary argument Bolster makes regarding African American sailors is that they are Americans first and Creoles second. These African American sailors were defined as citizens by federally issued Seaman’s Protection Certificates (Bolster, 5). This gave African American sailors an identity, an American identity that would also tie them tithe nation.  This primarily was the result of “a radical African American patriotism, demanding black inclusion in the United States” (Bolster, 7).  The significance of this desire caused a great impact on the role of African Americans on the high seas.  The result was a strong sense of nationalism and pride in the land they called home.  It is important to remember that Bolster also identifies them as Creoles, this comes second to their desire to conform rather than be separate.

           In contrast, to Bolster’s African American sailor descriptions, McKnight and Garofalo explore the concept of African Latinos who seemingly hold an opposing outlook in comparison to African Americans.  African Latinos had no desire to assimilate within their New World culture.  The overall assumption that is implied in Blackjacks is the desire for African Latinos to be self-sustaining.  African Latinos escaped their captors after they were in the New World and developed communities called palenques (McKnight & Garofolo, 1).  These communities largely sought a peaceful coexistence with their Spanish neighbors, however did not want to be controlled by them. 

            Overall, the difference between African Americans and African Latinos is quite significant because the goals they sought in regards to their relationship with the Europeans they shared land with.  I think it would important to consider both separately rather compared to one another.  African Americans were very much Americanized within the context of the nationalized identity and then Creole as a second hand nature.  African Latinos on the other hand are considerably different because they sought a self-sustaining lifestyle from their Spanish counterparts. 

References

Bolster, W. J. (1997). Black jacks: African American seamen in the age of sail. Cambridge, MA:   Harvard University Press.
McKnight, K.J., & Garofalo, L.J. (2009). Afro-Latino voices: Narratives from the early modern
Ibero- Atlantic world, 1550-1812.Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Thornton, J. (1998). Africa andAfricans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800. (2 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.