Assignment #2

           History is consistently re-written to accommodate new information that is discovered and new evidence that is revealed, as such with each new discovery historians must work to interpret and incorporate it with previous knowledge.  This can be frustrating to many historians and it can cause the emergence of different theories regarding any topic of history.   John Thornton’s book Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 displays a prime example of the basis of considering a historical occurrence when new evidence is introduced, especially when one takes into account the narratives found in Afro-Latino Voices by Kathryn McKnight and Leo Garofalo.  The study of the African Slave Trade, specifically evidence of African culture in the New World displays the blending of culture between old and new.  Thornton’s book provides basic evidentiary knowledge that is supplemented and strengthened by actual written narratives in Garofalo & McKnight’s book.

            The institution of slavery across the Atlantic developed a new culture that is unique to the New World as a combination of the old and new.   Thornton indicates that this new unique culture was the embodiment of religion, social settings, and language.  This is supported through multiple sources within Garofalo and McKnight.  For example, Thornton indicates in the New World “each organization was composed of slaves from one nation [which] meant that its ideology and iconography were linked to the specific ideology of that state” (Thornton, 220).  This theory is also established in the source “Rey de los Congos” where it is stated, “societies took names of different African nations from which they were embarked or where their ancestors originated” (McKnight & Garofalo, 156).  These societies were organized into three African communal groups which, according to McKnight and Garofalo, are reasonably well documented throughout history.

            Thornton also explores the area of religion carried from Africa.  There was a huge push for a conversion to Christianity for slaves that were brought to America.  Thornton indicates this was done partly to strip traditional African culture, however it resulted in a blending of the old and the new.  “The result was the emergence of a new Afro-Atlantic religion that was identified as Christian, especially in the New World, but was a type of Christianity that could satisfy both African and European understanding of religion” (Thornton, 235).  The Witchcraft Trials of Paula de Equiluz, a Black Woman, in Cartagena de Indias, 1620 – 1636, illustrates what occurred to the slaves who dared to challenge this seemingly forced conversion to Christianity.  Paula’s “alleged crimes fell into the categories of sorcery and witchcraft, which the Church condemned” (McKnight & Garofalo, 176).  The accusation of sorcery and witchcraft by Africans in the Atlantic world essentially forced Africans to choose Christianity or face punishment. 

            Thornton was also highly observant of African’s need for a sense of identity that remained closely tied to the homeland which would develop into its very own identity.  Thornton seemingly argues the traditional anthropological emphasis stating “obviously kinship played a role on those estates where families formed a creole generation developed, though its structure might be different from the structure in Africa” (Thornton, 218).  This idea is strengthened by the Last Will and Testament’s that were included in McKnight and Garofalo, specifically the Will of a black woman named Juana Barba who detailed specific amounts of her money to be distributed to a specific list of people.  This allotment seems normal, however her designations are to a specific set of peoples with whom she felt a sense of community with in the Atlantic World.

References

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 and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800. (2 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.