This situation formed a new community for the slaves. It could not be avoided that they lost their tradition and culture because of slavery. They lived in
a place with black people from other areas. They could not maintain their own culture. They must master English language for the sake of the land lord in
ordering them to do something. It was not surprised that there was a mix language within the slave community. Franzier summarizes the impact of slavery on the
slaves as follows: The African family system was destroyed, and the slave was separated
from his kinsmen and friends. Moreover, in the United States there was little chance that he could reknit the ties of friendship and old associations.
If by chance he encountered fellow slaves with whom he could communicate in his native tongue, he was separated from them. From the
very beginning he was forced to learn English in order to obey the commands of his white masters. Whatever memories he might have
retained of his native land and native customs became meaningless in the New World Pinkney 7.
The population of the free blacks increased steadily from the middle of the seventeenth century until emancipation. But, not all black people in the United
States were enslaved. The civil war is one of the trigger of free black movements. Pinkney says there are several factors account for the steady increase in
the population of free blacks Pinkney 15: firstly, manumission of slaves, which had been practiced since the beginning of slavery, became a major factor in the
increase in the free black population; second, children born to free blacks inherited the status of their parents; thirdly, mulatto children born of free black
mothers were free; fourth, children of free black and Indian parentage were born free; fifth, mulatto children born to white mothers were free; and sixth, slaves
continued to escape to freedom. Although freedom is in hand for some black PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
people, maintaining their freedom became the most difficult task to do. There were some attempts from the Whites to drag the free black people into slaves.
Abraham Lincoln was one of prominent figures who opposed to the institution of slavery and opposed racial integration. He fought for the same right
between the Black and the Whites. This situation made him assassinated in 1865. After the assassination, the discrimination was growing faster and faster in the
south area. Because of their economic plight and the widespread violence directed against them, many black people sought to improve their status through migration.
In 1900 nearly nine-tenths of the blacks in the United States were in the South, the vast majority of them lived in the rural areas. The migration took several forms:
rural blacks sought safety in the relative anonymity of cities, Southern blacks moved North, and many blacks moved to countries in Africa. Because of their
economic plight, the absence of skills, and discrimination elsewhere in the United States, most blacks remained in the rural South.
4. Classes in the Negro Community
Belong to a different white master determined the class of a slave. Black people worked as servants usually a mulatto have a higher social status rather
than those who worked in a farm or field. The cultural penetration of white was so strong. This new class order is the new thing inherited to the next generation of
black people. Pinkney pictures this situation as follows: On larger plantations an elaborate division of lab
or developed… Because of the division of labor among slaves, status distinctions developed among
them. Status was frequently derived from the wealth and extent of holdings of the slaveholder, but the most important distinctions were those
between domestic slaves and those relegated to field work. The “house
slaves” enjoyed higher status that the “field slaves,” and they jealously gu
arded their superior positions… Being around the slaveholder‟s family afforded “house slaves” the opportunity to assimilate the external forms of
behavior which they observed. Slaveholders and their families, who usually preferred mulatto house servants, encouraged the division between
“house slaves” and “field slaves” as a means of maintaining control Pinkney 5.
According to Gunnar Myrdal, lower classes are for those uneducated black people. They are the habitual criminals, prostitutes, gamblers and vagabonds. In
the other side, the upper class of Negro community built their own community, separated from the lower class. They are business, particularly in the field of
banking or insurance, but also in contracting, real estate, and personal service. The upper class black community tried to protect or isolate themselves from the lower
class. The other characteristics of black upper class are described as follows: Often family background is stressed in this class. The family is organized
upon the paternalistic principle, legal marriage is an accepted form, and illegitimacy and desertion are not condoned. Children are shielded as far
as possible both from influences of the lower class Negroes and from humiliating experiences of the caste system Myrdal 701-702.
This situation was improved and developed steadily within the black community. The black community, like the white community which surrounds it,
has always maintained a degree of social stratification. This social stratification within black community was used by slave holders to divide the slave force. The
slaveholders avoided or prevented the unity of black community. After emancipation, class distinctions among blacks frequently followed
the patterns established during slavery: those based on wealth, occupation, “respectability,” and skin color Pinkney 63.
5. Distribution of Afro American People
At the first time, the population was concentrated in the South. This situation happened because throughout most of American history black people
had been heavily concentrated in the agricultural South Pinkney 47. At the end of the Civil War more than 92 percent of all blacks lived in the South. There had
been a gradual reduction in the black population in the South since the beginning of the twentieth century. At the turn of the century 1900, nine out of ten blacks
in the United States were still in the South. Throughout the present century, however, blacks had migrated from the South to other regions, principally to the
Northeast and to the Noth-Central states. So widespread has been this migration that, by 1970, only slightly more than half 53 percent of the blacks remained in
the South. The significant exodus from the South to the North happened during the
World War I. The Afro American people migrated from the South to the North because they could manage a better life in the North. The rest of the Afro
American people in the South, at the first time, prefer to live in the rural area, in the Deep South states. By 1970, four out of every five 80 percent blacks lived in
urban areas, compared to 73 percent of the total population. Blacks have been becoming urbanized at a faster rate than the population as a whole. In the 70 years
between 1900 and 1970, the black population has been transformed from a predominantly rural people to a predominantly urban people Pinkney 49.
