From: Thaddeus Russell [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Dear colleagues,
I am developing a hypothesis that because slavery forcibly separated
African-Americans from the repression of Victorian culture, slaves
and their descendants were able to establish cultural forms that
celebrated freedom and pleasure. For example, improvisation and
sensual rhythms were forbidden in bourgeois (white) music, but were
allowed in the slave quarters because, ironically, whites considered
blacks incapable of acquiring "higher," more restrained musical
sensibilities. Similarly, the creative and playful character of black
vernacular, which now even presidential candidates of all colors use
without shame, was shunned in Victorian white culture and punished in
white schools. Also, Anthony Kaye and other scholars have shown that
slaves' attitudes toward sexuality and romantic relationships were
far more open and fluid than 19th-century white norms of sexuality,
which dictated life-long monogamy as the only proper sexual
relationship. Attitudes toward work, Eugene Genovese and others have
shown, were similarly far freer among slaves than among Victorian
whites.
I wonder if we might say that, in many ways, whites actually enslaved
themselves, and that by separating blacks from such a repressive
culture, slavery had the unintended consequence of allowing for the
flourishing of a culture that is now envied by millions all over the
world.
Has anyone made this or a similar argument?
I welcome any comments, including critical ones, and suggestions for
sources.
Thad Russell
www.thaddeusrussell.com
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