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Africa in America: Slave Acculturation and Resistance in the American South and the British Caribbean, 1736-1831 (Blacks in the New World)

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In Africa in America, Michael Mullin attempts to link the level of assimilation among American slaves with the forms of resistance they displayed. While he does not believe that assimilation into white culture actually made slaves more or less likely to rebel, Mullin argues that the nature of their resistance to slavery was heavily influenced by how much of their native African culture they retained. To prove his theory, Mullin contrasts Caribbean slave culture, which was much less influenced by European practices, with slave societies in the American South, where African traditions were minimalized.
To do so, he relies primarily on sources such as plantation records, travelers' accounts, and contemporary newspapers, as well as a variety of secondary sources. Unfortunately, while these sources are perhaps well suited for understanding black culture in the Caribbean, they do not provide much information on slave culture in the Chesapeake and Carolinas, which leads Mullin to make incorrect assumptions that undermine the validity of his comparison.

Because Caribbean planters were so outnumbered by their slaves, they were much more likely than Southern masters to become intimately acquainted with their slaves, and include their observations of black culture in chronicles of plantation life. This results in the impression that African traditions were actually more prevalent among slaves in that region, whereas in actuality the practices of Southern slaves were simply less likely to be recorded in the writings of their masters. Subsequent studies by Robert Olwell and Phillip Morgan show that African traditions were retained by Carolina slaves, and to a lesser degree by Virginians. While Mullin may ultimately be correct in his assertion that Caribbean slaves were less assimilated, this characterization cannot be proven with his limited sources. For example, Mullin assumes that because Southern planters did not write lengthily about independent slave production and marketing, slaves did not enjoy a large role in local markets. A study of Charleston newspapers and legal proceedings would have shown otherwise.

Africa in America is therefore not of much use as a comparative study, but Mullin's observations on Caribbean slave culture and resistance may be treated independently. Here Mullin finds that slaves retained much more of their African heritage than previously thought by historians who believed that the traumas of the middle passage had a debilitating affect on native culture. Rather, newly arrived Africans immediately sought assistance in running away from seasoned tribal kinsman, often joining maroon communities. Those who did not immediately flee established societies similar to those they had left in Africa within the plantation community, and were likely to resist by wandering off for short periods, rather than in any organized rebellion. Only when slaves began to organize through Christian churches did they begin to plot the large-scale rebellions that would eventually win them freedom. Even in making this argument, however, Mullin is undermined by his lack of organization and tendency to jump around between time periods and places, making causality difficult to determine. Ultimately then, Africa in America is useful for its information on black Caribbean cultural and religious traditions, but little more.

Michael Mullin has done an impressive, one of most serious jobs on Slave Acculturation and Resistance 1736-1831 periode. Anyone doing serious work in this field cannot miss this reference