Diversity in Literary works of Immigrants
Every American history enthusiast knows about the era when the blacks were treated as slaves of the white people. The events of the early nineteenth century to almost mid of the twentieth century in the United States of America are largely a result of the Afro-Americans war for civil rights. Most of these Afro-Americans are descendants of Africa who were forcibly brought to the United States of America and were held captive as slaves. They have been called with different names including colored and Negro which are deemed illegal now. The African American history has gained a lot of importance from the late twentieth century and has been a persistent part of the school and college curricula. These were people who were captured during African wars and were usually sold to Arabs, Americans and Europeans. Even though slavery existed among the Africans themselves in varied forms, it was not as severe and animalistic as it was with Europeans. They were looked at as low cost labor for the plantations of the new world and hence were treated ruthlessly. When the Europeans sold Africans as slaves, Massachusetts became the first colony to legalize slavery by 1641 AD. Other colonies soon followed Massachusetts and passed laws that stated Africans are slaves for lives. Even the children of slaves had to undergo slavery all through their lives. The black slaves’ population gradually increased in the North American continent and by 1700, they constituted nearly ten percent of the population with number of black slaves crossing the 25000 mark. As there was a rapid increase in farm land and plantations, the number of black slaves imported from the Africa also increased considerably 1700 onwards. By 1750’s American born African descendants had outnumbered the original slave population. Since there was a slave population explosion all states stopped importing fresh slaves from the Africa. After the American war of independence there was an increase in radical thinking Afro-American slaves and this led to several rebellions from the slaves. They all started demanding basic civil rights for slaves through rebellions and violence. Post-independence, though Northern States of the country began abolishing the slavery, the southern states had the slavery deep rooted in its culture. This was due to the industrial revolution that created a demand for cheap labor and since the southern states were heavily dependent on the agriculture for economic development. Since agriculture demanded more and more human labor, number of slaves in the southern states increased abruptly. Finally, in 1863, under the rule of Mr. Abraham Lincoln the black slaves were liberated and rules were established to abolish slavery in all the states of America. Even though the black slaves were not accepted socially and culturally by the people of The United States of America, they gradually gained foothold in every field there is, including literature. This document attempts to review the literary developments that the community of former slaves and now free blacks could achieve in spite of the extremely hostile conditions in the United States of America. It then tries to arrive at a main theme that is based on quantitative analysis of literary works by the black slaves. It also sheds some light on the importance that is laid on the blacks’ study which has gained considerable popularity in the school and college curriculum.
The African-American literature is largely in a single genre, the autobiography genre. There is several heart rendering stories about an African-American slave who is exploited and tortured. The protagonist of the story puts up a rebellion and escapes from the clutches of slavery and finally rises to respectable heights. Although this seems like every autobiography’s plot, the situations encountered, the rendition and other features of the literary works contribute to the rich heritage of African-American literature. These are also termed as what are called as Slave Narratives. There have been discoveries of many such narratives off late. It is interesting to notice the change in involvement of black slaves in the literature during the era of slavery and during the post slavery or the free era. There obviously have been considerable differences in the development of blacks in all the fields including arts, bureaucracy, culture et cetera. The field of literature is also no exception to this and there is a radical change in the literary works from the era of slavery to the free era. While the literature genre was largely that of Autobiography among the first generation of African-Americans, it has changed with the later generations who had equal opportunities as any other citizen of the country. The gradual shift to other literary genres can be analyzed through qualitative research methods.
Once the civil war ended, there were more writers in the genre of Fiction and poetry rather than just slave narratives. This revolution was led by two revolutionary African-American thinkers, Booker T Washington and W.E.B DuBois with their works that were appreciated in the literary world by most of the thinkers. These works have become instrumental in defining the history of African American literature post-civil wars. These works were followed by some famous poetry works like Claude McKay who also quickly became a very famous voice in the modern poetry. He is also deemed as an important poet of during the period of Harlem Renaissance, a movement that was centered on the Harlem neighborhood. Gradually, there have been more and more works in the fiction genre by the African American citizens. This can be traced down to education facilities that are extended to the black community only after the civil war.
During the era of slave narratives, there was no formal education that was available for the blacks. It was all their own efforts because of which they could come up with works of their own. But with formal education made reachable for the African American people, their awareness of other literary forms became higher and also they have an overall developed persona than they had in their community during the pre-civilian war era.
The statistics speaks for itself in this regard. As of 2014, there has been staggering increase in the percentage of African American people who have received at least high school diploma. The exact figures stand at 85% which itself is a proof that the African Americans are progressing at a rate that is difficult to fathom. The days are not far when the literature world will be full of African-American writers in all genres who would have proved their mettle in the chosen genre. This would be a welcoming development for the readers around the world too as the variety in literary works only enriches a reader’s experience.