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December 02, 2005
Response to Lauren's Question
- Why does Baldwin believe that the era of black slavery in America would have been shorter if black people had been able to speak to each other?
I think that the answer to this question is that the era would have been shorter, because black people would have had more opportunities to communicate with each other. I learned that since slaves were taken from different parts of Africa that there were very distinct dialect and language differences that prevented them from being able to talk to each other.
Black English is partially a result of this miscommunication, because many slaves learned English from some whites who were willing to teach them, or from stolen books that were written in English. Sometimes, because most blacks were not allowed to be taught, they taught each other and found other ways of communicating. This is where a lot of black church hymns and black slang comes from.
I think that Baldwin is basically trying to make the point that slavery wouldn't have lasted so long if black slaves had been given more opportunities to become educated.
--Yasmin
Posted by lcisperez at December 2, 2005 11:57 PM