Afro-American Identity: Reflections on the Pre-Civil War Era

I am told that there are Haitians able to trace their ancestry back to African kings. but any American Negro wishing to go back so far will find his journey through time abruptly arrested by the signature on the bill ofsale which served as the entrance paper for his ancestor. At the time-to say nothing ofthe circumstances-ofthe enslavement ofthe captive black man who was to become the American Negro, there was not the remotest possibility that he would ever take powerfrom his master's hands. There was no reason to suppose that his situation would ever change, nor was there. shortly, anything to indicate that his situation had ever been any different. It was his necessity. in the words ofE. Franklin Frazier, tofind a "motive for living under American culture or die." The identity of the American Negro comes out ofthis extreme situation. and the evolution of this identity was a source ofthe most intolerable anxiety in the minds and lives of his masters.-James Baldwin, "Stranger in the Village" THE FOLLOWING ESSAY fails to contain any novel information, archival or otherwise, but rather offers a revised historical interpretation of the Afro-American quest for identity from the 1820's or so up to the Civil War. This particular project is actually the outgrowth of, a momentary but necessary detour from, a historical study of the origins of Afro-American radicalism on which I have been working for some time. Although one would be hard pressed to document the existence of any 'This paper began as a humble presentation given at the August, 1985 URPE Summer Conference at Sandwich, Massachusetts, and forms part of a larger work in progress. The essay's development over the succeeding year partially coincided with an undergraduate course on the Afro-American Cultural Experience taught by James Baldwin at the University of Massachusetts in Spring 1986. To the extent that the paper "hits the mark," the influence of Baldwin's always inspiring lectures, interactions with colleagues who, like myself, taught discussion sections for the course, as well as classroom interchanges themselves, helped in many ways to sharpen the arguments. The paper has also benefited from discussions on the general topic which I have had with a number of other colleagues-especially-and their trenchant critiques of this essay, as well as recommendations on additional sources to be consulted, have been most appreciated. If perchance they discover glimpses of their own insights in unin-tf. nded contexts, …