Slave Culture Research Paper

Which Aspects of Slave Culture has the Greatest Impact on Western Culture?

The slave culture has gradually influenced the Western culture in many different aspects of life such as music, art, food, language…etc. However, in my opinion, the western music has been affected the most by the slave culture because most music in western countries have been developed from slavery whereas our language has been affected the least because the slave culture has hardly affected or changed English in any way.

One aspect of the Western culture which has been affect by slavery is music. In slavery, music played a big part in the slaves’ daily routine. They would sing together while working so as to keep their spirits up; they would sing to each other during their free time; they also used music as a way of expressing their emotions and opinions. Gradually, these songs have developed and entered our western culture and a large percentage of songs have slave origins. Many of our music have been categorised into different song types such as jazz, hip hop, gospel which have nearly all branched out from the slave music. The slaves also bought their
During their enslavement, African slaves told stories and fables to one another many of which have developed further and can now be found in the Western culture such as the tale of Br’er Rabbit. Teddy Roosevelt wrote about his aunt, Georgia in his autobiography and says ‘She knew all the 'Br'er Rabbit' stories, and I was brought up on them’. In western countries, Br’er Rabbit has been made into a Disney film. There are also many poems and other slave narratives which have been influenced by the culture. Their were also autobiographies such as Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African in which he says ‘I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve