The MYTH of the Happy [singing] Slave
Survival
[Negro] slaves sing most when they are unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. [Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave]
Communication
"Steal away, steal away to Jesus, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay here." There's a lot of message in there; of course about going to heaven, but also I'm telling you that steal away home meaning I'm going to escape. I'm letting you know it's going to be soon.[pbs.org, African-American Spirituals, 5/4/12]
Slavery existed in Africa, but it was not the same type of slavery that the Europeans introduced. The European form was called chattel slavery. A chattel slave is a piece of property, with no rights. Slavery within Africa was different. A slave might be enslaved in order to pay off a debt or pay for a crime. Slaves in Africa lost the protection of their family and their place in society through enslavement. But eventually they or their children might become part of their master’s family and become free. This was unlike chattel slavery, in which enslaved Africans were slaves for life, as were their children and grandchildren.
The treatment of slaves in Africa varied widely. Ottobah Cuguano, a former slave, remembered slaves as being ‘well fed … and treated well’. Olaudah Equiano, another former slave who wrote an account of his life, noted that slaves might even own slaves themselves. In larger states some slaves worked in government administration, and might become an important state or royal official with wide ranging powers. Other slaves in Africa might work within their master’s household as domestic servants or as agricultural labourers. Others were sent to work in the gold mines of West Africa.
Africans usually enslaved ‘other’ people, not their own particular ethnic, or cultural, group. Slaves were taken as prisoners of war, or enslaved in payment for debt or as punishment for crime. This enslavement was usually on a small scale. It was enough to supply the demand for slaves within Africa, but not enough to supply the demand from outside. As the demand from outsiders such as Arabs and Europeans grew, warfare and raids to get slaves and the kidnapping of individuals increased. Europeans wanted to buy enslaved Africans to work on the land they owned on the Caribbean islands and in America. [discoveringbristol.org.uk]
"Naked Savages" or Stripped and Hidden?
On 8 July 1860, after forty-five days at sea, the captives arrived in Mobile, under cover of night. To remove any trace of the landing, the Clotilda was set on fire. Even so, news of the “secret” arrival spread from coast to coast. The federal government was forced to intervene, and a crew was sent to search for the young Africans. They had been hidden in a swamp, completely naked for several days, until some rags and skins were handed out to them when they were discovered. A sale was organized discreetly, and the group went through another heartbreaking separation. As some of them were leaving for places that were far away, they all sang a parting song, wishing each other a safe journey. About seventy-six people were divided between Timothy Meaher, architect of the plan and his two brothers, and Foster.
Why Didn't [These] Africans Resist Slavery?
...they were a tightly-knit community, and were said to never accept brutality - they stood up to authority and were unafraid of the consequences. African-Americans enslaved on the same plantation as some of the newcomers [Clotilda shipmates] recounted: