Adornment and Identity: The use of material culture for resistance or assimilation in the African Diaspora.
Buckridge, S. O. 2004. The Language of Dress: Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1760-1890. University of the West Indies Press. Kingston, Jamaica.
Handler, J. S. (2009). The middle passage and the material culture of captive Africans. Slavery & Abolition, 30(1), 1-26.
Lara, S. H. (1997). The signs of color: Women's dress and racial relations in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, ca 1750-1815. Colonial Latin American Review, 6(2), 205.
Lara, S. H. (2002). Customs and costumes: Carlos Julião and the image of black slaves in late eighteenth-century Brazil. Slavery & Abolition, 23(2), 125-146.
Samford, P. (1996). The archaeology of African-American slavery and material culture. William & Mary Quarterly, 53(1), 87.
Walker, T. J. (2009). 'He outfitted his family in notable decency': Slavery, honour and dress in eighteenth-century Lima, Peru. Slavery & Abolition, 30(3), 383-402.
This essay attempts to understand how scholars approach the use of material culture in the form of dress and adornment by African slaves in the New World. Scholarly works focus on how elements of dress arrived or were created in the New World among slaves, what the symbology was in these elements, and how they were used as a way to forge identities in the slave population and the larger colonial society.
Perhaps the most important place to begin a discussion on the material culture of African slaves is to ask why study the dress customs of African slaves in the New World? All societies use material culture and dress to convey a visual language, so what makes African slaves unique or worth evaluating from this perspective? To begin, African’s endured an exceptional experience of kidnap, transport and enslavement, creating a large diasporic culture balanced between historic ties to their homeland and the domination of a new colonial power. Furthermore, limited resources exist to understand the experience of slavery from slave’s perspective as the majority of primary evidence was developed from a European or Eurocentric viewpoint as explained by Silvia Hunold Lara.[1] By evaluating dress historians are afforded a window into the experiences of African slaves in the New World and their attempts to forge identities beyond the Middle Passage. Perhaps the most fascinating argument for the study of dress among African slaves is the intense and organized deculturation efforts described by Steeve Buckridge as “the planter class argued that eradication of all forms of African cultural practices was essential because of their power to unify the slaves and thus enable them to resist or rebel against their masters.”[2] Deculturation by colonial powers as a means to control what was viewed as a dangerous population, and yet the persistence of African customs and aesthetics, seen in all the scholarly works evaluated on the subject.
Of the scholars addressing the use of material culture to forge identities in the New World, perhaps the most comprehensive contribution is Steeve Buckridge’s book The Language of Dress: Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1760-1890. The author uses objects of material culture as a “means of comprehending the people and the times that created the objects” and in doing so focuses on how “dress, as a part of the material culture of enslaved and freed women, functioned as a symbol of both resistance to slavery and accommodation to white culture in pre- and post-emancipation Jamaican society.” [3] As such he argues that dress can be used to evaluate the experiences of African slaves in forging identities which assimilated to the dominant European culture, resisted it, or often both. Buckridge emphasizes in his research the importance of maintaining expressive cultural styles for survival amid slavery.[4]
By nature of being a book, rather than all the other articles evaluated in this review, Buckridge is afforded more room to evaluate the complexities of language in dress used by Jamaican women. This does not necessarily lend more validity to his arguments than to those of other authors reviewed herein, however it does give him greater space to develop those arguments. It also allows Buckridge to cover the spectrum of dress among African slaves in the New World, from cultural meaning of adornment in Africa, through slavery and into post-emancipation society for freed blacks. As such, Buckridge’s views on the topic are woven throughout this essay for which the other articles address only specific segments of the discussion.
Buckridge begins his exploration of material culture in the New World by exemplifying the cultural value of modes of dress within African societies drawn from scholarly works in African history and cultural anthropology, discussing the use of color, beads, and headwraps to convey messages about the wearer to other members within the society.[5] By drawing on scholarly works by historians and cultural anthropologists Buckridge shows that among West African people, dress and adornment was used to identify gender, status, religion or occupation and included: “…facial and bodily scarring and paint; the wearing of animal skin and leather; fabrics or textiles worn; regalia carried; use of ceremonial masks; and hairstyles or head coverings worn.” [6] Leaving behind their homeland, Buckridge cites other historical works as he describes the dehumanizing process of how African slaves were stripped nude for their transport across the Atlantic, and how in “being stripped, having the naked body exposed, represented for African slaves their painful reality: discontinuity and the enforced severance of cultural and kinship ties.” [7] In his article, The middle passage and the material culture of captive Africans, Jerome Handler sheds additional light on the severe limitations of the transportation of material culture during the Middle Passage for slaves coming from Africa to the New World. Slavers argue that their cargo were shipped nude for cleanliness, to keep slaves free of vermin, and to prevent slaves from committing suicide. [8] Handler asserts that such limitations imposed the necessity for Africans to retain a mental blueprint of cultural elements to recreate in their New World environments.[9] Handler is supported in his argument that “enslaved Africans brought virtually no material goods with them, and for all intents and purposes arrived empty-handed in the New World”[10] by Patricia Samford in her article The archaeology of African-American slavery and material culture.[11] Samford’s motive is to show how archaeology can be used with historic and ethnographic sources to develop a better understanding of slave experiences, their identity and cultural retention. Samford documents in the findings of archaeological digs at slave sites in Virginia that a few “glass trade beads, cowrie shells, and other jewelry, show strong links to West Africa” by and large West Africans were unable to transport goods with them across the sea and rather used their cultural memory to recreate such objects in their new environments.[12] Samford demonstrates that when viewed contextually archaeological artifacts from slave quarters reveal evidence of slave resistance, retention of African social strata, and can shed light on slave life and culture change between European Americans and African Americans.[13]
African slaves in colonial society were perceived as a unified hostile body according to Silvia Hunold Lara in her article Customs and costumes: Carlos Juliao and the image of black slaves in late eighteenth-century Brazil.[14] This “unified hostile body” was perceived as a threat by white colonizers and assimilation was required to neutralize black culture, a process Buckridge refers to as “deculturation.”[15] Both ascertain the leading assumption of the time was by holding on to their cultural roots Africans were more likely to rise up against their masters. [16] Interestingly, Lara identifies within this construct that blackness dominates all other qualities, which complicates the efforts of Africans, both enslaved and freed, when trying to manipulate material culture to their benefit.[17]
The question of how material culture was used to form identities in New World societies remains unaddressed, and for which we will turn to the remaining articles of Silvia Hunold Lara and Tamara Walker, as well as drawing extensively from the work of Buckridge. Dress formed a visual language which was important in maintaining social hierarchy, according to Lara in Signs of Color: Women’s dress and racial relations in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, ca 1750-1815.[18] This elaborate parade of hierarchy was reinforced by laws enacted to restrict slaves from adopting dress beyond their rank, which expresses the power dress could afford the wearer within the social structure.[19] Lara identifies a focus on opulence in colonial Brazil that led to the use of slaves to convey wealth and power by dandifying their dress when escorting their owners through town.[20] As slaves and freed blacks attempt to claim some of these dandified styles to improve their rank they discover their complexion will always associate them with the realm of slavery, regardless of dress, though fashion does allow them to forge identities within the social strata of slavery. [21]
This forging of identities within slave society is exemplified by Walker’s article ‘He outfitted his family in notable decency’: Slavery, honour and dress in eighteenth-century Lima, Peru. Walker echoes Lara in her argument that clothing can be a tool for negotiating status, and shows the ability of attire to allow slave’s to “cultivate a dynamic social identity.” [22] Walker follows the accusations against a slave, Francisco Calvos, who is said to have stolen 1000 pesos and used the funds to “outfit his family in notable decency” thus taking on the role of paterfamilias in a strictly hierarchical society. [23] In doing so Calvos assumes a role beyond his rank, is looked upon favorably within slave society, and with disdain among Spanish colonial society. [24]
Buckridge would classify this as assimilation for upward mobility, as well as rejection of the norms of the dominant culture as Calvos refuses to follow the expectations of someone of his complexion. In The Language of Dress Buckridge elaborates on the modes in which African slaves used clothing for assimilation, rejection, or to retain their cultural heritage and maintains the importance of an expressive cultural style for survival amid slavery for Africans.[25]
As seen in the earlier discussion by Buckridge on the use of headwraps, beads, color, and fabric for adornment and as a visual language within West African societies, these same elements of material culture reoccur in African dress in the New World and are a means for slaves to retain links to their cultural past and reject the overtures of their oppressors. By bringing the skills and knowledge of their ancestors with them, and adapting them to their new environment, Buckridge identifies African slave’s ability to fashion costumes from natural dyes, cloth made from the bark of the Laghetto tree, and draping or tying fabric to convey messages to others.[26] By drawing on Afro-Caribbean religious literature Buckridge demonstrates how innovative Afro-Jamaican women used richly colored fabrics to connect to their spiritual world, adorned themselves with beads and amulets to ward off evil spirits or bring about protection, and in doing so subverted the deculturation efforts of Europeans and survived the devastating experience of slavery by remaining connected to their cultural past.[27]
Some used these same elements of African style to reject European control, or even revolt en masse. Documentation on the Jamaican slave rebellion of 1831 cited by Buckridge indicates leaders wore “scarlet jackets” to affiliate themselves with the rebellion against British imperialism. [28] The use of talismans or sacred dress allowed slaves to effectively resist colonial oppression, which was “often energized by the spiritual power of religious African women, which provided political unity.” [29] Such political unity is that which Lara describes as the unified hostile body. Descendents of the Moore Town Maroons interviewed by Buckridge ascertain the headwrap as an important part of rebel dress, where women wrapped their head in a specific way to signify a state of war and even used elaborate headwraps to conceal bullets for fighting.[30] One of the more obvious ways in which dress was used to resist enslavement was as a disguise to escape by dressing as free or freed person.[31] Because “certain norms of dress were associated with specific groups of people” if the enslaved could acquire clothes which resembled that of the free, especially shoes which were not part of slave rations and therefore rare among the slave population, then runaways had the opportunity for freedom as long as they could escape all familiar circles.[32] Therefore, Buckridge maintains, dress existed as an important means of resistance for slaves in the New World.
Not all slaves tried to retain cultural markers. Buckridge and Walker identify some using European modes of dress as a way to enter society and seek upward mobility. While upward mobility within white society was restricted from blacks by virtue of their complexion, these scholars note a broad hierarchy within colored society ranging from “just off the boat” African slaves toiling amid rural plantations to the free mulatto women that mimicked the fashions and habits of Europeans so as to express their higher rank within black society.[33] Walker elaborates how along this spectrum an African which opted for European dress customs was afforded greater opportunities for upward mobility and greater privilege in her description of the slave, Francisco Calvo, accused of theft. In the honorific hierarchy of colonial Peru, where Calvo emulated the paterfamilias role by “acquiring elegant clothing and distributing it to the female members of his household,” he demonstrates the weight of fashion.[34] By using clothing as a key tool to negotiating “honour and status,” material culture became a means to acquire social standing for African slaves.[35] This mode of rising through the ranks was only possible because of the importance that the colonial Spanish culture placed on luxury according to the legal documents and narratives employed by Walker. This scholar’s fascinating account of an African slave’s ability to form a “dynamic social identity” by the use of clothing is particularly notable to express the power of dress.[36]
A common cry among scholars reviewed in this essay on the power of dress among African slaves in the New World was a desire for further study on the topic. Perhaps one of the largest challenges in studying this aspect of African diasporic history is the strong Eurocentric view on the lives of African slaves in the New World identified by Lara in Customs and costumes. Very little documentation exists from an African perspective, and therefore much of the evidence must be evaluated not just for its content but also for the viewpoint of the author or artist and what their worldview on Africans, slavery, and social structure may have been.[37] As such the scholars evaluating material culture must rely in part on visual sources, such as paintings or drawings, which can be both rich in evidence and conflicting or misleading in their construct. This complication is perhaps best described by Lara who uses the imagery of Carlos Julião in late eighteenth-century Brazil to “construct a historical interpretation of the slave condition” and yet by the process of evaluation determines such artwork cannot provide an accurate view of the slave condition because “they result from a political posture that informs his gaze.”[38] In an effort to provide a more accurate picture of the slave experience many of the historians included in this review relied on an interdisciplinary approach to understand the subject being evaluated, particularly drawing not only from historical sources but also from archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic resources. The focus of each article varies slightly, however they collectively afford the reader a glimpse into the material world of African slaves in the New World.
In conclusion, the scholarly literature evaluated shows how scholars approach the use of material culture in the form of dress and adornment by African slaves in the New World. While Buckridge focuses on Jamaican society, we can see universal truths echoed in his writing by the assertions of scholars focusing on other regions in the New World. By studying the dress customs of New World African slaves, historians have the opportunity to better understand how slaves negotiated the social expectation of their colonial societies, and in doing so provide clear views on their attempts at assimilation or rejection. These scholarly works show slaves balancing between their homeland and the domination of a new colonial power as they exerted their individuality and heritage through the use of headwraps, beads, and colorful fabrics. Others precariously walked between both worlds as they creolized their mode of dress, adopting aspects of European attire and blending it with the African elements such as the headwrap. Perhaps the most exceptional aspect of New World slaves is even under a process of intense deculturation described by Buckridge, many elements of African dress persisted in the New World. This essay has provided a brief review of the scholarly literature on the topic, and in doing so must echo the call of all the historians included herein for further study on the subject of material culture among African slaves in the New World.
[1] Lara, Silvia Hunold. Customs and costumes: Carlos Juliao and the image of black slaves in late eighteenth century Brazil, pg. 142
[2] Steeve Buckridge. The Language of Dress: Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1760-1890, pg. 17
[3] Buckridge, pg. 3
[4] Buckridge, pg. 3
[5] Buckridge, pg. 22
[6] Buckridge, pg. 19
[7] Buckridge, pg. 26
[8] Handler, pg. 3
[9] Handler, pg. 12
[10] Handler, pg. 12
[11] Samford, Patricia. The archaeology of African-American slavery and material culture, pg. 101
[12] Samford, pg. 101
[13] Samford, pg. 105
[14] Lara, Silvia Hunold, Customs and costumes: Carlos Julião and the image of black slaves in late eighteenth-century Brazil.
[15] Buckridge, pg. 17
[16] Buckridge, pg. 17
[17] Lara, Customs and costumes, pg. 126
[18] Lara, Silvia Hunold, Signs of Color: Women’s dress and racial relations in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, ca 1750-1815, pg. 206
[19] Lara, The Signs of Color, pg. 207
[20] Lara, The Signs of Color, pg. 209
[21] Lara, The Signs of Color, pg. 208
[22] Walker, pg. 385
[23] Walker, pg. 385
[24] Walker, pg. 385
[25] Buckridge, pgs. 13-15
[26] Buckridge, pgs. 50-56
[27] Buckridge, p. 177
[28] Buckridge, p. 95
[29] Buckridge, p. 69
[30] Buckridge, p. 95
[31] Lara, Customs and Costume, pg. 139
[32] Buckridge, p. 82.
[33] Lara, The Signs of Color. Page 212
[34] Walker, pg. 385
[35] Walker, pg. 385
[36] Walker, pg. 385
[37] Lara, pg. 143
[38] Lara, pg. 143
