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Difficulty: EasyEveryday Resistance and Cultural Retention

Read the passage below describing an enslaved community's practice:

'In the woods, they formed a circle, moving counterclockwise while singing, clapping, and shuffling their feet to a rhythmic beat, keeping their feet from crossing to distinguish it from secular dancing.'

Which of the following historical concepts is best illustrated by the practice described in the passage?

  1. A
    The practice of grand maroonage, where individuals temporarily fled plantations to escape immediate punishment.
  2. B
    Armed collective rebellion, which was the only recognized and effective method of resisting enslavement.
  3. Cultural retention, which allowed enslaved people to preserve African traditions and build community.Answer
  4. D
    The abandonment of complex African cosmologies in favor of simplistic animistic rituals.

Answer

Cultural retention, which allowed enslaved people to preserve African traditions and build community.
The correct answer is correct because the description of counterclockwise circular movement, rhythmic percussion, and spiritual singing refers to the ring shout. This was a prominent example of cultural retention, where enslaved people sustained and adapted West African cultural and spiritual practices, creating a sense of community and performing a form of everyday, psychological resistance against the institution of slavery.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the description of the practice in the text excerpt.
The text describes a circular, rhythmic, and spiritual gathering (the ring shout) held covertly by enslaved individuals.
Identifying the specific characteristics of the practice helps link it to historical patterns of African American history.
2
Evaluate how this practice relates to methods of survival and defiance under enslavement.
The preservation of music, rhythm, and group worship serves as a form of cultural survival and community building.
Enslaved people used cultural preservation as an everyday method of resisting the dehumanizing aspects of chattel slavery.
3
Match the analyzed practice to the correct historical concept.
The practice represents cultural retention, which sustained African heritage through syncretic traditions like the ring shout.
Cultural retention is the accurate historical term for keeping and adapting ancestral traditions under oppressive conditions.

Key Concept

Everyday Resistance and Cultural Retention
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Everyday Resistance and Cultural Retention

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