Blog 4

Pamela Daher
2-12-07
ED 350
Professor Shutkin
Web Blog IV

Why did Plantation owners physically abused their slaves and how did they deculturalized their slaves?
The plantation owners’ physically abused their slaves because they believed brutality was essential to maintain control (Spring, 42). In addition, the plantation owners’ feared that their slaves would run away or go against their masters. The plantation owners used to beat their slaves for punishment and would sometimes beat them so badly that they would kill them and would not even be prosecuted. The plantation would not only abuse their slaves but even deculturalized them. Spring stated, “Deculturalization was considered key to making enslaved Africans dependent on their owners” (42). Plantation owners would take away their slaves identity by giving them new names. The slaves were unable to communicate with their owners because they could not speak English, so the enslaved Africans had to create a language of communication that would be understood by their owners and fellow slaves (43). The African slaves had completely lost all their cultural traditions and lost identity of themselves because of their owners.