African-American Families

These explanations include contemporary economic hardship, the historic constraints of slavery, and integration of African culture in American life. Accordingly, three sets of forces account for the forms and manifestation of African-American family life as it exists in the contemporary United States. These forces include (1) integration into family life of cultural practices adapted from West Africa; (2) structural adaptations to slavery, especially the disruptions of family ties and the overall lack of control over life; and (3) past and current discrimination and economic inequality.

Pre-slavery influences: culture and family life in West Africa. Over the years, fierce intellectual struggles have been waged over the extent to which Africans brought to the United States as slaves were able to retain their culture. That debate has largely been settled by a preponderance of evidence demonstrating structural, linguistic, and behavioral parallels between African Americans and West Africans. Most African Americans are descended from people brought to the United States as slaves from West Africa after a period of reprogramming in the Caribbean. Their families in Africa were tightly organized in extended family units, which by most historical accounts were social units that functioned effectively. Their marriages involved contractual agreements between families as much as agreements between the men and women. What is most distinctive about family life in West Africa is that individuals traced their ancestral lineage not through their fathers, but through their mothers. The matrilineal organization of family was evidenced by the practice of children belonging solely to the family of the mother, and by the role accorded to the mother's oldest brother, who was the most responsible for his sister's children. In these families, mothers' brothers were accorded the same respect as a father; maternal cousins were regarded as siblings. Unlike patriarchal societies, marriage did not sever the ties between a woman and her family, nor did it end the obligation of the mother's family to her and her offspring.

The West African family, viewed as a clan, is arguably a predecessor or model for the extended family structures found in contemporary African-American communities. During slavery, the family remained a principal base for social affiliation, economic activity, and political organization. Family traditions in Western Africa served as the model for family life during the period of slavery. The family lives of Africans brought to the American colonies as slaves retained some of the same qualities particularly the matriarchal focus (Franklin and Moss 1988). Nevertheless, the biological father was responsible for ensuring physical and psychological well-being. In West Africa, ties to a common female ancestor bound members of a clan to one another. Indentured servants brought this template of family life, with its mores, customs, and beliefs to the New World, and retained them during the long period of slavery to pass them on to their children.

Family life during slavery. Although some early ancestors of African Americans came to the United States as free or indentured servants and maintained their free status over the generations, the majority were forced into a long life of servitude. To exact involuntary labor from African slaves, European Americans used generous portions of both physical and psychological violence. However, European Americans understood that they would only be able to consolidate their control if they stripped Africans of their identity, language, and the culture that bound them to their past in Africa (Franklin and Moss 1988). This was accomplished by undermining and replacing family structures with transient relationships built around identity as slaves owned by others, rather than with a family unit. These efforts were not entirely successful. In spite of the obstacles, many slaves organized themselves into family structures remarkably similar to nuclear family structures in the rest of America. Intact and committed marital relationships were commonplace among slaves. Men and women joined in monogamous relationships through explicit ceremonies. The children born of these relationships had paternal and maternal relationships, even when the parents could not exercise complete control over their children's lives. Throughout the period of slavery in the United States, strong family ties and committed marital relationships were evident even among couples forced to live apart. When men and women were able to purchase their freedom or to secure it through the beneficence of the slave owner, they would work for money to purchase the freedom of their spouses and their children. These and many other efforts to bring family to live in the same household suggest strongly that African Americans strove to create the ideals of family life made difficult by the institution of slavery (Gutman 1977).