The Effects of Slavery and Generational Trauma on Black Families
Slavery is deeply rooted in American history and continues to affect Black Americans to this day. The Atlantic Slave Trade took place from 1526 to 1867 and brought over 10.7 million Africans to the Americas (Mintz). This was referred to as the Middle Passage, and it resulted in the deaths of 12% of those who were forced to embark on the voyage. The African slave trade was banned in 1807, but domestic trade still thrived, and slavery continued in full force until the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted on January 1, 1863 (history.com). Even such, the status of Black people in America remained precarious. Throughout the duration of slavery, landowners wanted to keep their slaves dependent on them by preventing them from learning how to read and write as well as restricting many aspects of their lives. Throughout slavery and the domestic slave trade, families were being destroyed, which created a lot of trauma. Even after slavery legally came to an end, that trauma has continued to carry on through generations.
Generational trauma is explored deeply in Warshan Shire’s Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. Excerpts from Shire’s works are interwoven throughout Beyoncé’s short film Lemonade, many of which relate to generational trauma experienced by Black families. During the section titled “Accountability,” the voiceover says “am I talking about your husband or your father” after lines such as “did he make you forget your own name? Did he convince you he was a god?” This is an example of how toxic cycles, specifically relating to masculinity, repeat in families and that they are hard to break. Additionally, in Fire, one of Shire’s poems, the subject’s mother expresses “what do you mean he hit you? Your father hit me all the time but I never left him” (Shire 17). The subject’s mother is insinuating that she should stay with her abuser, and that it is normal. It is another example of the generational trauma that Black families face. Trauma is cyclical, and it can be hard to break a pattern that you have grown up surrounded by.
Beyoncé’s visual album expresses the generational trauma she experienced from her father cheating on her mother and Jay-Z cheating on her, and that connects a lot with both Beloved’s familial trauma. There is a lot of trauma surrounding the psychological effects that slavery had on Sethe and Paul D. Sethe made the decision to kill her daughter to keep her out of slavery, as she believed that slavery was a fate worse than death. As she is discussing this with Paul D, he says to her that her “love is too thick” (Morrison 193). Sethe does not recognize that what she did was wrong, she was only trying to protect her child from the horrors she had to go through. There is a lot of trauma surrounding the psychological effects that slavery had on Sethe and Paul D. There are also connections between Sethe’s desperate act and “Lonely in America,” a piece written by Wendy Walters. The essay talks about the horrors of slavery and the desperate acts committed, and how the author has guilt and shame thinking about the privilege she has now compared to what her ancestors had to endure. Killing her daughter is not the only result of Sethe’s traumatic past, however. Sethe “helicopters” Denver, which is oppressive in and of itself.
Trauma is not just represented in the works that we have studied, it is also represented and referenced in pop culture. In Kendrick Lamar’s 2017 song “DNA.,” Lamar raps about the police brutality and relates it to the violence his ancestors were constantly faced with. DNA. is meant to show how racism and prejudice still exist against Black people today, and the song details generational trauma that has been passed down (Rose & Malhorta). Specifically, the line “I got dark, I got evil, that rot inside my DNA” (Lamar). The lyrics represent how Black Americans today have the same characteristics their ancestors had, and in that vein, they also deal with similar violence.
Generational trauma is explored in a multitide of works today, from Lemonade, to DNA., to Beloved. It is important to learn about how the history of slavery impacts Black families, and how to break the cycle of generational trauma.
Works Cited:
History.com Editors. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.
Mintz, Steven. “The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.” Historical Context: Facts about the Slave Trade and Slavery | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery.
Rose, Bailey, and Diya Malhotra. “DNA. — Kendrick Lamar.” Afterlives of Slavery, 13 Apr. 2018, https://afterlivesofslavery.wordpress.com/music/dna-kendrick-lamar/.
