A slave name is a name given to a person who is or has been enslaved or a name inherited from enslaved ancestors. Modern use of the term applies mostly to African-Americans and West Indians who are descended from slaves, and are thereby capable of having a slave name. In the former Dutch colony which is present day Cape Town, slaves were named after the months in which they were purchased. This resulted in surnames such as Januarie and Februarie. Captured slaves were all given a slave name and in Europe many of their ancestors still bear this name. The name Gomis is associated with slavery in the history of Guinea-Bissau and its Manjack people. Bissau, a creole region, became the Slave Coast as the result of the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century. Before that, slavery was not a significant feature of the coastal economy. The change occurs after the Portuguese reached this region in 1446. The surnames Gomis, Mendy, Preira, Correa, Dacosta, Monteiro and Vieira can all be traced back to Portuguese through the slave trade in the Casamance River region, governed at times by both Portugal and France. For a brief period in the 1790s the British attempted to establish a rival foothold on the offshore island of Bolama. But many of the Manjaco and other entities became French after the abolition of the Slave trade in 1794 and 1848. It was not until 1 January 1860 that the Netherlands abolished slavery. Slaves in Dutch Guiana would have to wait until 1 January 1863 for the abolition of slavery. Freedom was restored and their slave name won back dignity and respect. Today, slave name, baptised from birth or rebirth in the new world, testifies to the authenticity of ones identity and own heritage of history, or lack thereof. Prior to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, the vast majority of African-Americans in the United States were enslaved. During enslavement, slaves names were assigned by their owners. Others received a name based on what kind of work they were forced to do. Some African-Americans have last names such as Cotton, reflecting when they were made to pick cotton as slaves. After emancipation, many freedmen and women took the surnames of their former owners as their own. Some blacks in the U.S. took on the surname Freeman, while others adopted the names of popular historical or contemporary figures of social importance, such as former presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson. A number of African-Americans and Jamaican Americans have changed their names out of the belief that the names they were given at birth were slave names. blackisreallybeautiful.wordpress
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 10:20:07 +0000
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