[Ads-l] "slave"

[Dave Wilton]

By 1814, most slaves in the US had been born in the US. The transatlantic slave trade went into decline in 1780 and the importation of slaves to the US was outlawed in 1808 (which, of course, did not mean it ended, but was considerably slowed and smaller).

Of course, the fact that a slave might be a third, fourth, or even fifth-generation American did not necessarily mean the slave considered him or herself to be "American." But the majority would not have considered themselves to be "African" either.

A different situation obtained for the Caribbean and Brazil, where a majority of slaves were African born well into the nineteenth century.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 2:49 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave"

Well, maybe so, but if I were shanghaied (or brusseled) by a colleague of F.K.'s kidnapper and transported overseas to Belgium and were bound and forced to work in a chocolate factory, I wouldn't consider myself Belgian either.  

LH

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