Shut Up and Dribble

Skills of Enslaved Africans 

The state of Florida ignited a controversy when it released a set of 2023 academic standards that requires students to be taught that enslaved Black people in the U.S. “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

As a researcher who specializes in the history of race and racism in the U.S., I – like a growing chorus of critics – see that education standard as flawed and misleading.

Whereas Florida would have students believe that enslaved Black people “benefited” by developing skills during slavery, the reality is that enslaved Africans contributed to the nation’s social, cultural and economic well-being by plying skills that they had already developed prior to captivity. What follows are examples of the skills that the Africans brought with them as they entered the Americas as enslaved. These skills were evident in the first group of enslaved that came into what would become the United States.

Virginia was the first colony to obtain enslaved Africans in 1619. By the late 17th century, plantations across Virginia increasingly featured skilled enslaved laborers from central and western Africa. The three most prominent skills were cooking, farming, and building.

Cooks, farmers, artisans and builders

When planters and traders considered purchasing an African, one of the key factors influencing their decision and the price was their skills. Examining the historical record is important to understand how transformative the Africans were in the United States.

Enslaved chefs blended African, Native American, and European traditions to create unique Southern cuisines. Notable enslaved chefs include James Hemings, who cooked for Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, and Hercules, the cook for George Washington. The culinary skills that the West Africans brought with them served to enhance and transform what has become known as American foodways. Traditional African dishes not only help us understand the ethnic but class origins of specific dishes. They also help us understand the pride these dishes represent in the process. Foodstuffs of West African origin deeply influenced colonial diets and became known as the “Atlantic Circulation or "Columbian trade.” They added unique flavors, such as hot peppers, peanuts, okra, and greens, to adapt West African stews into gumbo or jambalaya, which took rice, spices, and heavily seasoned vegetables and meat. These dishes soon became staples in what would become known as down-home cooking and dominated the kitchens of some of our nation’s elites.

Rice became a staple crop in Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas due to the farming skills and techniques brought by enslaved from West Africa. These innovations reflect a transatlantic transfer of knowledge and practice as African cultivation methods became critical in shaping plantation society in colonial America.

Looking at the manifest of slave ships, we also note that enslaved Africans were artisans with skills as woodcarvers, metalworkers, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. These individuals were highly prized and valued. They also arrived with various traditional African crafts, including pottery making, weaving, basketry, and wood carving. These crafts were instrumental in filling the perpetual colonial labor shortages and scarcity of skilled labor. Looking at the list of enslaved people owned by George Washington, more than a quarter were skilled workers, including carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, coopers, millers, distillers, weavers, and sewists. Across the nation, multiple landmarks were built by the enslaved. These include the White House and the U.S. Capital, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., Fraunces Tavern, Wall Street in New York, and Fort Sumter in South Carolina. 

Enslaved cooks were necessary on the plantation, as they had to cook meals for themselves on the plantation.  They were typically only given a large pot to cook in, and a small amount of time to prepare communal meals for the enslaved.  Using skills from various West African cultures, these cooks often worked together to create these communal meals. The meals comprised a high proportion of corn meal, animal fat, and bits of meat or vegetables were common fair.  Communal gardens, maintained by the enslaved, might be available to supplement the meager supplies and what was available from hunting or fishing.  The cooks who emerged from these conditions soon became some of the highest regarded and valued among the enslaved in the region.   

The birth of Afro-Atlantic cuisine resulted from the interaction of cooking practices blending traditional African cooking practices with those derived from Europe.  These interactions, or foodways, in turn, produced American food.  Americana is defined by such cuisines as Southern-style BBQ, New Orleans gumbo, or just a cold slice of watermelon on a hot summer day.  Cooks from the African Diaspora made these possible and ultimately transformed what we call food.  

Music, instruments, and song

As they entered the New World, Africans carried their history, culture, and traditions in their music. Africans either brought or reconstructed several different instruments. These instruments ran the full range from percussion, string, and wind instruments to drums, banjoes, balafo (a kind of xylophone), flute, and musical bow (later to become the banjo), and the panpipe (a sort of tuned pipe). Singing, dancing, and remembering the enslaved rehearsed and recreated their past, present, and future in their music. Coming from various tribes, mainly from West Africa, they used their music to transcend their differences and connect. They infused this music with the call-and-response vocalization of their stories, from which the rich genres of spirituals and gospel, blues, jazz, soul, hip-hop, and rap derived.

Medical innovations, medicinal plants, and midwives

As the smallpox epidemic ravaged Boston, killing over 800 people, 14 percent of its population, a small handful survived because of a radical technique introduced by an enslaved person named Onesimus. Onesimus, purchased by the Puritan minister Cotton Mather in 1706, was constantly being watched. In 1716, Onesimus informed Mather that he had survived smallpox and no longer feared contagion. He described how by rubbing pus from an infected person into an open wound, the symptoms of the disease could be milder and ultimately provide immunity. As physicians began to wonder about this mysterious method to prevent smallpox, they developed the technique known as vaccinations. Smallpox today has been eradicated worldwide primarily because of the medical advice rendered by Onesimus.

As Africans entered the Americas, they brought knowledge of medicinal plants. Some of these plants they brought with them included wild licorice. Enslaved and free midwives imported many herbs, devices, and methods for facilitating childbirth, maternal health, and well-being. Enslaved midwives also attended the wives of the enslavers during births. Herbal remedies, comprised of cedar berries, tansy, and cotton seeds, were to give reproductive agency to women, both enslaved and free, White and Black. From their knowledge of different plants, they were able to ease the discomfort of menstruation, induce labor, and reduce labor pains.

Soldiers and rebellions

One of the most unique historical moments in U.S. history occurred on 9 September 1739 when a group of enslaved people staged the largest rebellion in the Southern Colonies. Even more remarkable were the Africans’ backgrounds that contributed to this revolt’s uniqueness. Based on extensive research, these enslaved were well educated, had a high degree of literacy, bilingual (speaking both Portuguese and Congolese), Christian, and highly skilled military-trained soldiers. War-proven soldiers, therefore, provided the core of the rebellion. The bravery, fueled by desperation, was the biggest nightmare for white enslavers. These nightmares intensified as the Stono rebels efficiently handled firearms, marching under banners and using drums. Adding insult to injury, the Africans would dance as they approached combat. Military dancing, a long part of the African culture of war, signaled their training and confidence. Enslaved rebels with similar skills would lead another rebellion in Haiti.

Between 1781 and 1804, the Haitian Revolution featured enslaved rebels with military training. Historians point out that military service among enslaved Africans might have been how they initially became enslaved because of war. Haitian rebel leaders such as Toussaint Louverture and Dessalines took advantage of these skills and were successful in their rebellion. The revolt laid at the art of the sectional and political divide that separated the country. Ultimately, it would culminate in our civil war.

The history of the enslaved in our country and the hemisphere is replete with stories of the skills that the Africans brought across the Atlantic. These skills range from arts and crafts, medicine, cures and medicinal arts, cattle breeding and farming, military tactics, and ultimately rebellion. Our country is richer because of the skills, knowledge, and techniques brought by enslaved Africans. And regardless of misrepresentation, the reality is that they were complex people with complex histories, cultures, technologies, and knowledge systems.