Psychological Effects Of Slavery Essay

One topic that I feel is extremely important but greatly under discussed is the psychological impact slavery still has on African Americans today. A lot of time when slavery is being examined, it is only thought of in the aspect of the physical bonage and abuse. In all the history classes I’ve taken, I was always taught slaves were whipped, forced to work against their will, and had terrible living conditions; however, I never learned in the classroom of the psychological damage inflicted upon slaves to mental break them down without requiring any physical methods. These same psychological techniques used over 100 years ago still influence African Americans self-image and behavior to this very day.
In 1712, a man named Willie Lynch wrote a letter titled The Making of a Slave. In this letter he lists an abundances of approaches to psychologically control slaves. One of the methods that still immensely affect African Americans today is colorism, or shadeism. Colorism is the idea that being a certain color, or shade, is superior to another color. Lynch used this concept in the matter of exalting lighter skinned slaves above darker skinned slaves. The idea behind this method was to create division through envy and distrust.
One major behavioral trait deriving from slavery is the widespread belief in African American community that in order to have a well behaved child, he or she must be physically disciplined, or “whooped”. As slaves, African Americans were taught that if they did wrong, they would get whipped, sound familiar? As a result, they used this same philosophy to punish their children, and it soon became a generational belief that is still a huge part of African Americans culture today. This method of discipline inflicted on a child at a young age also has many enormous repercussions on that child’s behavior in the future regarding other aspects of his or her