From Sundown To Sunup Summary

Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many occasions that called for sacrifice and bravery. The institution of slavery demanded that of the people who endured that lifestyle without them knowing. George P. Rawick’s book entitled From Sundown to Sunup: The Making of the Black Community, provides an in-depth glimpse of slave life using several diverse themes. More occurred in a slave’s life than the desire for freedom, and this text forces us to ask the questions, how has slave life differed from past descriptions and what aspects have been ignored?
Rawick employed the use of previously collected oral histories, and he utilized various secondary sources to fill in the gaps. The author took a considerable amount of …show more content…
Carey Davenport articulated that, “Sometimes the culled folks go down in dugouts and hollows and hold their own service and they used to sing songs what come a-gushing up from the heart.” (p. 34) Adeline Hodges recounts that, “ De slaves warn’t ‘lowed to go to church, but dey would whisper roun, and all meet in de woods and pray.” (p. 35) These two particular passages display that when slaves were not able to attend church, they were able to form a community of their own and transform that unique society into a method of perseverance. Rawick explains, “A living people does not carry the past on its back if it is able to transcend it in order to meet the present and prepare for the future.” (p. …show more content…
Professor Jesse Bernard’s statements involving slavery and marriage illustrate that these observations were taken out of context. Bernard states that, “There was a time when marriage was so uncommon among Negroes that almost every Negro infant in the United States was born out of wedlock.” (p. 89) Rawick retorts that slaves were not given the right to engage in marriage consequently, this point cannot be taken seriously. (p. 89) The earlier belief outlines that past viewpoints cannot always hold value. Furthermore, acceptance of this theory provides a good example that every statement made must be backed up with

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