How people die is strongly influenced by group membership. The experience of black Americans with death can be examined through mortality statistics, but more vivid insights can be obtained from spirituals, poetry, and other literature that has been created out of the black experience. Taking an historical perspective, it is found that the usual assumption that blacks take an otherworldly view of life and death is not clearly supported. On the contrary, the black norm of death seems to be largely secular and practical-and serves as an important commentary on the relationship between social status and the individual's interpretation of his most powerful experiences.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BrownC.Manchild in the promised land. New York: The New American Library1965.
2.
BrownSpiritualsS.A. In HughesL. and BontempsA. (Eds.), Book of Negro Folklore. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1958.
3.
DavidsonB.The African slave trade. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1961. P. 79.
4.
DodsonO.When I am dead. In DavisC. T. and WaldenD. (Eds.), On being Black. Greenwich: Fawcett Publications, 1970.
5.
DouglassF.My bondage and my freedom. New York: Dover, 1969.
6.
DrakeSt. C.The social and economic status of the Negro in the United States. In ParsonsT. and ClarkK. B. (Eds.), The Negro American. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1966.
7.
DunbarP.L.Lyrics of the Hearthside. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., A Death Song, 1899.
8.
DurkheimE.Le Suicide (trans. Spalding). New York: The Free Press, 1950.
9.
DurkheimE.The elementary forms of religious life, New York: The MacMillan Co., 1926.
10.
FarleyR.Growth of the black population. Chicago: Markham, 1970.
11.
FisherM.M.Negro slave songs in the United States. New York: The Citadel Press, 1969.
12.
FranklinJ.H.A brief history of the Negro in the United States. In DavisJ. P. (Ed.), American Negro Reference Book. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1966.
13.
HarrisT.D.The military and the Negro. In RomeroP. W. (Ed.), In Black America. Washington, D.C.: Pioneer, 1969. P. 363.
14.
HerskovitsM. J.The myth of the Negro past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958. Pp. 197–207.
15.
JohnsonJ. W.Go Down Death. In JohnsonJ. W., God's trombones. New York: The Viking Press, 1927.
16.
KiserC.V. (Ed.) Demographic aspects of the black community. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, Vol. XLVIII, no. 2, April 1970, Part 2, p. 39, New York.
17.
MannixD. and CowleyM.The middle passages. In ChaceW. M. and CollierP., Justice denied. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1970.
18.
McKayC.If we must die. In DavisC. T. and WaldenD. (Eds.), On being black. Greenwich: Fawcett, 1970.
19.
NabritJ. M.III, The law-1968. In RomeroP. (Ed.), In black America. Washington, D.C.: Pioneer, 1969. P. 163.
20.
PolksiH. A. and BrownR. C.Jr. (Eds.). The Negro almanac. New York: Bellwether, 1967. P. 213.
21.
ReddingJ. S.On being Negro in America. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1951.
22.
TannebaumF.Slave and citizen. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. Pp. 28–29.
23.
VernonG. M.Sociology of death. New York. The Ronald Press Company, 1970.
24.
WeldT. D.American slavery as it is. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969.
