Enslaved African aspirations centered on family, land, and syncretized religion

Evidence

More deeply, the slaves retained and developed concepts of family and kin quite beyond the comprehension and control of the master class, and a concept of land tenure that was in contradiction to that of the dominant European culture… . They wanted to live in family units, to have ready access to land of their own, and be free to develop their own culture, particularly their own, syncretized religion. These were the basic aspirations, which varied according to the different conditions in each of the colonies affected [by rebellion]. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 609

Categorization

• XREF: These stated aspirations prefigure the Black radical tradition’s core program Robinson develops across the book. — connects to: Nearly all the theologian’s slaves rejected his paternalist family myth — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 252; Enslaved African Muslims preserved Islam for generations until Protestant abolitionism absorbed them.