An Atlantic Creole Culture: Material Culture, Language and Religion

What is it about?

This article examines the culture of the Castle Slaves of James Island in the Gambia River. They were called Castle Slaves because they were enslaved Africans made to work at a trading castle or fort in service of European trade. By the early eighteenth century, if not earlier, an Atlantic creole culture had begun to emerge in areas along the West African coast directly engaged in Atlantic Trade. In the Gambia River region, that included James Island, its outstations, and trading ports along the river. This article argues that the Castle Slaves embraced the developing Atlantic creole culture. On display in their European clothing, including waistcoats and silk handkerchiefs, smoking tobacco in European-style pipes while drinking rum, they adorned themselves with beads and other jewelry that could be quite valuable and ate protein-rich meals supplemented with foods imported from the Americas and Asia. They spoke European-based languages and had their children baptized as Christians. This material culture, combined with their central roles in the operation of Atlantic trade, marked them as distinct from the cultures from which they originated and marks an important example of a cultural shift among a group of enslaved people in Africa.

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Photo by Hongbin on Unsplash

Photo by Hongbin on Unsplash

Why is it important?

While other scholars have examined creole cultures among the enslaved in the Americas, and among the free population of West-Central Africa, this is the first work to detail a creole culture among an enslaved population in West Africa.