ABSTRACT
Phillips (writing in 1918) argued along similar racist lines to Long's and rejected the existence of an American slave family and community.^ Secondly, in the 1950s Kenneth Stampp and Stanley Elkins denied the viability of the slave family and community; in their cases, however, this was not based on racist assumptions, but on the grounds that the harshness of the 'peculiar institution' itself was not conducive to such sociological groupings. Because of external factors the weakness of the slave family was emphasized by these authors, as slaves were controlled by their masters and family separations often proved inevitable.^ Finally, from the 1960s onwards there has been an upsurge in interest in American historiography which has resulted in a revision of the viability of the slave family and community. Among these North American historians concerned with the resurrection of the black family and community are Herbert Gutman, Lawrence Levine and John Blassingame.^ They argue that, despite adversity and oppression, a strong slave family and conmiunity existed in North America, and evidence is presented for kinship patterns, both real and fictive. They argue that the existence of monogamy in the black family and extended kinship patterns enabled slaves to come to terms with the worst ravages of slavery. Therefore black resilience and adaptability are stressed, especially among first-generation slaves who found themselves entrenched 'between two cultures'. This final stage corresponds with a search for black roots in the British historiographical mainstream in the late 1960s and the 1970s by scholars such as Walvin and Shy Hon, and more recently. Fryer.
