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MICHAEL A. GOMEZ, Exchanging our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Pp. 370. $18.95.
Reviewed by Robert Gudmestad, Southwest Baptist University
Michael A. Gomez has written an important new book, one that puts slave culture and life in a whole new perspective. In Exchanging our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, Gomez strongly argues that slaves kept much of their African cultural identity up to the Civil War. As they clung to their past, the Africans who came to the United States and their heirs also profoundly influenced this country.
Gomez builds upon recent work on slavery that emphasizes "agency," that is, the slaves had more impact on white society and shaped their own lives more than previously recognized. Indeed, the impact of Africans on American culture through their ability to retain their heritage is the book's main theme. Africans accomplished this feat because different ethnicities came to be preferred in different colonies. The Fon, Ewe, and Yoruba groups primarily came to Louisiana and kept much of their hoodoo beliefs. Thus, Louisiana still has strong links to hoodoo and...