How did slavery help develop cultures in Britain, the Caribbean and the United States?

Throughout slavery people exchanged different traditions and as a result new languages, religions and music were created. These new cultures have been transported around the world, for example in celebrations like carnival, stories like Brer Rabbit, martial arts like capoeira or music like calypso.

Even though enslaved people who spoke the same languages were separated to stop uprising on the ships and planatations many African languages were still spoken and in time were mixed with English, French and Spanish to create a new language on many of the Caribbean islands called Creole. Creole was a secret language when slavery existed. In Haiti today Creole is very important and always spoken because it was the language of the enslaved people who freed themselves through a revolution.

This section gives you information about the ways in which people hung on to their traditions and cultures during slavery and how they then became a part of modern life.