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From what we know of the original African families from which many black Americans came, they were the epitome of family stability, displaying caring, reciprocity, solidarity, and sharing.
Centuries of slavery, however, had an impact on family life among American blacks. Under slavery, slaves were regarded as property. A black womans body was not considered her own. Control over her body was passed from white person to white person along with a bill of sale. Men and women might live together as husbands and wives, but they had no legal right to make a marriage contract. The slaveowner had complete legal authority over his slaves. However, despite such harsh and restrictive practices under slavery, black Americans still managed to have their own families. While establishing and maintaining nuclear family organization was extremely difficult for most slaves, the majority of them did find themselves living in extended families.
After the slave system was abolished by the Civil War, a new economic system called sharecropping was established in the South and a different form of family developed for African Americans who lived there. Under the sharecropping system, freed blacks worked the land for the plantation owner, had few rights, were frequently subjected to barbarous treatment at the hands of the landowner, and lived hard, impoverished lives, very similar to those under slavery. However, sharecropping was quite different from slavery in the organization of African American families. Freed from slavery, blacks could now legally get married and establish their own families. While they retained their ties to an extended community network nuclear families however, became the dominant form of family life under the sharecropping system. In such unclear families, men were the ones who were in direct contact with the landholders, the creditors, and the people in the market who purchased the crops. Wives were tied into the sharecropping system through their husbands, under whose direction they worked in the fields with their children. Thus, in the postCivil War period, the African American family in the south was not only more nuclear, but also more male dominated.
From the late nineteenth century to World War II, large numbers of blacks left the South for the North and West, known in U.S. history as the Great Migration. During the same period, there also occurred an equally large exodus of blacks from the rural South to Southern cities. The move was not just one of black workers moving from one local to another, but of workers moving from agricultural work to urban manufacturing and service jobs. However, this transition had different results for men and women. While African American men usually moved from agricultural work into manufacturing jobs. African American women mostly moved from agricultural work into domestic work, largely due to racial and gender discrimination. As domestic maids, they worked in the homes of white people and spent long hours away from their own families. In many cases, white employers insisted that their maids “live in”, which meant that domestic workers were able to see their own families only every other weekend. Since domestic work was the largest single occupation of African American women from the early 1900s to the mid1960s, the frequent absence of mothers at home could not but affect the growth of children as well as the relationship between husbands and wives. For this reason, black domestic workers used several techniques to gain control of their work, including direct confrontation, threatening to quit, and quitting. Many of them eventually succeeded in changing domestic work from “live in” to day work and could go to their own home at night.
1. The best title of this passage would be
A. the changes of womens social status in Africa.
B. the history of African American family.
C. the history of women liberation movement.
D. the features of American family.
2. Which of the following is NOT a new situation after the slave system was abolished for the African Americans?
A. Blacks could now legally get married and establish their own families.
B. Nuclear families became the dominant form of family life under the sharecropping system.
C. Freed blacks worked hard for the plantation owners and had few rights.
D. Blacks lived hard and impoverished lives under the sharecropping system.
3. Why domestic work was the largest single occupation of African American women from the early 1900s to the mid of 1960s?
A. They have no right to choose their own work.
B. People held gender and racial discrimination against them.
C. White employers insisted that their maids“live in”.
D. They want to be independent from their husbands.
4. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. In the period of slavery, the shaveowner had complete legal authority over his slaves.
B. Under the sharecropping system, blacks lived hard and impoverished life.
C. The frequent absence of mothers at home could not affect the growth of children.
D. Black domestic workers contrived to gain their rights.
5. Where does this passage most probably come from?
A. academic work B. magazine
C. student textbookD. newspaper
答案:
1. 【B】本文主要涉及的是美国黑人家庭的三个不同历史阶段，及变化发展情况。
2. 【C】从第二段可知，在废除黑奴制度以前，奴隶过着悲惨的生活。奴隶制度废除之后，他们仍然受地主的压榨，生活艰苦, 生活地位并未改变。
3. 【B】从文章第四段 “...American women mostly moved from agricultural work into domestic work, largely due to racial and gender discrimination” 可知。
4. 【C】文章的原文是“...the frequent absence of mothers at home could not but affect the growth of children as well as the relationship between husbands and wives.” could not but表示的是肯定意义，C错误。
5. 【A】纵观全文可知，这是一篇关于美国社会文化的文章，所以可以排除B、C、D而选A。
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