Slave name

From Free net encyclopedia

Slave name is a term, some may view as a derogatory term and others may not view it as a derogatory term, applied by some for the name of European or English, French, German, Scottish, Spanish or Portuguese origin borne by an African-American or Afro-Caribbean—especially an African-American who was enslaved, or whose ancestors were enslaved, in the United States prior to the Thirteenth Amendment and given surnames by their owners.

Most blacks in Canada, South America, Central America or the Caribbean also have so called slave names

Many people, like Assata Shakur and Muhammad Ali, and some organizations, like the Nation of Islam, encourage people to abandon their slave names and take Arabic or African names instead. However, this is not universal, and many American blacks keep names of European origin without considering them shameful or distasteful.

In Roman slavery, slaves took the surname of their owner and kept it if they were manumitted.