The only problem was that it did not last long enough to allow a smoother transition to freedom. This was the dominating theory of racial slavery in the United States under the supervision of U.B. Phillips. It seems obvious that this justification was perverted and wrong; however, it was not until historians, who were more dynamic than Phillips, released their studies that this mistake in U.S. history could be corrected.
Sparking the argument is Stanley Elkins in his book, Slavery, released in 1959. Elkins insists the slave personality of Sambo definitely existed and the real question is why did it exist? Why was there this peculiar among slaves from Africa, whom once had a prideful culture, warriors, and royalty? Only a series of traumatizing events that separated the slave from his identity and his culture, argue Elkins, could cause such corrosion. First, there was the physical torment of the long march to the sea from the interior of the African continent in which blacks were bound together by the necks for weeks during the march. After arriving at a coastal trading port, the slaves were subject to the further trauma of being exhibited to slave traders, branded like cattle, and herded onto ships. Next was the dreaded Middle Passage, a trip that claimed around one-third of its participants. Third, for most the passage ended in the West Indies, where they were "broken,"" then sent to the United States. It is asserted by some, including Elkins, that in addition to the physical and emotion shocks, the slaves began to look upon their new masters as Father figures due to their dependence and longing to be like him. That is, since they were Sambos, they believed the white masters were supreme and it was to their satisfaction to please them. Elkins cautiously compared this system of horrors to those endured by Nazi concentration camp victims. He illustrated that if such a transformation could occur within ten years (the transformation from scholarly German citizens to childish, dependent beings), then surely the transformation of culture-rich Africans to Sambo can occur in two hundred years.
