[Will88]

When Europeans entered the slave trade, they deprived their slaves of last names, making family roots difficult to trace, making self-identity all but impossible.

Not to defend any practices during slavery, but sometimes the BS just gets a little too thick. How did anyone deprive slaves of their last names? The slaves knew what their names were when they arrived in the Americas and only five or six generations lived before they were freed in most cases.

It's hard to believe that last names could not be passed down orally over a few, or even many generations among people who relied on oral history since they had not developed written language.

Sometimes the stories told to make some historical points just don't make sense.

[Kaslin]

The TV series “Roots” and the name Kunta Kinte comes to mind, doesn’t it?

[maica]

When Europeans entered the slave trade, they deprived their slaves of last names, making family roots difficult to trace, making self-identity all but impossible.

How do we even know that Africans had surnames centuries ago? Did they have a written language where these tribal people lived? If anything, they probably used a patrynomic system: Bob, son of John = Bob Johnsen Also did their tribal life include the nuclear family, or did the 'village' raise the child?