Disruption of African culture
Slaves often separated from their families, first for convenience of sale, then later to deliberately sever collective ties that could unify slave populations
Slaves from several hundred distinct tribes arbitrarily grouped together, with no common language except the language of their masters (English, French, Dutch)
Cut off from their own languages, cultures, foods, religions
Much of what went into later 19th- and 20th-Century “American” culture the result of Africans & their descendants trying to survive and stay sane in hostile environments
Margaret Garner (& Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved)