Takeover

As with everything in the world, something that is supposed to be used for fun or good is taken by others to be dishonored.

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While the Ring Shout did happen at night so that Slave owners wouldn't find out it didn't stop them from learning. Once slaveowners learned about these dances they forced the slaves to start doing them in public. The owners wanted to show the slaves being "happy" and the Ring Shout is the thing they decided they would market. This also caused another problem within the black community. It made it so that black people got this stereotype of being performers and sexualized.

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Mrs. Abigail M. Holmes Christensen described what happened in the article Spirituals and "Shouts" of Southern Negroes, "The shouts were no doubt survivals of African dances used in fetish or idol worship, and linger still in country places remote from," pg  155.

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What was made to be a peaceful pass time to bring hope was used in a wicked way to hold black people back for years to come.

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