130). Although their white masters generally exposed them to Christianity, enslaved people adopted only parts of the white religion and mixed it with elements of their own beliefs.

Even though the family was not generally a legally sanctioned unit on plantations, the basic roles of mothers, fathers, and grandparents in rearing children did exist. Families could be severed and separated at the whim and desire of the slave owners, but families did often manage to stay together and develop tight bonds. "However frequently the family was broken, it was primarily responsible for the slave's ability to survive on the plantation without becoming totally dependent on and submissive to his master. The important thing was not that the family was not recognized legally or that masters frequently encouraged monogamous mating arrangements in the quarters only when it was convenient to do so, but rather that some form of family life did...
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