MS01.01.03.B02.F10.002

gained a permanent place in the minds of our
ancestors, whose artistry kept alive - through
song, dance and [visual crossed out] vigilant image, those [crossed out: ?]
[crossed out: ?] sombre memories that created
a new language of form which echoed the
sounds of Africa in a distant land.
That stock of human bondage, later
to be called slave, property, and freed-
man, which Mother Africa had given
unwillingly to the Western world, had
known centuries of uninterupted [crossed out: ?] progress in the
visual arts where the dexterity of hand
and the literacy of seeking brought into
being elaborate and sophisticated
tradition of craftsmanship that was later to
be sought after in all of Colonial America. Those
heritable sensibilities [inserted above] that blacks possessed within the African
art tradition, were abruptly interrupted
and channeled toward skilled labor
at the time of the African's removal
from his native land to America.
In this period of transition, during which time the
native skills of the African artisan were
[crossed out sentences]
all but lost, one [crossed out: brought about] sees a synthesis
of process in the folk and decorative
arts of Colonial America [crossed out: that] which
later [crossed out: was also k___ to ?] provided the seeds of
aculturation [words crossed out]
whereby the distinct characteristics of
African craftsmanship [crossed out: were absorbed]
and iconographic content were absorbed
into the art of the majority culture.