Black Dandies: A Trip from Slaves to Selves

Abstract

Starting from around 1500 ’s, millions of the African slaves crossed the ocean; they were sold out to Europeans in order to work for them.The white societies made laws to execute the freedom of black people, for that the slaves were obliged to find an inoffensive ways to reclaim their rights as humans by using music, dance,andclothes.Some early signs of black dandyism started in England mainly in the theater to make the community aware of the conditions that black people were living in.The black dandy movement crossed the Atlantic to the New land America, gradually it became a main component of the American nationalidentity. This work is a study of the historical ethnography of the black dandies in the English society, first to illuminate the development of the black dandies movement and culture, also it seeks to disclose the reasons behind their rebel in that fancy way, by using the art of tailoring as the significance of the African American culture .The research will explain how the black dandies were using fashion as a cultural and a political weapon to declare identity and existence. It will conclude by making a bridge between the modern black dandies’ performance, style and attitude and their ancestors, particularly the pop king Michael Jackson, since we strongly believe that we should properly understand the past so that we could analyze the present.