Q Synopsis (150 words) From this week’s reading I am interested in the Slavery and the Formation of the United States section. Slavery played an important role in the culmination of the Civil War in the USA. The master and slave dynamics is often referred to as the bedrock of the system of slavery. People were becoming civilized but strangely enough they treated slaves as “things” or non-living objects and not human beings. Author and writers of that time also justified this system of punishing. This was actually the height of racism. It was interesting to note that how the cultural strategies were used by the slaves to cope up with the inhuman torture that was done to them. They began to form support groups and brought in an influx of music, dance, and art –the effect of which we see till date in the American culture. Syncretism is an interesting term I came across this week. This essentially means a mixture of cultures from both African and European tributaries. Critical Reflection (250 words)