What is Black English? Is it English spoken with an African accent or is it just sloppy speech spoken by people who are unable to learn the correct way to use English? Does Black English have a grammar?
             In this essay, I will not only go into this controversial discussion, but also look into the history of Black English, the special features it has and the place it possesses in American society today.
             2. The History and background of Black English
             The history behind Black English is unlike that of any other dialect. Blacks were brought to the New World as slaves. They spoke many different African languages. Slave owners intentionally mixed people from different language backgrounds with each other so as to avoid any opposition. The blacks had to learn a pidgin language in order to communicate with each other and their masters. These pidgin languages had a very limited vocabulary and simple syntax; thus, they were easy to learn and use. In the course of time, these pidgin languages developed into creoles when the children of the slaves spoke them as their mother-tongue. Finally, after the Civil War, slavery was abolished and blacks could get an education.
             Many of the features of creole languages gradually disappeared as blacks learned how to read and write. Some white people were strongly against educating the blacks because they felt themselves threatened. If blacks would stay more or less illiterate, whites could still have control over them. Fortunately, this did not happen. The number of Black Americans who speak Standard English has risen to millions. However, there still exists a creole language spoken by people on the islands off the coast of North Carolina and Georgia. This language, a distinct dialect of English, is called Gullah, and it has survived from the days of plantations because of isolation. From this extract in Gullah we can see how similar and yet different a language it is from English:
             Eben do a wak tr...