sehold as a family servant, learned in a comparatively short time
the manners and customs of his master's family. He very soon possessed
himself of so much of the language, religion, and the technique of the
civilization of his master as, in his station, he was fitted or
permitted to acquire. Eventually, also, Negro slaves transferred their
allegiance to the state of which they were only indirectly members, or
at least to their masters' families, with whom they felt themselves in
most things one in sentiment and interest.

The assimilation of the Negro field hand, where the contact of the slave
with his master and his master's family was less intimate, was naturally
less complete. On the large plantations, where an overseer stood between
the master and the majority of his slaves, and especially on the sea
island plantations off the coast of South Carolina, where the master and
his family were likely to be merely winter visitors, this distance
between master and slave was greatly increased. The consequence is that
the Negroes in these regions are less touched today by the white man's
influence and civilization than elsewhere in the southern states.

C. AMERICANIZATION AS A PROBLEM IN ASSIMILATION[247]

1. Americanization as Assimilation

The Americanization Study has assumed that the fundamental condition of
what we call "Americanization" is the participation of the immigrant in
the life of the community in which he lives. The point here emphasized
is that patriotism, loyalty, and common sense are neither created nor
transmitted by purely intellectual processes. Men must live and work and
fight together in order to create that community of interest and
sentiment which will enable them to meet the crises of their common life
with a common will.

It is evident, however, that the word "participation" as here employed
has a wide application, and it becomes important for working purposes to
give a more definite and concrete meaning to the term.

2. Language as a Means and a Product of Participation

Obviously any organized social activity whatever and any participation
in this activity implies "communication." In human, as distinguished
from animal, society common life is based on a common speech. To share a
common speech does not guarantee participation in the community life but
it is an instrument of participation, and its acquisition by the members
of an immigrant group is rightly considered a sign and a rough