Incidents of the life of a slave girl
Major Themes:
- Fear
- Oppression through the form of restricting love
- Power
- Control
- Intimidation
- Loss of innocence
- Jealousy
- Family
- Lack of justice in the American judicial system
In this narrative, the protagonist lives in complete fear of her master and her mistress. As she tries to fulfill her daily tasks while struggling to defend her virtue from her master as well as keep her mistress happy, her morals and self-will are constantly challenged. She is forced to grow up too fast and blossom before it is her time due to the selfish wants of her master. The poor girl lives in fear for her life everyday and is suffocated under the thumb of both tyrants in the house. The helplessness she felt was inherently perpetuated by the lack of representation and protection of the American judicial system, as slaves in that time period had no legal standing in court. She was legally powerless, oppressed by fear, and stripped of the blissful innocence that lies within normal adolescence.
Her hopes and dreams of real love are also crushed by the manipulative control of her master. She sacrifices all ties with the man she loves in order to protect him, which is a wise decision way beyond her youth. The jealousy displayed from her mistress is rageful, vengeful and undeserved as she shows no interest in her masters advancements, yet still has to wake up to the scary sight of a hateful mistress watching her while she sleeps. The full exercise of power exerted over the young girl as well as the struggle for power between the master and mistress represents just how vital the hand of power played in upholding the institution of slavery. Yet, in spite of all of her trials and tribulations, the one comforting thought she always has to rely on is the support of her family. Her grandmother and brother are the cornerstone of her sanity and thus the importance of the strength of the black family, and ultimately the black community, during that time period is accentuated.
Remembering Slavery
Major Themes:
- Brutality
- Varying experiences of slavery
- Religion
- Power
- Oppression
- State sanctioned
- Rise of the “Invisible Institution”
- Dehumanization
- Foundation of white supremacy
In a detailed memoir framed as interviews with former slaves, this writing explores the many intricacies of slavery that allowed it to be such a long standing institution. As the writing tells the stories of how slave masters used brutal punishment to reinforce their dominance over slaves, it demonstrates the role of dehumanization. Most slaves were beaten and tortured into submission like cattle. While some slaves claimed they had “good” masters, the negative experiences overwhelmingly outweighed those experiences. In one event a child is beaten for taking a piece of candy. To restrain her from trying to escape the beating, her face was pinned underneath a rocking chair, resulting in permanent disfigurement of her mouth and facial bone structure.
There could be cases upon cases brought up explaining the brutality of slavery, in which a person was badly injured or even killed as a result of their master’s brutality. Nonetheless, it was deemed irrelevant, because under federal law it did not matter what happened to slaves because of their existence of as property instead of human beings. Therefore, slaves could be raped, murdered, and brutalized with impunity. Moreover, Christianity of all things was used to substantiate the argument of slavery. It was even believed that slaves were an unevolved subspecies of sorts, by “educated” individuals such as Thomas Jefferson. White affluent people held great advantage over African Americans at this point. They used religion, “logic”, and even called slavery their moral obligation to teach slaves skills to justify their notions of white supremacy. What more could they need to continue slavery as a long standing institution for eternity? Or so they thought, the African American people would eventually overcome.
Major Themes:
- Emancipation is not true freedom
- Refined Clothes
- Monuments are paradoxical
- Emergence of black communities
- Black culture unbound
In Envisioning Emancipation, Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer explain how emancipation is not true freedom for African Americans. Power is freedom, which African Americans did not have during this time period. True freedom is complete freedom from the concept of slavery and white supremacy. By “freeing” slaves, white people maintained control over black people because the concept of black people as objects was still in effect. Additionally, some statues and monuments erected still portrayed affluent white men as a “savior” for the former slaves. For example, a statue depicting Abraham Lincoln with an outstretched hand over a slave dressed in tattered clothing only furthers white supremacy, because it portrays African Americans as downtrodden and suggests that their emancipation and freedom was a favor, and not a right. Also, monuments of white supremacists were kept. Since they were not destroyed, the negative ideals of white supremacists presented within the monuments stay in place even though emancipation is supposed to be about equal opportunity for black people.
On the other hand, several photographs of black people dressed in refined clothes are displayed in Envisioning Emancipation. Black people are displayed as humans with sophisticated clothes such as suits. The refined clothes represent a sense of hope for black people, but more so seek to change the perception and image of them. Emancipation also sparked the emergence of black communities and black culture became unbound. Since black people were no longer imprisoned by white supremacists, black people were able to rapidly spread their culture, resulting in a influx of black musicians, artistry, and eventual historical figures. Emancipation represented the realization of a long time dream of African Americans, presenting them the opportunity to advance themselves and effect change throughout the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment