Jonathan
Clarke, Christal Scott, Kayla Chevis, Malik Thompson, and Katherine Hancock
The excerpts that we read this week paint extremely detailed
and specific images of what life was like as a slave, and the complex, violent,
paradoxical relationship that slaves and slave holders had. We read about what
slaves remember from their time in slavery, as well as what life was like after
emancipation.
Slave owners often acted contradictory towards their slaves.
Remembering Slavery defines slavery
as “a social system that defined men and women as things, vested owners with
enormous power over those they owned” (3). This frames the rest of the excerpt
from this book and helps with the rest of the readings because throughout the
piece, we see slave owners mistreating the slaves like any other kind of
material property. It was disconcerting that some slave owners showed obvious
guilt over acts of violence to their slaves, however, because it means there is
a more complex relationship between the two individuals besides owner and piece
of property—emotions were involved. If the owners felt guilt upon physical
violence, why was the guilt not deep enough to end the institution of slavery
altogether? Additionally, slaves and their masters shared common ground in
religion, but it was not enough for masters to recognize and fix the wrong in
owning people in the first place. According to the interpretation of
Christianity that the slaves used, slaveholders were deemed hypocritical. “Dere
wuz a man who folks called a good preacher, but he wuz one of de meanest mens I
ever did seed.” (22) However, in the view of the slaveholder, Christianity
justified slavery.
Envisioning Emancipation shows more contradiction in the
relationship of freed slaves and previous slave owners. Although slaves were
supposedly free under law, they were still bound by the upper hand of white
people. All of the images in this excerpt collectively portray the idea of a
new outlook on the African American race. They are all dressed in nice clothing
compared to when being enslaved, and in the images on pages 169 “Fireman” and
151, which is a family portrait, the audience can see that there is a start to
integration. Although it looks as if things were becoming better for the newly
freed race, the images to not depict the possible realities of what the African
American woman means to that family, whether or not she is a maid, or under
some other type of employment by that family. The inconsistency lies in the
fact that during this time period there was still segregation, and black people
were undeniably the lower class. So this portrayal of this black family being
part of the upper class creates an inconsistency. The transition of
emancipation was certainly a monumental step in African American history,
however it was evident that there was still much work to be done.
Scenes of Subjugation and Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl both depict the male slave owner dominance over
young female slaves.
“Do four years and two
children later imply submission, resignation, complicity, desire or the
extremity of constraint” (pg.85, State of Missouri V. Celia) Not only do the
cases presented in Scenes of Subjugation shed
a light on the complete subjugation of the slaves but the utter hopelessness of
being a slave woman. Slave women had no rights whatsoever. They could be raped
by all men, whether slave or master. They had no rights as a wife or mother,
and could not be protected under the law, by either son, brother, or husband.
Rape was seen as a way of life and on top of being forced to work as the men
did, women also lived in constant fear of being overpowered, devoid of will
whatsoever, in a dehumanizing way that forced young girls to lose their
innocence.
Possibly the most horrible aspect of slavery, evident across
all readings, is that slaves’ treatments relied upon what was essentially the
best business strategy. The “extent of protection of life limb
was decided by diminutions in the value of capital” according to Scenes of Subjugation. This is proof
that slavery is the utmost instance of devaluing human life.
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