Friday, September 6, 2013

Conditions of Enslavement and Resistance Movements

After reading both "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction" and "A Slave Girl Tells of her Life," briefly comment on how the theme assigned to you is exemplified in the readings.  You will have more time to discuss your theme at length in class.


Corporeality (of the flesh) of slavery/Value of the human being vs. value of the flesh -- Jenn, Stefan, Paxi, Meghan

Mind-control of slavery/importance of withholding information from slaves -- Luke, Phoebe, Tracy, Chandler, Christina

Master/Mistress-slave relationship/Sexuality of slavery -- Zoe, Giselle, Gwen, Laura, Sifiso

14 comments:

  1. I believe mind-control of the slaves was very important. They tried to mold there slaves into the quiet good works that the master wanted them to be. The master would hide things from there slaves to not let them know how bad they would treat them. The master would do all sorts of things to keep the slave in line. for example starving, whipping the slave were types of punishments they used. They believed the less the slave knew the better. Because if they were hearing that other slaves were revolting then maybe they would try to as well. In "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction" the mother was all of a sudden taken away one day and Henry had know idea where they had taken her and he could not ask. So since he had no idea where she was he had no choice but to stay put. This was because if the master told where the mother was sent then there would be a possibility that he would run off and try and find her. But masters back then tried and keeped as much information as possible because like I said the less the slave knew the better.

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  2. After reading both articles I believe that the value of the flesh was more important to the slave traders then the value of the human being. In both stories, the slaves talked about how their master had the final say in any decision they made. For example in "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction", the young boy is treated like an object (the flesh) rather then a human when he says "The auctioneer was busy examining the slaves before the sale commenced. At least everything was ready, and the traffic in human flesh began". Later in the story the boy talks about how the people were allowed to go up to them and inspect them. I think it sound more like their buying furniture rather then people because thats just the way the slave owners treated them. However, in the story "A Slave Girl Tells of Her Life", she is not valued as a human at all but she is being used by her master. The only way the master is able to take away her value of a human being is by not letting her speak with anyone (dead or alive). In both cases the master makes it very aware to their slaves that they are nothing more then just property.

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  3. Slave owners did not want their slaves rebelling, escaping, or even thinking it. Even if one slave had that mindset, it could cause big trouble for the slave owner. As a result, the masters manipulated or withheld information from the slaves. In "A Slave Girl Tells of her Life," the master used mind control and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the terrible treatment she was enduring. In "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction," information on the whereabouts of the little boy's mother was kept from him. Keeping information from the slaves kept them ignorant. Ultimately, the slaves would not revolt or escape.

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  4. This girl begins to be a slave at age 15 , her grandmother always had always tell her that she had to stay chaste . It's interestig to read the feelings of the slave because you realize how tough was the reality of that relationship between mister and alave. I believe that for the mister, having a slave was a way to be sexually satisfied but also asa way to have the things done. He abused her and she had a really hard time because apart from being abusef she couldn't talk about it yo anyone because her mister threatened to kill her all the time. It must be terrible for her , as she often says , she was horrified every time She saw her mister .

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  5. After reading both articles it has become very clear to me that the value of a human being and the value of human flesh are completely different. To the slave owners and traders, the slaves "weren't human," and the slaves viewed the slave traders and owners as "monsters," because of this very reason. The slaves weren't treated as human beings, they were treated the same as animals are treated, they were just flesh that was being used to do something. They were tied up and thrown into buggies as if they were just a sack of flour. Slaves were transported like goods, not people. They were transported from sale to sale as if they were objects, and when the slave traders lost slaves along the way it was treated as no big deal, there was no mention of a funeral or upset due to the deaths. In one of the articles the narrator even refers to the it was "traffic in human flesh" and not human beings. They were whipped and paddled like it was nothing, and no one questioned it, as long as they were still sold. The slaves were treated as objects for their masters, and their masters could make them do what they wanted. They weren't being given their unalienable rights, which every human being deserves, and slaves were human beings, no matter what the slave traders thought. All they were thought of was "property."

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  6. I was talking about "a slave talks of her life"

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  7. The Interwoven relationship of master, mistress, and slave woman has been one of total disgust, jealousy, rape, torture, and scandal. For hundreds of years slave masters have forced themselves upon young, scared, and weak women. whether it be for the cause to anger slave men by enlouping with their loved ones or to satisfy their own sick fantasies by taking advantage of a young beautiful girl. These acts have created thousands of incidents, such as jealous mistress's killing or torturing the woman in question. Or the latter part of slave masters falling in love with slave woman.

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  8. The value of the flesh was much more important to masters. The value of the human being was little to none. In "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction", he speaks about slaves being in an auction room, like antiques, and being inspected for marks and dings (that would bring down their value) like cars. He speaks about slaves in a group being referred to as "flocks", like chickens. In fact, the female slave in "A Slave Girl Tells of Her Life" is referred to as property by her master. In actual action, they are sold by the quality of their work and flesh, no differently than a tool. That's all the slaves were to masters; tools. Masters objectified their slaves and removed all of their rights, and they are degraded down to the same level as screwdrivers and workhorses.

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  9. This is the first time that I have read passages from a slave's perspective and to me, it presents the cruelty of the slave owners like never before. In "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction," it is clear that the slave traders are really the vilest of them all. They took slaves without even considering that they had a family. The slave traders and buyers saw the slaves not as humans but as a commodity. They examined the slaves as they would a farm animal, checking if they were healthy and well-behaved. It was clear that they only valued the slaves' ability to work and not their lives as human beings. Furthermore, in "A Slave Girl Tells of her Life," Harriet's master repetitively stated that she was his property, that she had to follow his every command, even if it included guilty practices. Obviously, people involved in the business of slavery did not regard slaves as human beings but as property, or a commodity.

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  10. After reading both articles,it is clear that slaves were not in any way, shape or form considered anything more than property to their owners. The abuse is in an incredibly high amount clearly showed in "A slave tells of Sale of his Auction" in this story the readers begins to read of a terrible tale of a young man who is taken from his current owners home to be sold at an auction. He is treated worst than an animal, constantly being hurt and then sat at a stand ans]d examined for error. Then they bid him off, not to mention at night he the abuse level rises as the sick slave owners come and beat/ degrade the slaves. Sexuality is also another big factor in slavery. especially in "A slave girl tells of her life", here she explains that for a slave woman being beautiful is a curse instead of a virtue. Men follow her every move and constantly tell her that she is their property in order to get her to subdue to his twisted wishes. Women are constantly raped starting at the age of 12 and the worst part is that the man has taken the most precious gift of any woman but that she also ca talk to no one and must keep her pain a secret.

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  11. Slaves usually are not educated, however they are normal people as well. They do have the ability to critically think. Masters, back in the 19th century, withheld lots of information from the slaves to kept them loyal. In the reading "A Slave Tells Of His Sale At Auction", the boy tried to ask everyone where his mother has gone but nobody would tell him at first. Later on, someone told him the information; he went off to look for his mother. Certainly masters don't want their slaves run away or revolt. Therefore withhold information is one kind of mind control to their slaves that they used.

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  12. Through these emotive language that is spoken by these two slaves, abusive, violent and unfair relationships with these slaves' masters are demonstrated conspicuously. As slaves, they are obliged to obey their masters regardless of what their masters want from them and do to them. They will never be treated fairly. In the " A slave girl tells of her life", she describes a scene that two children, that have different races, playing with each other and embracing each other. But soon, she realizes that their fates will be totally different. The white kid will live a fair life with beautiful things around her, but the black kid will soon be exposed to sin, mystery and shame. One of the most prominent elements in master/mistress slave relationship is probably the unfairness, that reveals people's ignorance toward humanity and moral.

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  13. After reading both articles, "A Slave Girl Tells of her Life” interested me the most. The question of how much control slave masters had over their slaves is clear here when she refers to her abuse and how she couldn’t talk about it because he would threaten to kill her. Being able to control someone has the victim at a serious disadvantage when it comes to them being able to make their own decisions. The victims of sexual assault are always victims, regardless as to when and under which circumstances. That being said, I found slave rape to be a considerably more cruel offence than any other type of rape due to the amount of threat and control that the masters had over their victims.

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  14. mind-control is a very important part of the slave- owner relationship. From the point of view of a slave owner, you would want your slave to be kept as ignorant as possible. This is because the more you know the more you can do. If your slaves are under the impression that slavery is going on everywhere and don't know about the north being free how could they possible form the idea to escape. If laws were put in place restricting certain maltreatments of slaves but the slave isn't aware of them, who would report it? For example in "A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction" if he knew where his mother was being taken to he might try to escape to there. Since he doesn't know he has no motive to leave. Because many slaves were born into slavery and many times kept with the same family there whole lives, than one owner can instill whatever they want into the head of said slave. I think this adds to the aspect of slaves not being seen as actual living people because they are completely denied the possibility to not only form there own opinions but advocate for themselves as well.

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