For history, I had to read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Fredrick Douglass himself. He was born into slavery, but later escaped and joined the Abolitionist movement. He wrote this in 1845, I think. It is an exposé of the cruelity of slavery. It shows how the slaveholders tried to degrade and brainwash their slaves so that all they knew was work, happy, work some more, life is okay. They wanted the slaves to either not know of freedom or not want freedom. And they didn’t want their slaves to read. In the words of one of Douglass’s masters, quoted in the book, “A n---er should know nothing but to obey his master – to do as he is told to do. Learning will spoil the best n---er in the world.” (The book used the actual “word,” in its complete spelling.)
While not on the level of IT (the book Hunter is reading), this book does contain some gory details. These details are presented here not to scare the reader, but to accurately portray the evils of slavery. I cannot stand any sort of cruelity, as in I get furious reading about it. This reminds me of when I studied the Holocaust in seventh grade. Of course, the Holocaust didn’t last as long as slavery, but the object there was to exterminate people, while slavery was really about cheap labor. But I digress. Both were great evils, scars on humanity’s face – scars that still have yet to heal.
Josh,
ReplyDeleteReading your post, I was struck by the idea that both slavery and the Holocaust depended on not seeing the victims as people. Perhaps the object of slavery was not to exterminate people, but it sounds like the white owners didn't see their slaves as people.
What is it like to read this from a former slave's perspective? Do you learn anything you wouldn't learn in a textbook?
josiah