= new reply since forum marked as read
"Uncle" and "Aunt" were pejorative terms for elderly black people in the South for a century after the Civil War.
Field slaves were treated like the horses, mules, and other animals who worked in the fields.
The vast majority of slaves were chattel condemned to a life of working in the fields. The cotton gin exploded the slave trade.
At one point slaves in two states outnumbered the free whites. Here's the census from 1860:
The film was based on an autobiography. So yes, the treatment of black people was abominable.
Start with Aptheker if you actually want to learn how great slavery was.
Last edited Sun Aug 10, 2014, 06:35 PM - Edit history (1)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave was written in 1845 shortly after he escaped from his generous master:
I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty. As an example, I will state one of many facts going to prove the charge. I have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cow skin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture--"He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."
Master would keep this lacerated young, woman tied up in this horrid situation four or five hours at a time. I have known him to tie her up early in the morning, and whip her before breakfast; leave her, go to his store, return at dinner, and whip her again, cutting her in the places already made raw with his cruel lash.
The secret of master's cruelty toward "Henny" is found in the fact of her being almost helpless. When quite a child, she fell into the fire, and burned herself horribly. Her hands were so burnt, that she never got the use of them. She could do very little but bear heavy burdens. She was to master a bill of expense; and as he was a mean man, she was a constant offence to him.
He seemed desirous of getting the poor girl out of existence. He gave her away once to his sister; but, being a poor gift, she was not disposed to keep her. Finally, my benevolent master, to use his own words, "set her adrift to take care of herself."
Here was a recently-converted man, holding on upon the mother, and at the same time turning out her helpless child, to starve and die! Master Thomas was one of the many pious slaveholders who hold slaves for the very charitable purpose of taking care of them.
Living at the whim or beck and call of another can never be a good thing. The slaves brought here were neither refugees or volunteers. The image above of an older Douglass still shows what his eyes have seen. There is no excuse for slavery, it is the worst form of theft.
I call bs on that. Being a slave while being a human being always has been and always will be a HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION. It was a gross injustice. The things you see on DU these days. SMH 
eta: I think you are either not quite truthful or your instructor greatly misinformed you. Enjoy your stay however short that may be
Do you not think slavery itself is mistreatment?
Someone hates blacks, no problem. Let them voice 19th century pro-slavery ideology. Why pretend this is a site of 21st century humans let alone liberals. 
The points the OP advances are all memes from racist websites and philosophies.
It's the utter depths of white chauvinism to make the paternalistic claim over and over, in the face of others providing feedback, including posters of color, that the bigoted opinions one is advancing are actual fact.
Because we'd suffocate while they're still out there with a sign that reads: "I CAN TYPING!!11!!!" 
But no equal consideration for anyone who calls out bigotry. That needs to be smacked down, pronto! That's just trolling right there 
The post above. 19th century pro-slavery ideology is deemed acceptable, but calling it out is not.
spare us.
For instance, the system of placage in New Orleans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placage
The sugar plantations were brutal. So many died around the tremendous heat needed to boil the cane that a constant flow of slaves was needed from Africa. Not to mention the disease in such a tropical climate. This was in contrast to a crop like indigo.
House slaves were better off than field slaves. Lighter skinned had it easier than darker skinned. Children and concubines of the master had it relatively easiest of all.
From one autobiography I read, some masters were sadistic monsters. Others, like Ben Franklin I suppose, retained their humanity and saw slavery for what it was.
12 Years a Slave was a really good movie, BTW, and probably accurate in depicting the lives of many who endured under slavery. Saying "treated like members of the family" isn't the way I'd describe hanging a slave through the ribs by a meat hook.
since Little Blue has said he doesn't bother to read my posts. I nonetheless feel compelled to correct some of this so as not to allow false information to stand unchecked in case anyone comes across his post and decides to take it as fact.
Slave masters certainly did vary considerably as individuals, that is true. Many slave narratives, like that of Frederick Douglass, show a change were a slave started with a reasonable master but was later sold or hired out to a particularly cruel one. To argue that treatment depended on the type of crop produced, however, is not accurate. Certainly some work was harder than others, but the treatment depended on the mores in the particular region as well as the character of the planter. There were literally hundreds of different occupations on sugar plantations. English lacks a word to describe the sugar plantation complex, known as ingenios in Spanish and engenhos in Portuguese. Many slaves worked as field laborers and others operating some of the highly skilled functions necessary to construct, maintain, and operate the sugar mill, or trapiche. See Manuel Moreno Fraginals, The Sugarmill on sugar ingenios in Cuba. He lists the huge variety of slave occupations necessary to keep the sugar plantation complex going.
Historians debated for years where treatment was harsher in the US or in Catholic countries in Latin America. There was no resolution to the debate. Some aspects, like whippings, were more severe in places like Brazil (the country that received the overwhelming majority of African slaves), but they also had greater protection under the law and greater opportunities for manumission. The bottom line is that slavery was incredibly oppressive wherever it existed, though aspects of the institution did vary from region to region and country to country.
While house slaves did not do arduous labor in the fields, they remained under the master's, and mistress's, gaze all the time. To survive, they had to wear a mask of compliance that belied their real feelings (referred to by historians as the "Sambo mask" . They were not "treated like family." Planters told themselves they treated their slaves like family, but one does not own family members or sell off their children. As union troops approached during the war, those household slaves that masters believed were "like family" were often the first to flee. (See Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm so Long). That demonstrated that they certainly did not see their owners as family.
To argue that slave women had it "easiest" is patently false and ignores the reality of life in the Big House. Women working in households were regularly raped, though field slaves were also raped. Masters, however, had easier access to female house slaves. Read, for example, the testimonial by a former slave and abolitionist. Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in a life of a Slave Girl. There is not a single testimonial of a slave woman that does not speak about her rape by a master, overseer, or member of the master's family. It was not uncommon for slave girls to bear their master's children. Plantation mistresses often took their frustrations over their husbands infidelity out on slave girls by inflicting particularly brutal punishments. (See Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household).
To argue that female household slaves were "concubines" who had it easiest is a completely false and offensive statement. It ignores the fact those women were owned, regularly beaten by masters, slaves, and overseers, and that they were repeatedly raped and lived under the close surveillance of the master's family. How "easy" would your life be if you were raped on a continual basis? That reality has led historians to write about slave women's double-exploitation, as both forced laborers and sex slaves. See Deborah Gray-White, Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South. I also found this article on double-exploitation online through Jstor, which allows limited free access.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4030682?uid=3739736&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104576137323
I can't help but observe this discussion over slave women "having it easy" dovetails with recent discussions on prostitution and human trafficking. The fact that a slave is owned and has no right to choose her sexual partners, one would think, should be obvious to anyone. Little wonder some think human trafficking not worth concerning themselves with, while others insist that underage girls as young as 9, as one poster insisted, willingly "choose the profession" of prostitution. People give lip service to notions of consenting adults and ignore that a great deal of the sex trade is anything but. Whether now or in the Antebellum era, slaves do not consent to sex. They are forced into it because they are owned. Children and young teens cannot consent to sex because they are under age. These are basic concepts that one would think anyone would understand. Sadly that is not the case.
You see......slavery wasn't that bad!
and more than half of his 172 posts were in the last 90 days. agenda much?
But that's enough Meta outa me.
BUT said poster is here only for honest and sincere reasons...no doubt.
people did to my people was vile & evil too.
Grow up.
Or were the Jews happy there too, for the most part?
Guess what our acceptance rate is?
Seriously, though, I recall her being a respected instructor so I have a hard time believing Coljam got the lesson straight.
Juries, man.
Book gave me the CREEPs...but is a must read if you are
interested in how an entire culture can become complicit in atrocity.
The KKK. Go you!
You do live in my society, the one where I get to tell you what I think of your thoughts. Yay us!
You're the one who took a KKK sized dump on this forum, be proud of that son!
makes me really want to be a slave. Shelter, food, work (ya know, doing something that supports the community,) eating white cake at family dinners, being protected by my master if I'd be sick or hurt. Heaven.
It's a bit like 'Fifty Shades Of Grey,' I come to believe?
No doubt we are all misunderstanding him.
All Americans should be taught to read"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025364737
I barely missed out on being able to post before the lock:
"That's like Sarah Palin saying all Americans should be taught to speak English good."
Darn! Missed it by thaaaat much.
Response to coljam (Original post)
Denmark?
Jesus - that's funny!
I'd say we're the ones enjoying a vacation.
Wow.
I swear. Two hundred years from now there will be these people trying to claim that slaves had it better under slavery. And the Christians of Rome were warmer in the lions' stomachs.
American slave.
(EDIT: Never mind. I can see you're on your way out the door.
)
Disgusting.
I get there are some who think they can 'educate' trolls...
Derp.
Jesus Christ on a Trailer Hitch.
Well you are hopelessly naive.
What don't you understand about being owned and being subject to any and every whim by your owner?
Sexual abuse and rape was common by slave owners.
Maybe you don't consider that mistreatment. Maybe the master was kindly passing on some superior genetic material.
I think you might want to reconsider DU. Maybe it isn't the place for you.
Don't thank me--it's my pleasure, I assure you!© 
(Copyright pinboy Seuss, 2014.)
How does this OP have ANY recs??
Troll level: obvious.
RL
..is channeling George Wallace??
I call it a Train Rec. 
If you want to join me, head due West until you hit the ocean, then South for some distance.
I already had some pool time, after about twenty minutes in the ocean. Shit, it's cold but I guess it always was! Nice to have it right outside but also nice to have a heated pool to warm up in, post-ocean swim!
Come on over, call ahead, I'll let you in!
As I type this I see the last bits of color over the ocean, there were dolphins this morning, and particularly close in!
Whales have been sighted of late, but I'm just happy for the view-- that lasts all day and night!
And the waves crashing--- Oddly enough, last night I thought the sounds might be trees breaking or something else, I was concerned, it takes some getting used to!
so the "unity poll" is...
I chose not to. For my participation in discussion I was accused of several things.
Not surprising, right?
