Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass, and Eugene D. Genovese proved that THESE ARE FILTHY LIES!
Last edited Tue Aug 8, 2023, 08:31 AM - Edit history (3)
Florida wants to teach schoolchildren that Black people were well-treated during slavery, that they were fed and clothed and raised from savagery and taught how to be civilized human beings. These are VICIOUS, FILTHY LIES! They were generally treated very poorly, and they were not even allowed to learn how to read and write (this last rule was directly adopted by the would-be aristocracy of the plantation South from the rules that kept the serfs oppressed in medieval Europe, and suggests they DID understand just how equal their captives truly were ). The evidence suggests that SOME "slave-owners" did try to treat their "slaves" well, but they were greatly discouraged by the other "slave-owners" from doing so. And these few were limited also by their warped upbringing in a medieval society based on slavery.
Solomon Northup, in "Twelve Years a Slave," relates how he was drugged, kidnapped, and transported to a slavery state, where he was put up for sale in a large group of Black people. He tells how a white man who bought him seemed to want to do the decent thing but was not able to overcome the vicious nature of a slave-owner society. There was a mother with a little girl in the group, and this white man bought the woman, seeming not to know about the little girl. Northrup explains that the rich sellers could clearly be heard sniggering about their plans to "train" this little girl for immediate sex slavery, and the white buyer seemed to have heard it too. The white buyer at one point tried to buy the little girl, too, but the sellers pompously brushed him off, demanding a high price for her. The white buyer, trained to give deference to his social "betters," gave up and herded Northrup and the poor shocked mother onto a steamer with him to his home, leaving the poor little girl behind to be subjected to painful, degrading, sadistic mistreatment. Oh, the guy tried to do the right thing by his standards. When they reached his farm, he gave the poor mother a few days off to recover from her shock (does anybody here think she ever did?). Northrup tells how this man gave his slaves a dry place to sleep in a little hut and some food to eat every day (whoo hoo for him, eh?). Still, the poor slaves were worked all day until exhausted and starved. And they were expected to SUPPLY MOST OF THEIR OWN FOOD. This white guy tried to do the right thing, but he did not give them enough food. Northrup had grown up a free man in northern New York State farmland, and he taught his fellow slaves how to build fish traps for the nearby river, so they could finally get a decent meal.
Frederick Douglass tells how most of the "slave-owners" he knew tried to give their "slaves" enough to eat, but it was usually just uncooked porridge, etc. Eugene D. Genovese, in his research report book "The Political Economy of Slavery," explained the painstaking research he and his team did, going through multiple records of "slave-owners" and banks and other institutions in the antebellum South. He and his team discovered that THE CALORIC OUTPUT OF THE WORK THAT WAS DOCUMENTED BY THE "SLAVE-OWNERS" FAR OUTWEIGHED THE CALORIC INPUT OF THE FOOD THE "SLAVE-OWNERS" ADMITTED GIVING THEIR SLAVES. The research team discovered, upon further investigation, that the more energetic and innovative "slaves" had conducted a vast underground market system in the wee hours of the morning, which helped more of their fellow "slaves" survive.
As for the Northerners starting a war because of jealousy of the rich Southerners: JUST WHO WAS RICH IN THE SOUTH, EXCEPT THE "ARISTOCRATIC" PLANTATION OWNERS and THEIR BUDDIES? i recall reading, many years ago, the book written by a Northern Abolitionist who described the deprivation, exhaustion, physical and mental torture, and actual murder suffered by the Black "slaves." Then he mentioned that they were not the only victims of this Neo-Medieval society that had been created in the South. He described how many of the poor whites in the South seemed so scared and underfed, so hopeless and listless. During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant described how the poor whites drafted into the Confederate Army obviously were good workers who would have been respected in the North. Grant had grown up in a mechanically competent working family, so he knew what he was talking about here. And he wrote that almost everybody in his boyhood town did manual labor. He could tell that those poor white Confederate soldiers had obviously not been given any decent tools to work with. Eugene D. Genovese had something to say about this, too. His research team discovered that ALMOST ALL THE TOOLS IMPORTED TO THE SOUTH WERE ORDERED BY THE RICH PLANTERS, WHO KNEW NOTHING ABOUT MANUAL LABOR BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID IT. They therefore ordered ONLY THE CHEAPEST TOOLS LISTED. And that meant that the poor workers of the South almost never got their hands on the really good tools, because those tools were not anywhere near them. Genovese also described how the banks and municipal and business organizations of the Antebellum South were distorted to give huge advantages to the Plantation Aristocrats and keep the poor whites and the Black "slaves" in line.
These people who started this rhetoric about slavery actually benefitting the Black race were VICIOUS, NARCISSISTIC LIARS! And their lies should not be spread any further. Now listen! If you are descended from these rich Plantation owners or their slightly lesser "Slave-owner" buddies, of course none of this is your fault! And you should not be punished for what they did! BUT YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THAT THEY WERE WRONG! Come on! You can do it! Just do some ACTUAL STUDY OF THE REAL EVENTS. Admit that they were WRONG when they pretended that the Black people were just subhmans who benefitted from slavery. And if you are descended from the poor whites, please notice that the Abolitionists ALSO NOTICED THAT YOUR ANCESTORS WERE MISTREATED AND SLANDERED BY THE SO-CALLED ARISTOCRATS OF THAT HORRIBLE SYSTEM. The Abolitionists wanted to abolish slavery for many reasons. Of course, they wanted to help your people too. They just HAD TO WORRY MORE ABOUT THE BLACK PEOPLE, BECAUSE MOST OF THEM WERE BEING TREATED SO MUCH WORSE!
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And it was ACCEPTABLE. Kidnapping black people from their homes to sell them into brutal slavery. Killing indigenous peoples, and stealing their land and children.
I can't imagine the daily horror for these people, with the knowledge that there was practically no chance of it ever getting better.
Excellent essay, raging moderate.
not just slaves
Resettling in Philadelphia soon after completing her jail term, Douglass published a 65-page memoir, Personal Narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Southern Woman Who Was Imprisoned for One Month in the Common Jail of Norfolk, Under the Laws of Virginia, for the Crime of Teaching Free Colored Children to Read. While Douglass insisted in her trial and book that she was not an abolitionist, she denounced both the Virginia law that prohibited teaching literacy to free African Americans and the judge as short-sighted, disgraceful and cruel, and the hypocrisy and cowardice of Norfolk elites who taught Black children in Sunday schools but would not publicly acknowledge their actions. Douglass’ book also provided insights into white fear of Black literacy and beliefs about white supremacy, some of which Douglass also held.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/woman-jailed-teaching-black-children-to-read/
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