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impacts of slavery in america
the life of a slave
impacts of slavery in america
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In the article Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe speaks on a lot of issue that had a lasting effect on the U.S. today. Mbembe spoke on slavery and its effects on the society, the slaves, and the details of the spiritual and emotional damage that was formed. Mbembe speaks in great detail about the state of exception and establishes a direct comparison between slavery and the state of exception. While lacking certain rights, slaves were also referred to as people living death. And while sounding contradictory, Mbembe goes into great detail about what true life is and how different it was to the surviving that the slaves had to endure. He introduces many more ideas about the community of the slaves and what kind of psychological binds the slaves …show more content…
Mbembe tells us that the slaves experienced this first hand. The slaves were stripped of their homes, possession of their own bodies, and political standing. Mbembe describes this as, “absolute domination, natal alienation, and social death” (Mbembe 21). This means that the slaves were no longer their own people. They had absolutely no rights. Every move they made was calculated for them and their sole purpose was not of their own pleasure, but for another man whose life was more “valuable”. Slavery is 100% absolute domination. Not only did the masters have control over the slaves bodies for physical labor and sometimes sexual pleasure, but they also controlled their minds in a way. It only makes sense that the slaves should rebel or try to run away or say no, but the psychological restrictions came through the bodily punishment and violence. Through the whippings and watching friends and loved ones being lynched or raped, one’s mind can alter. The hope of freedom becomes a distant memory and the drive to stay alive and in the likings of your master became the primary focus for many slaves, I’m inferring. Natal alienation also …show more content…
There is no living, only surviving; this couldn’t be truer. The slaves were perfect examples of being dead while alive. Being alive entails making your own decisions. Being able to take your family out to dinner in Fiji even if you just got fired and you’re running low on money. Living is being able to argue about why The Office is one of the best comedic shows in the world. Living is loving and learning and laughing and any other clichés you can think of. Being alive has fire in it. There is a sense of independence and togetherness that are both ravenous and enthralling while also being slightly terrifying. The slaves never encountered an ounce of truly living. They were just bodies needed to do work. They were “trained” to never speak out of turn or defy the authorities or have an opinion. Their opinions didn’t matter because they were merely cattle. They couldn’t make their own decisions. If they tried, they would be beaten or killed. They stopped being humans and became objects. The slave works to work another day. Their rights had been discarded. They were as alive as a turtle in a pond if not less. Confined to a life of pain and what ifs, the slaves were slaves. They were nothing more, maybe a little less. It’s almost like a little triumphant tale. They gave up their lives instead of giving up so that we may live
Slaves lived terrible lives; always being told what to do and how to live, what to
In the early 1800’s, the United States’ culture of slavery was fostered for a lifespan of forcible enslavement. For all Slaves, this was the normality which was callously endured. In his work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, “An American Slave,” Frederick Douglass argues and exemplifies that his fate was destined outside of the walls of slavery.
When reading about the institution of slavery in the United States, it is easy to focus on life for the slaves on the plantations—the places where the millions of people purchased to serve as slaves in the United States lived, made families, and eventually died. Most of the information we seek is about what daily life was like for these people, and what went “wrong” in our country’s collective psyche that allowed us to normalize the practice of keeping human beings as property, no more or less valuable than the machines in the factories which bolstered industrialized economies at the time. Many of us want to find information that assuages our own personal feelings of discomfort or even guilt over the practice which kept Southern life moving
I found that, to make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision,and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right, and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.* (315)
Society is formed into a hierarchical format demonstrated by the relationship between slaves and slave owners. Douglass refers to this concept of racial formation in the following statement, “my faculties and powers of body and soul, are not my own. But property of a fellow mortal” (199). This statement refers to the master who has power to compel his slaves in any format that he or she may desire to a point of controlling every single movement the slave makes. Douglass utilizes his knowledge of language to expose the psychology of the slave masters and the complex mechanisms that are created in order to systematically enslave African-Americans. Douglas refers to this idea as being “a slave for life” which underlies the issue that society is being organized hierarchically (157). Take for instance, when Douglass’ master Thomas chose not to protect him as a man or as property from the brutal treatment of Covey (171). This relationship demonstrates how masters willingly objectify their slaves as replaceable commodities. Many slave owners took advantage of the power they had over their property without any regards to the repercussions. Instead, African-Americans were belittled and coerced into being oppressed to a point where they accepted being a puppet in a master’s
The African-American slaves of the early United States are prime examples of how emotions can be repressed. This group of people was treated with such disrespect and humiliation that it is understandable why they would mask their true thoughts and their emotions. To make their daily lives easier, they spoke and acted the ways that their white owners dictated. Their lives had, to a point, been taken away from them. But, there were some things that could never be taken away from them: their inner strength and their spirituality. No matter how a slave was treated, how hard he had to work, or how little he had, hedid have total control of his own thoughts and beliefs. Those things could never be taken from him.
What motivates one person to subject or dominate another? When people take it upon themselves to judge who has the right to be free or enslaved; who is superior or inferior; who is civilized or barbaric, the outcomes throughout history have been horrific. The actions imposed are foreign to those of us who are privileged and forever scarring to those who have been subjected. It is ironic that people have struggled so much through out time with the underlying quality that unites us as human beings: our humanity. By ignoring this universal quality among people, the stage is set to create a system where any judgment and its action are justifiable. The source of these justifications vary according to what one chooses to paint around the edges of the picture, whether the paint be religious beliefs or civilized ideals, the underlying motive is usually greed. There are many different ways to enslave someone through domination, oppression, and tyranny: all of these have a common theme in that they violate our human rights. The simple fact is as Jean-Jacques Rousseau states, "The words 'slavery' and 'right' are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another or one man and a whole people" (1). Webster's Dictionary defines slave as, " a bond servant divested of all freedom and personal rights, a human being who is owned by and wholly subject to the will of another, as by capture, purchase, or birth" (2).
For over two hundred years, slavery engulfed America as one the largest economic opportunities. As soon as millions of Africans forcibly left their homeland for the new founded states, they immediately began their new lives controlled by their relentless owners. Not only did slavery corrupt the slaves, but also the slave owners. The idea of absolute power over others led to the longing of total dominance at all times. Fredrick Douglass’s narrative clearly depicts the perception of mental corruption as a tyrannical slave owner. As slave owners experienced a constant craving for power, they utilized a variety of evil schemes and actions to fulfill their desires.
David M. Oshinsky’s book “Worse Than Slavery” brings to life the reality that faced slaves after the abolishment of slavery. It recounts the lives that these men faced daily and it made me question the humanity of all those who were involved and question how as a society we let this ever happen. From the convicts being leased out to people who didn’t care about their well-being to a life back on a state ran plantation, where life was worse than it was for them as slaves. It showed just how unfair the justice system was for a black prisoner compared to a white prisoner. Their lives were worthless and replaceable and only mattered when they were thought to be worth something to someone.
For more than two hundred years, a certain group of people lived in misery; conditions so inhumane that the only simile that can compare to such, would be the image of a caged animal dying to live, yet whose live is perished by the awful chains that dragged him back into a dark world of torture and misfortune. Yes, I am referring to African Americans, whose beautiful heritage, one which is full of cultural beauty and extraordinary people, was stained by the privilege given to white men at one point in the history of the United States. Though slavery has been “abolished” for quite some years; or perhaps it is the ideal driven to us by our modern society and the lines that make up our constitution, there is a new kind of slavery. One which in
For hundreds of years, slaves in America were beaten, humiliated, and deprived of their basic needs. The unquestioned control of the slave masters had proved to be too despicable for some slaves to stand idly by. One such slave, Frederick Douglass, was even able to defeat his owner and achieve freedom. He uses his life’s story, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, to inspire Northerners to rise against the inhumanity in their own country. The excerpt “Resurrection” serves his purpose especially well for it uses not only the power of his diction and religious allusions, but also used with such eloquence that we can visualize the last drop of dark red blood fall from his body on the hard floor.
The killings made by the slaves are saddening, too. Mutilating the whites and leaving their bodies lying is inhumane. It is such a shocking story. This book was meant to teach the reader on the inhumanity of slavery. It also gives us the image of what happened during the past years when slavery was practised.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Douglass's narrative is, on one surface, intended to show the barbarity and injustice of slavery. However, the underlying argument is that freedom is not simply attained through a physical escape from forced labor, but through a mental liberation from the attitude created by Southern slavery. The slaves of the South were psychologically oppressed by the slaveholders' disrespect for a slave’s family and for their education, as well as by the slaves' acceptance of their own subordination. Additionally, the slaveholders were trapped by a mentality that allowed them to justify behavior towards human beings that would normally not be acceptable. In this manner, both slaveholder and slave are corrupted by slavery.
Slave women were also subjected to sexual abuse by their masters. The masters demanded sexual relations from the slave women they found desirable. They did this without any consideration of their own personal marital status and that of the slave. There was tension between slave husbands of abused women and their masters often resulting in fights between the two. Slave women were also subjected to jealousy and rage from mistresses whose husbands’ engaged in these illicit affairs. In conclusion, the slave could not expect to enjoy a fulfilling relationship with the master. The very essence of slavery was cruel and demeaning, making it difficult for any meaningful and mutually satisfying relationship to exist.