Summary Of Tom Weylin And Rufers's 'Slavery'

Slavery, when most people hear this word they cringe. Some people say slavery dates back to as far as 8000 BC.But what exactly is slavery? According to Merriam Webster slavery is defined has, “Drudgery, Toil, Submission to a dominating influence” (Slavery). But lets define it a little more, the first word we see is Drudgery which means “ dull, irksome, and fatiguing work : uninspiring or menial labor” (Drudgery). In Kindred Dana remarks that “Slavery is a long slow process of dulling.” (Kindred 183) which you can see to be true from the fact that dull comes from the very definition of slavery. Slaveholders would use many different forms of dulling the slaves in order to make them obedient and submissive to their owners.Throughout the story both Tom Weylin and Rufes use different ways to dull the slaves into to knowing their place on the plantation, sometimes it works, but

“How could you do it, Rufe? Your son and daughter….how could you sell them? I didn’t” (Kindred 250). After Dana left Alice decided she was going to run away, trying to stop her Rufus sent Joe and Hager to live with his Aunt thinking this would make Alice stay, but it backfired and Alice hung herself in the barn because she thought she had nothing left to live for. “A slave was a slave.Anything could be done to her” (Kindred 260).

Slave owners would do whatever they wanted to do to their slaves. Slaves we’re nothing but a piece of property, like a cow or a plow. The slave owners wouldn’t think twice about the way they treated them. they would beat them, hit them, sale them if they thought they we’re no longer a need or if they were more trouble than they were worth. They would dull them slowly into submission, until there was usually no will or fight left in