Posted on 11/13/2014 8:28:32 PM PST by ConservativeStatement
BROOKLINE (CBS) — Some parents of fifth-graders at Brookline Public Schools are outraged over a page in their children’s US social studies textbook that suggests some slave owners living during the 17th-century America were compassionate toward their slaves.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.cbslocal.com ...
I have a distant relative from the 19th century who freed his slaves in his will and gave them all his land. I would suggest anyone interested in the subject of the culture of slavery read “Roll Jordan Roll” by Eugene Genovese. The paragraph from that textbook sums up Genovese’s award winning book pretty well.
In doing research on my Southern family, I believe that even though free, some salves stayed. What else did they know to make themselves employable? They had been housed and fed and I believe one even helped tend my grandmother as a baby in 1900. Lots of things were possible but may seem unlikely. Evidence and documentation, diaries and photos, tell wider and deeper stories.
Jefferson loved his slaves.
Well...one of them for certain.
Who is going to give the master a better day’s work, a mistreated slave, or one treated like family?
Of course some were treated well, who would doubt it, but the truth is not allowed to be taught in history class anymore.
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I would’ve thought “treated like family” and “slave” are somewhat mutually exclusive. But I guess there’s all kinds of families...;)
Don't forget that family members of non-slaveholders did the "slave work" if there were no hired hands. That's one thing many (or most) of today's youth have never experienced, having a set of duties to perform in order that the family prosper.
And all diversity tolerated except Christianity and conservative politics.
Compassion - Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.
I see nothing compassionate about owning slaves.
Like the pedophile who gives the child candy & presents after the foul deed, “good” treatment of a slave is NOT the issue, it’s not even a consideration; the evil of slavery is paramount. The very act of enslavement is the opposite of compassion - a total disregard of basic human rights.
Slavery is an act of pure selfish greed.
Or the 27 million current black slaves in Africa.
it's not difficult to believe that some slave "owners" treated their "property" better than others.
I read in a footnote once about a slave owner who tried to follow Mosaic law in dealing with his slaves. Meaning he gave slaves the right to earn their own money and thus to work their way to freedom, and when he released them, he gave them a stake to start up new lives. He freed slaves who were permanently injured in the same way (meaning, obviously, that he would not resort to the mutilation some slaveowners used to inspire fear or to trap people). He wouldn't separate slaves who were married, and if the husband had worked his way to freedom, he wouldn't sell the wife to anyone by her husband. And so on.
His neighbors could never figure out why his slaves were so happy and worked so hard.
Then there's Phillis Wheatley, who is shamefully neglected because, while she certainly opposed slavery, she also wrote poems praising God for her salvation through the despised practice -- "Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land." Phyllis had no problem in seeing her situation as being like that of Israel's son Joseph, who pointed out to his brothers that God can use the evil acts of man to do good. Her position is only murky or confusing for people who are convinced that good people only do good things, or that no one can recover from evil that has been done to them.
Demonizing slave owners just encourages kids to buy into the whole "we are superior to our ancestors and don't make mistakes like that" idea, when it's actually a strong lesson that even generally good people can buy into the cruelties of their own culture. The Stanford Prison Experiment and related studies make it pretty clear that we are all vulnerable to being blinded by authoritarian systems into doing things we never imagined ourselves capable of, and that being aware of that possibility is the best defense against falling into it.
Yep, menial work has to get done one way or the other - today as back then. Better to do it as free person than a slave, though!
There are audio recordings of former slaves saying that their “owners” treated them well and that they downright LOVED them. But I guess we have to ignore actual history if it’s politically incorrect.
From my studies I’ve learned that many slave owners thought of their slaves as livestock. They were commodities that had to be cared for as they weren’t cheap.
Treating the compassionately meant less chance of rebellion, runaway or injury/death. Any of these would be costly to the owner.
Wonder why?
Because they built a bridge and got over it.
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