Race and Ethnicity in the U S 9 16 2011 What do we know about slavery The good and the bad o Problems Only one persons point of view usually first person Owners documents prejudiced Slave Narratives o Problems Usually published towards a certain audience Workers Progress Administration o Interviews taken in the 1930s Problems memory interviewers may ask leading questions mostly people that are older and were children as slaves Some well known slave narratives Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass an American Slave Fredrick Douglass The Selling of Slaves 1860s as many as 4 million slaves in the U S Large auctions o Highest Bidder Auctions o Grab and Go Auctions traders or people who want to buy slaves go to the auction and by tickets Run in and grab the best slaves Private Sales Inherited or used to pay debts The quality of slaves is better in bigger cities At Auction Feeding Up process of feeding slaves fatty food pork fat bacon gravy etc a few weeks before they are sold This makes them look healthier and stronger They also try to cover up sickness Traders would shove cotton into a slave s anus to keep diarrhea inside Slaves agency exerting agency is something you do to yourself to control your fate Slaves would manipulate themselves for several reasons to be sold with their family to avoid a certain owner or vice versa They could vomit on purpose in front of an owner to avoid being sold to them Buying status a way of networking meeting people dressing their best etc Slave auctions are like social events Life and Labor Light and dark skin o People believed that skin tone said a lot about the character worth and strength of the slaves o Darker manual labor o Lighter work in the house believed to be smarter and more evolved The Big House slave owners house When someone was chosen to work in the house they were working in close proximity with the white families This work included spinning cloth washing things cooking etc Work in the fields Slavery in cities lived very different lives then slaves in rural areas Some were provided with better accommodations worked in shipyards tailors butchers able to have a little more freedom Clothing for Slaves Clothes often given to them by masters Slaves were undressed by owners for punishment the whipping would destroy the clothes Also for sexual assault A woman s head wrap owners often gave female slaves strips of cloth to wrap around their heads This signaled poverty and subordination and dependency to other people It also displays their individuality and lineage back to Africa Women s were defeminised to make them more unlike white women They were given ugly dresses that were very itchy Men and children were given clothing that looked similar to a nightdress shirttails They do this so that they know when the child can start to work like an adult when the clothing gets too short Adult clothing adult work Slave Families Unofficial families The politics of food o They started small gardens and learned to fish and hunt This is because the masters owners gave them shitty salty fatty foods So they took it upon themselves A code of secrecy o Children were taught at a very young age to be hesitant to white people Slave masters often made many rules in an attempt to force dependency for example forbidding fishing Slaves would take things from their owners rice corn salt Disputed loyalties for children o Because children were not expected to work as long and as hard as the adults they contributed by fishing and tending to the gardens Owners would have slave children call them great father in an attempt to make the children have more loyalty to the owner than to their actual parents They would also bring occasional gifts and candy to the children Realities of Sale In 1807 the United States pulls out of the International Slave Trade More docile slaves Men worth more in the short run women in the long run Sales regularly broke up families especially sending fathers away from wives and children Arts and Entertainment Folk tales Patting Juba Bare knuckle boxing o Rhythmic clapping and dancing today it is linked to step dancing o Provided slaves with opportunity for sport and for displaying their manhood Sometime allowed sometimes not
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