Malibu Hess
English
1/04/2020
Learning Narrative
Throughout this process, I tried to think of the whole concept of borders and what seemed most interesting to me. Looking at borders as a whole is such a huge and broad topic. We have talked about reality vs. fantasy and we have read stories that involve this. I decided to go with slavery and borders because there are so many angles that you can look at it from. Slavery is seperated by race, gender, culture, social class and much more. In some of the stories we have read, it spoke about a husband and wife and how they tried to escape, so the woman became the keeper and her husband was a slave. As well, going to the Freedom Center was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I already knew that oftentimes slaves were seperated by race, but in the Brotherhood video there were groups of the opposite race helping slaves escape. In the video, it opened my eyes to how serious this was and opened my mind to a ton of questions involving slavery.
First, starting off lets speak of the racial aspects of slavery. In some of my articles, it speaks of legal status and that often tied into race. They based slavery solely on these factors. Because they were in a lower social class due to their legal status. Which we can often see in some of society today with ICE and green cards with immigrants. This is something that can pass on from generation to generation. We see/hear about families being torn apart all the time due to not being a legal citizen. This can tie into the social classes of owners and slaves.
Slavery as a whole, slaves were the lowest of the todem pole. Their owners were very powerful,wealthy, and successful. The owners often used slaves to pay off debt, use for work, cleaning, child-care, etc. Women slaves were good for this type of work, while men were used for field work. Women could be sexually abused to create more slaves. Children were in high demand because the owners could mold them into the best slave they could be and then sell them for high profit.
In my powerpoint, I just wanted to hit on the basics of how slavery connects to borders with; age, race, gender, and social class. I dug into each of these categories and the information was crazy. There is things about slavery most people do not have any idea about. Slavery has been a thing since 1619 and is still continuing today. Which made me think on how exactly has slavery changed? If anything, although slavery isnt as common nowadays, could it be worse? I say this because of the techniques we have now. Slavery can be considered many things. Kidnapping can be slavery because they make them work and abuse them. In the Brotherhood video, whites were helping African Americans escape in hopes of leaving the slave society behind. The consequences they all could have faced were terrible and could result in death. Although slavery was so common, there was still people who knew how wrong it was; which is why they hid slaves and helped them.
Slavery was often just seen with African Americans and this was because race was not very common back then. The color of your skin was seen as less superior and often made african Americans very low in the social class. They were seen as poor, unsuccessful and worked for very little. In my presentation I made sure to hit on the points that made slaves seem so low to everyone else. Owners felt so superior to their slaves. Not very often, but slaves could sometimes be treated well by their owners. Fed, hygiene, paid and somewhere to sleep.
After my presentation, I was asked to think about why do people take risks? Such as when people took the risk to help slaves. This was a very hard question which after thinking about it, all I could resort back to was our morals. While reading children’s books, we thought about values and morals. The morals we learn now are really what society wants/expects or what our parents teach us throughout life. The people who helped slaves knew that helping slaves could result in very bad consequences but did it anyways. I think this comes from their morals and they knew slavery was wrong and that helping them escape would be one step closer to
Annotated Bibliography : Malibu Hess
Azerrad, David. “What the Constitution Really Says About Race and Slavery.” The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org/the-constitution/commentary/what-the-constitution-really-says-about-race-and-slavery.
This article speaks about the constitution and how slavery was abolished.
“On the Borders of Slavery and Race: Charles T. Torrey and the Underground Railroad,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College,
http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/10736
In this artcile, it speaks about the political,cultural,racial, and legal views on slavery.
I think this article is important to what I am focusing on because it speaks of how slavery is a big deal. There is so many views and standpoints on slavery. Slavery borders seperate from all of the things this article hits on.
“The Border Slave States and Their Slaves: AHA.” The Border Slave States and Their Slaves | AHA, New Orleans Daily Delta , www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/sixteen-months-to-sumter/newspaper-index/new-orleans-daily-delta/the-border-slave-states-and-their-slaves.
This article talks about the social and political problems involving slavery borders.
This article relates by talking about the border slave states and what goes into these sectionals.
“The Border Slave States and Their Slaves: AHA.” The Border Slave States and Their Slaves | AHA, New Orleans Daily Delta , www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/sixteen-months-to-sumter/newspaper-index/new-orleans-daily-delta/the-border-slave-states-and-their-slaves.
This article talks about the slaveholding enterprise.
This article relates to the purpose of my project because it speaks of what actually starts slavery and how their holders handle it.
Wood, Peter H. “The Reason America Adopted Race-Based Slavery.” Slate Magazine, 19 May 2015, www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/05/why_america_adopted_race_based_slavery.html.
This article speaks of slavery being based solely on race and this ties into my topic because it speaks of just one of the many things that go into slavery and what caused it.
“Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks Petitions.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/nhprc/projects/catalog/race-slavery-and-free-blacks-petitions.
This article talks about the thousands of petitions there were for african americans to be free from slavery and this ties to my project because it shows how many african americans there were tied into slavery.
Faust, Patricia L. “Slavery in the United States.” American Battlefield Trust, 23 Apr. 2019, http://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/slavery-united-states.
This article talks about the history of slavery in the United States. I think this article is important because it talks about the the moral issues raised by slavery. It also brings up how the United States was profiting more off the sale of human life than agricultural products.
Richardson, Franklyn W. “About Us.” National Council of Churches – National Council of Churches, 6 Nov. 2019, nationalcouncilofchurches.us/systemic-racism-and-the-legacy-of-slavery/.
This article talks about the legacy and reality of slavery. It talks about how stories of slavery aren’t fairy tales, they show the sad truth of human brutality. It goes into detail about the reality and the abuse the slaves encountered throughout their lives.
Berry, Daina Ramey. “American Slavery: Separating Fact from Myth.” The Conversation, 11 Oct. 2019, theconversation.com/american-slavery-separating-fact-from-myth-79620.
This article breaks down the truths and myths about slavery. It goes into detail about a lot of our knowledge about slavery is incorect and explains the truth behind it. It also talks about how everyone wants to say slavery was so long ago but in reality it wasnt.
Kemble, Frances A. “Antebellum Slavery.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1983, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html.
This article talks about how the slaves lived and how they were treated. It goes into depth how slaves were forced to work while everyone else thought they looked willing to work. It explains how if everyone thought the slaves looked “happy” and “healthy” they were able to work.
Hodal, Kate. “One in 200 People Is a Slave. Why?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Feb. 2019, http://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200.
This article talks about slavery all over the world. Majority of people don’t realize that even though slavery is still illegal people are inslaved every day. A lot of people turn a blind eye when slavery isn’t happening in America. This article goes into detail about all the different forms slavery.
Brook, Tom. “Culture – Slavery on Film: What Is Hollywood’s Problem?” BBC, BBC, 21 Oct. 2014, http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131015-hollywood-scared-of-slavery.
This article talks about how Americans and Hollywood down plays slavery. The article goes into detail about how the movie industry is too scared to show the reality of slavery instead of using its platform to inform viewers. Many believe that the movie indusrty glamorizes slavery instead of showing the true affects it had.
I plan to do this project on what I think is apart of slavery borders. Slavery is seperated by race, politics, social class, etc. Slavery has been such an important part of the history and past of our lives. Slavery can be more than the average thing you think of when you think of slavery itself. Such as sex-trafficing and kidnapping. Slavery falls into the topic of borders because there is literally so many differnt things that can seperate eachother from another in slavery. Such as male vs. female slaves. Or white vs. african american slaves. Even age can play a factor when you really dig into the topic of slavery. All of my topics and sources relate to someone (my audience) depending on race, age, gender, political class.
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