Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Resistance movements

After reading about the exposure of slavery and cohabitation in the cabins, discuss some of the different forms of resistance they exemplify.  Connect specific examples from the articles to at least two of the themes we have already discussed.

11 comments:

  1. "The Exposure of Slavery" details both the physical and mental torture a slave receives while under his master. When trying to resist, the slave says that it is the master who always wins because in the end a slave is his property and he can do anything he wants to him, even kill him. Douglass even admits in saying that his master "succeeded in breaking me -in body, soul, and spirit." This quote undoubtably proves that a master contains a part of the slave's soul and has the capability of twisting it the the cruelest and most ignorant ways.
    "Cohabitation in the Cabins" details the sexuality of the slave institution. The fact that he purposely picked Caroline as "a breeder" sums up the mindset of the typical slaveholder. Unfortunately, there was no way for Caroline to resist as he played with her mind swaying her opinion that she was bought as a slave. This mind control and immoral affair sparked Mr. Covey's entire slave system.

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  2. As i read through "the exposure of slavery", the thing that stood out to me was one line. That was "succeeded i breaking me -in body, soul, and spirit". this quote tells me that this slave was a "broken" slave and what i mean by that is he is living just for the needs of the slave master. from my experineces reading and watching movies where there is an oppressed group of people, the ones that are the most desperate (the slave in this case) would go down fighting or lead a revolt with his fellow sufferers. they way in which slaves were broken would of created a need for a resistance to take place.

    while reading "cohabitation in the cabins", the passage describing the "breeder" slave struck me as very interesting and terrible at the same time. when a woman is forced to have sex and produce babies is in my mind very bad and evil, but to do it over and over again for your own financial gain is just inhuman. the slaves that would be apart of this evil act would be forced by human nature to try and protect the innocent and helpless woman and i think that constitutes a resistance movement.

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  3. "The Exposure of Slavery" shows that slave owners had their ways of breaking the spirits of slaves, like how Douglass explained that he had been broken in " body, should, and spirit". This shows that it is very difficult to start a resistance movement when everyone has almost given up on the hope of a free life. Resistance
    movements only really work when the rebelling group is extremely passionate about their cause.

    "Cohabitation in the Cabins" shows another side of slavery that I had previously not seen. The fact that slaves were bought with the sole purpose of having babies to be sold off is just so shocking, and it adds to the mind control factors that salves are helplessly under the will of their master. Also, this makes the slaves feel themselves that they are sub-human, and that they are the property of their owner without any possible escape. This, too, could dishearten slaves and thus rebellions were hard to form as no one believed that overturning their masters would be possible.

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  4. While reading "the exposure of slavery" one line stood out to me Among all the others. It reads, "Worked to death in all kinds of weather; allowed five minutes or less for meals; and brutally whipped about once a week. Douglass admits, 'Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me- in body, soul, and spirt." This quote just goes to show that Slave owners own every aspect of a slave. And something has been taken out of them that they will never get back.

    While reading "cohabitations in the cabin" you really get a sence of how sick some slave holders really are. They would purchase slaves and call them a breeder. This means they have sex to create babies that will grow up and be slaves. That is flat out aweful. The author describes it as no more than doing the same thing with a cow. That's how inhumane this is.

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  5. In "The Exposure of Slavery", a couple lines caught my attention. Regarding the slave owner's authority over the slave, it says, "The law gives the master absolute power over the slave. He may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell him, and in certain contingencies kill him with perfect impunity."This quote can be linked to the "soul-driver" theme and the idea that there is no such thing as a nice slave owner. The fact that one human being has the right to kill another is completely immoral and disturbing.

    In "Cohabitation in the Cabins", the fact that Mr. Covey bought a female slave, by the name of Caroline, solely "as a breeder" obviously ties in with the master-slave relation theme. Another line explains that, "It was the sytem of slavery which made this allowable, and which condemned the slaveholder for buying a slave woman and devoting her to his life no more than for buying a cow and raising stock from her..." This implies that the "value of the flesh" was very high in Mr. Covey's case; Caroline enabled him to sustain a living for himself.

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  6. "The Exposure of Slavery" was a very moving piece, the line that caught my attention the most was that he was hired out to a "notorious 'slave breaker' who also professed to be a devout Methodist". I couldn't understand why a self-professed religious man would delight in breaking people's spirits. To me this really pointed out how there could really not be a kind slave master if even a religious man was cruel to slaves.

    In "Cohabitation in the Cabins" the sexuality of slavery point. The fact that Caroline was bought specifically to be a 'breeder' and locked her and another man together at night just so that she would get pregnant is horrifying. Also that they were 'ecstatic with joy' that she had gotten pregnant and given birth to twins because of this degradation is shocking.

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  7. "The Exposure of Slavery" gives great insight into the constant struggles of the slave and master relationship. One line that stood out for me was "Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me - in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed." because it is a very moving description of the constant torture brought upon these slaves. Without personal experience of being abused, it is hard to grasp the feelings of the slaves without descriptions such as Mr. Douglas'. This is a good example of seeing just what lengths slaveholders will go to ensure a smooth workday.

    "Cohabitation in the cabins" stood out as well, because it shows just how detached from morals or understanding of quite what they're putting the slaves through. Cohabitation suggests that the slaveholders are seeing the disease ridden breeding houses as "not so bad." Personally, when I hear this, I am reminded of Nazi propaganda films that featured the ghettos as nice jewish communities. There is no admission that the slave holders are cramming slaves into unhealthy living quarters.

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  8. "The Exposure of Slavery" really got into how mentally excruciating being a slave was. "It is only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being that we can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slaves and the intense criminality of the slaveholder." This shows just how complete the control the slave owners had over the slaves, taking away absolutely everything had, including their soul.

    "Cohabitation in the Cabins" shows how hypocritical the religious slave owners were, some "professedly Christian slaveholder, amidst all his prayers and hymns, was shamelessly and boastfully encouraging and actually compelling in his own house, undisguised and unmitigated fornication, as a means of increasing his stock." This makes me believe that slavery had a negative effect on all parties involved, breaking the slaves soul, and making the slave master less pious and humane.

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  9. "The Exposure of Slavery" to me, is a perfect example that explain how well were those slave masters control their slaves both physically and mentally. And even Douglass admits that 'Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me- in body, soul, and spirit.'Also, i could see the picture that there would be almost no way for slaves to resist with masters under heavy force like that.(brain wash and physically punishment)
    The "Cohabitation in the Cabins" has been sort of an eye open for me, because i did not expect that slave owner would really force female slaves to "produce" babies. But it seems that i was wrong, even to give a birth of the baby was such a dangerous thing during the time, and that is just unacceptable. Moreover, i am a little bit confused why were those clergy people doing stuff like that back in the days. Because the thing that they have done were absolutely immoral.

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  10. "exposure to slavery" details not only the brutal physical tortures of slavery but the mental as well. We covered this topic in class and had dubbed it the "mind control" element of slavery. Where the slave driver/master subjugates his slaves on the mental level usually through constant physical abuse and/or subliminal messages. The article also covered how slaves could resist this as well.

    "Canobition in the cabins" again showed how a slave would resist by planning an escape. It also retold the story of slave auction and its immoral practices again, expect from a different point of view. This we also discussed in class and compared it to a livestock auction.

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  11. I believe "exposure to slavery" relates well to our discussion about brainwashing and controlling people's minds. "exposure to slavery" speakers a lot on mental slavery. Mental slavery is the mindset that the slaves are put through while in the "system" . Also, the article speaks on how a slave owner can take advantage because of this mental slavery.

    Canibition in the Cabins refers to the slaver auctions and our discussions about how slaves are truly treated as property. Also how slaver owners can be sick and cruel to their slaver.

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