Dover has put out a reprint of an 1861 book by a former fugitive slave, and her life. It does tell a story of horror, and she takes you there where she was, and how she lived. How to live and the choices made in such horror, and how other people behave in such a malformed society is especially good in this book.
She goes on to talk about the harm done to the slave holders, how the very fact of owning slaves causes rot within the families of the slave holders.
Her observations on the Nat Turner episode are a caution for today. Slavery concentrated power in the hands of a few by taking the earnings of the slaves and giving it to the master. This wealth was dissipated on malinvestment, and eventually war (but this whole story is before the civil war.) The poor whites who could find no work, for slaves did it all, lived in misery in the backwoods. If and when there was a uppity slave, or even a hint of rebellion, they would pour out of the woods to punish the blacks and defend the system that keeps them in poverty.
We see this today in the TSA, the victims supporting the system that traps them.
She goes on to talk about the harm done to the slave holders, how the very fact of owning slaves causes rot within the families of the slave holders.
Her observations on the Nat Turner episode are a caution for today. Slavery concentrated power in the hands of a few by taking the earnings of the slaves and giving it to the master. This wealth was dissipated on malinvestment, and eventually war (but this whole story is before the civil war.) The poor whites who could find no work, for slaves did it all, lived in misery in the backwoods. If and when there was a uppity slave, or even a hint of rebellion, they would pour out of the woods to punish the blacks and defend the system that keeps them in poverty.
We see this today in the TSA, the victims supporting the system that traps them.
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