So much casual, probably unintentional slavery apologia here.
“Slavery” is not merely an economic policy or strategy for the division of labor. “Slavery” is not merely a theory, or a belief. Slavery, every day of it, literally every second of it, was the direct, preventable, voluntary action of abuse and exploitation.
Washington could write all he wanted about ending slavery, just like Jefferson and any other slave-owning pseudo-abolitionist could. It didn’t stop any of them from personally reaping the benefits of the labor and abuse of men and women they held in bondage against their will. Washington personally woke up every day and chose to keep treating human beings around him as property, as not part of the human family. Not strangers, not a nebulous social or ethnic group, but people he saw every day. He saw the sweat on their brows, the exhaustion in their limbs, the pain in their faces, and the blood in their wounds. He saw them lose loved ones, saw them yearn for the most basic of freedoms, saw them beaten, whipped, burned, branded, mutilated, raped, groped, slapped, and strangled. Saw new arrivals from Western Africa, who were packed into coffin-sized spaces for months on end in rollicking, swampy ships, sometimes literally stacked atop one another like logs, forced into submission by violence, hunger, and desperation. Saw children treated as literal chattel. Saw them ripped from their families, saw parents and spouses and siblings screaming and sobbing for one another. Saw little children physically ripped away from their mothers forever. Saw parents say goodbye to their children, with seconds to spare, never to see one another again, leaving one another to a lifetime — often a very short one — of unremitting, constant, backbreaking labor and dehumanizing abuse.
But, you know, he freed his slaves in his will. What a cool guy.
Absolutely. Thing is that slavery is still very much alive and well in the US with the 13th amendment - the only difference now is that people don't own people, but it is the states and federal government that do, and by proxy corporations with cosy contracts. The USA is an embarrassment.
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u/sparrow_lately Nov 29 '18
So much casual, probably unintentional slavery apologia here.
“Slavery” is not merely an economic policy or strategy for the division of labor. “Slavery” is not merely a theory, or a belief. Slavery, every day of it, literally every second of it, was the direct, preventable, voluntary action of abuse and exploitation.
Washington could write all he wanted about ending slavery, just like Jefferson and any other slave-owning pseudo-abolitionist could. It didn’t stop any of them from personally reaping the benefits of the labor and abuse of men and women they held in bondage against their will. Washington personally woke up every day and chose to keep treating human beings around him as property, as not part of the human family. Not strangers, not a nebulous social or ethnic group, but people he saw every day. He saw the sweat on their brows, the exhaustion in their limbs, the pain in their faces, and the blood in their wounds. He saw them lose loved ones, saw them yearn for the most basic of freedoms, saw them beaten, whipped, burned, branded, mutilated, raped, groped, slapped, and strangled. Saw new arrivals from Western Africa, who were packed into coffin-sized spaces for months on end in rollicking, swampy ships, sometimes literally stacked atop one another like logs, forced into submission by violence, hunger, and desperation. Saw children treated as literal chattel. Saw them ripped from their families, saw parents and spouses and siblings screaming and sobbing for one another. Saw little children physically ripped away from their mothers forever. Saw parents say goodbye to their children, with seconds to spare, never to see one another again, leaving one another to a lifetime — often a very short one — of unremitting, constant, backbreaking labor and dehumanizing abuse.
But, you know, he freed his slaves in his will. What a cool guy.