You know, the title of this section really threw me at first, but I’m impressed with how accurate it ended up being. Early on in the first reading (the one this post is named after) a question is introduced, “Are the conditions of slavery as important as the fact that it happened?” This question is pretty loaded, but I’m going to go ahead and say yes. The conditions are important to remember so that the reality of the situation cannot be glossed over or said to “not have been THAT bad.” In that respect, this question is trying to protect against that exact mindset. Later in the reading (page numbers didn’t print out, so I can’t site, sorry), it gave the example of how “Half of all slaves were whipped” has a different feeling than “Every few days, some slave would be whipped.” And that is the point this question is trying to bring home. You have all the loopholes caused by phrasing, all the forgotten rights of those mistreated because some document someone didn’t explicitly say something, or explicitly note that one specific thing needs enforcing. It’s ridiculous and almost comedic.
On Abraham Lincoln. So, I’ll be honest, I’m not a history buff and I’ve kinda forgotten way more than I should have from AP US History (APUSH, ykwgo). That said, I was pretty shook when I read the excerpts from Lincoln’s speech. Yknow, the whole white supremacy strand, not wanting equality, and all that. And, I get it, I do. Those were the times, blacks weren’t even considered full-fledged humans at this point (which is just, uhhh disgusting? Appalling? Horrifying?). But Lincoln lost respect points from me today, I don’t think I even like $5 bills anymore. Mostly kidding, but lowkey triggered. YET, there is hope and I’ll cling on to it—Lincoln could have been lying. He lied in the next quote about not planning to free the slaves at all. So maybe he was just saying what people wanted to hear in order to get their support. I don’t think anyone knows for sure, but I feel like someone as smart and successful as Abe Lincoln… would understand ridiculous the notion of black people being not-people was. Maybe he somehow knew he was ahead of his time.
This reading was really frustrating for a variety of reasons. America’s history with racism and slavery is so murky and one-step-forward-two-steps-back that it’s really no wonder why we’re still having issues today. Slavery and Racism were said to have been ingrained in our society in the 1800’s. Not to mention, a lot of the events from “Or Does it Explode?” were… pretty recent in the grand scheme of things. Freaky.
I disagree with your opening statement (that the conditions matter) because slavery at its core it dehumanizing people to mere objects, owning people. Whether they were treated as people of not frankly does not matter that much because on paper, they were never considered people.
I agree with your statement of conditions mattering just as much as the condition of slavery as yes it is a loaded question, but there have historically in the world been different levels of slavery, for example in Jewish culture you had to treat the slaves humanely and after releasing them on the on the 7th year as required by law you had to help get them on their feet, this to me seems like a different standard of slavery than forced labor for life with a potentiality of death if you didn’t meet your masters standards. As for Lincoln i think the saying “the bigger they are the harder they fall” applies very well here the heroification has really done history and the memory of many people a very large disservice which is why todays idea of history from the common man a very beneficial style of study.