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Black racial stereotypes
Black racial stereotypes
Black racial stereotypes
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Slaves were not just abused, and tortured in the most horrific ways possible, but they were thought to be the lowest of mankind. Slaves were constantly reminded that their race was not pure, and that they were good at nothing besides labor work. Mental torture was just as bad as physical torture, it made the slave feel worthless to the world. According to S. Plous and Tyron Williams from Wesleyan University they claim “In the 18th and 19th centuries, many prominent whites in Europe and the U.S. regarded black people as mentally inferior, physically and culturally unevolved, and apelike in appearance” This comes to show that
Not just was this present in recent times during the late 1800s in the United States; the whole view of Africans being destined to serve the white men was published way back during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Certain views of slavery date back even further some centuries, but the key points started from this time period, where trade was also a very prominent activity, especially trading of slaves. However, with artwork being spread on such ideas of freedom and ethnicity, many became aware of the population taking part in the movement to consider new ideas. Not all Africans were degraded by Europeans afterwards. If the dark-skinned actually climbed up the steep mountain to reach the peak, then they actually stayed at the peak instead of being pushed back down to the ground, which is how it was before the rejection of the given low standards of Africans. Now, if Africans reached a status, they had a better chance of staying in that
...tive on the psychological damages of slavery. White believes “pairing the psychological with the enslaved woman’s means of survival has helped us analyze many patterns that emerged after slavery (10).”
Attention getter: Hundreds of years ago blacks were taken from their homes, placed on ships where they were packed together and lived amongst their feces, and were brought to America where they were forced to work with no pay. Slave masters used brutal techniques and horrible methods of torture to control and manipulate black slaves.
"Black Peoples of America - Slave Punishments." Black Peoples of America - Slave Punishments. Historyonthenet, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. .
According to Douglass, the treatment of a slave was worse than an animal. Not only was he valued as an animal but also a slave was reduced to an animal when he was as much a man as his keeper. The mental faculty a slave had was diminished through the forbidden nature of reading and learning, as well as the constant drunkenness imposed on the slaves during holidays.
In this quote Frederick Douglass describes a valuation for the slaves where they would be separated based on the certain needs of slaveholders. “We were all ranked together at the valuation. There were horses men, cattle and women,pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination...at this moment I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery.”(Douglas,58). This evidence proves that Fredrick Douglas argues that slaves were dehumanized more than slaveholders because in the quote the word “we” symbolizes that slaves and animals are the same and have the same value, therefore connecting slaves to animals which aren't humans. The first time Fredrick Douglas witnessed physical abuse was by his master on his aunt who was whipped in front of his own eyes. “I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I never shall forget it...It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and participant.”(Douglas,7). This describes an attack on a slave by a slaveholder just like an animal would which Fredrick Douglas will never forget therefore he is put in a state where he is scarred for life. This evidence proves that Fredrick Douglas argues that slaves were dehumanized more than slaveholders because this demonstrates the effects physical
From the very beginning of time African Americans have been a culture of resistance. That is resistance from slavery, resistance from torture, and resistance from wrongdoing. Families were torn apart, women were raped, and children were tortured. In an article by Atlanta Blackst they list some of the ways African American slaves were tortures, and it’s horrifying. Some slaves were burned alive, lynched by meat hooks, castrated, and even Mutated. This is the easy part, as after being tortured they had many years of psychological suffering. They didn’t have family to turn to because they were most dead or sold to another slave
These acts of abuse were a large part of slavery during its existence. The types of abuse were present in order to keep the slave population as slaves, and not a group of people who think for themselves.
In order to justify keeping an entire race of people enslaved, slaveholders claimed that blacks were inferior to whites, placing them on the same level as livestock and other animals. “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (73). The fact is, whites are not naturally superior over blacks. Therefore, slaveholders used a variety of contrived strategies to make their case that blacks were inherently inferior to whites. To...
In the beginning of colonial America people used religion and wealth to define status. As the years progressed fewer people migrated to America. This resulted in a labor shortage of indentured servants. Farmers turned to the transatlantic slave trade, and started replacing indentured servants with African slaves. African slaves worked for nothing, could be easily identified by their skin separating them from indentured servants, and were valued for their farming skill. Plantation owners found what they an ideal and endless labor supply and developed the first slave system where all slaves shared a common appearance and ancestry. The abundance of this new labor source brought poor whites new rights, opportunities, and a sense of superiority for whiteness. Many were elevated to manager’s plantations and bounty hunters. White societies for the first time started to identify themselves with each other not based on wealth or status because they were white. As slave labor increased, slavery became inherently identified with blackness. This perpetuated white Americans belief that Africans were a different kind of person and stimulated the theory that Africans maintained a "natural" inferiority.
Culturally, some people believed slavery was acceptable in their society. Thinking they blacks aren’t as superior as whites. Racism was very harsh in those days and they viewed slavery as a mean of
During the nineteenth century, America faced what is considered to be one of the most gruesome times in today’s history. Because of slavery in the South and the effects of the Civil War, people in today’s society recognize this time period as one many would avoid discussing. According to Stephen V. Ash, “Southern Slavery was a harsh system —cruel is a better word—that was now and then tampered by acts of kindness on the part of paternalistic whites” (xv). Although there were a small amount of slave owners who were kindhearted, the majority of the South was dominated by slave holders who believed in white supremacy. Ultimately, because many slaves endured extremely callous experiences through forced marriages, repressed education, and revolting living conditions, slave owners were able to create a suppressive atmosphere for slaves during
According to O. Patterson slaves at birth had lost their personal identity and the identity of who they were culturally. There was nothing for them to know except that they were to be loyal to their master and other white folk. Their new cultural identity was structured by the white master. As O. Patterson points out, "By natal alienation, the slave lost a birthright to his or her cultural existence, beyond what the master permitted, thus experiencing a kind of social death" (p.3). The inability for the slave population to create a social existence, since it was not allowed, could only mean that the whites believed that the slaves were dumb chattel with no capacity for human emotion. The master dominated over his slaves, so that he could exploit their labor. "The proprietor of this thing, the mover of this instrument, the soul and the reason of this body, the source of life, was the master" (p.7). Masters also considered their slaves to be inferior and, t...
treated them harshly. The masters’ perception of blacks was that they lacked self-discipline and morality. They justified slavery by claiming that they were training the slaves to master self discipline through work and also train them in the precepts of God. Not all masters were harsh and cruel. Some treated their slaves with kindness and subsequently were well loved. However, it still emerges that a majority of even the kindest masters still did not attach much humane value to their slaves. This has been exemplified in that despite amicable relationships, the slaves were rarely freed but instead passed on to other masters after the demise of their master like any other property owned by the late master.
Between 1500 & 1890, millions of slaves were taken from Africa. Approximately11,863,000 Africans were shipped across the atlantics, bound with iron shackles and driven by the string of the whip. These slaves were loaded into the decks by for hundreds, the stench was so horrifying. Many lives were lost from disease, abuse and killing on the middle of the passage, as a result the death rate during the passage reduced the number by 10-20 percent. Between 9.6 and 10.8 million Africans arrived in the America. The slaves were forcibly imported into the America and they were sold at auctions and their families were torn apart forever. Du Boise works talk about the mental and physical sufferings of slaves that delivered severe damage to the Negro psyche. African slaves were forced to give up their language, culture and identity and adopt white customs, this disconnection from their source of self-concept and identity made them suffer from sub-conscious inferiority complex. They were psychologically so depressed and they started believing that they deserve the treatment they are receiving. If you are told something enough times, you would come to believe that what you were being told is true. The practices such as castration and removal of limbs for small infections made those slaves physically incapacitated who were already suffering from psychological torment and indoctrination. There were practices called battles royals where one group of slaves had to fight against other group of slaves just for the entertainment of slave owners.