QUOTE:
“Why does the slave ever love? Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wrenched away by the hand of violence” (Jacobs 1812).
SUMMARY:
When the free man Linda Brent is in love with wants to marry her, her master Dr. Flint becomes very jealous. Brent’s situation becomes utterly hopeless because Dr. Flint puts an extra close watch on her, and her lover soon moves away.
RESPONSE:
How awful it must have been for Brent. Not only is her master absolutely horrible to her, he also decides that he needs to put her in a secluded house so she can be his sex slave? Luckily that plan never actually happens. If I were Brent, I don’t even know what I would have done. I’m not sure if I would have purposely gotten pregnant with some other white man’s child, but I know that would be highly preferred to ending up with children from the bane of my existence. I probably would have rather died instead of deal with such a horrible person, so I think Brent is incredibly strong.
What a creep! I seriously think that Dr. Flint had some power issues, and even mental problems. I wonder how many creepy slaveholders actually got to have their sex slaves. I’m sure there are millions of people alive (especially in the south) today who can trace their heritage back to a slaveholder great-great-great grandfather. It makes me wonder though: if people who owned slaves really didn’t think of them as human, why would they even want to have sex with them? Maybe they were just fronting so they could have their cake and eat it too!
I really think that the people who acted like African slaves weren’t human actually knew deep down that they really were human. I guess an explanation for this could be capitalism in the south? I think greed had to have been a huge factor. Just imagine people being able to get all of the labor for their businesses for free. I’m sure many people would do anything as long as they lived comfortably and in power.
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1 comment:
20/20 I think the de-humanization went deep. I'm not sure people really "did know." The more you read about the culture of slavery, the more you wonder.
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