1.3.10

Animals and Man

The treatment of black people during this time is incredibly disturbing. History classes don't even go near the true detail and horror of the slave trade or slavery. Throughout the entire book slaves are compared and treated like cattle. I think the most disturbing part is when the schoolteacher is documenting the measurements of the slaves body parts. The slaves lives run parallel with that of a farm animal and in many cases end the same way. Hanging from a tree reminds me of how you slaughter a cow. My family has a cattle farm in Oglethorpe County and we slaughter a cow once a year. We have to hang it from the tree as one of the first steps to complete the slaughter. The comparison of man and beast is only amplified with the sexual relationship between the slave men and the animals. It puts them on the same playing field as the animals.

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