Difference between revisions of "HIST 131--Week 11 Questions/Comments"
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(→Bennett Barrow’s Plantation Journal, May, 1838) |
(→Nat Turner – from ''Confessions of Nat Turner'', 1831) |
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I want to focus on the psychology behind this passage. Nat Turner was not incredibly educated-he had studied the Bible, but it doesn't sound like he had been introduced into outside reason. It sounds like he reads until he finds something he can twist into backing his cause, but he does not seem to be influenced himself by ideas and knowledge. He had not been taught as well to rely on reason, so he relied on passion. Because of the wounds he suffered (physically, mentally, emotionally, etc)his passion was more likely to be violent, acting out of hurt. He does not have a lot of grounding in education, so his reasoning can go anywhere and seem to make sense to him and anyone who is willing to buy into it. In this case, not educating slaves hurt the masters. A more educated slave would have been more gentle. Frederick Douglass spoke about when he gave up on his education and was reduced to a beast. He was unfeeling and hardened. When he decided to embrace knowledge again and thinking, he softened. --Gracie Ofslager | I want to focus on the psychology behind this passage. Nat Turner was not incredibly educated-he had studied the Bible, but it doesn't sound like he had been introduced into outside reason. It sounds like he reads until he finds something he can twist into backing his cause, but he does not seem to be influenced himself by ideas and knowledge. He had not been taught as well to rely on reason, so he relied on passion. Because of the wounds he suffered (physically, mentally, emotionally, etc)his passion was more likely to be violent, acting out of hurt. He does not have a lot of grounding in education, so his reasoning can go anywhere and seem to make sense to him and anyone who is willing to buy into it. In this case, not educating slaves hurt the masters. A more educated slave would have been more gentle. Frederick Douglass spoke about when he gave up on his education and was reduced to a beast. He was unfeeling and hardened. When he decided to embrace knowledge again and thinking, he softened. --Gracie Ofslager | ||
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| + | Reading this makes me wonder... First, this is written by a white man for him.... since it's an interview on death row. That said, I wonder if the two men are kind of struggling for the power of this passage. Maybe Nat Turner wasn't really that crazy, but was using Christ as a means of persuasion to his followers. The interviewer might realize this and try to spin Turner's words to sound crazed and overboard. It makes me wonder what Nat Turner would have written on his own. Do we have any journals or anything written by this man without the help of a white man??? --Jessica Lawrie | ||
== James Henry Hammond, 1845 “Letter to an English Abolitionist” == | == James Henry Hammond, 1845 “Letter to an English Abolitionist” == | ||
