Difference between revisions of "Week 10 Questions/Comments"
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I think another interesting aspect of Weld reading was that the "Cruel Mistress" was a very devoutly religious person and was actively Christian. Though this seems to be contradictory, it just shows (as previously mentioned) that slave owners did not view their slaves as people. The Cruel Mistress did not feel that her Christian charity included African Americans, only white people. - F. Cobb | I think another interesting aspect of Weld reading was that the "Cruel Mistress" was a very devoutly religious person and was actively Christian. Though this seems to be contradictory, it just shows (as previously mentioned) that slave owners did not view their slaves as people. The Cruel Mistress did not feel that her Christian charity included African Americans, only white people. - F. Cobb | ||
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| + | Donald Matthew's Religion in the Old South discusses this idea of the cruel owner, and even the owner in general as a person practicing cruel activities who is so religious, and the hypocrisy. Matthews develops the idea that the slaves are being "saved" and it's the duty of the Southerners, who are in a unique position to be trying to help their slaves, which the North "can't" understand. I think "The Cruel Mistress" fits very nicely with his ideas about how frustrated Southerners were. --A. Meyer | ||
In Woloch's book I was intreged by Sarah Haynesworth Gayle's diary entries. She sounded hurt by the actions of her slaves, as if she considered them to be her wayward children in a way. It goes back to what we discussed in class about the idea that slaveowners believed they were "helping" their slaves and that the slaves owed their masters for that. She sounded very disappointed for instance when some of her slaves started slacking off in their tasks as it were, and then she had to sell one of her favorite slaves because of it. I guess it is one thing to hear it in class and another in writing from the time the idea that they couldnt understand why the slaves would be unhappy. --Mary P. | In Woloch's book I was intreged by Sarah Haynesworth Gayle's diary entries. She sounded hurt by the actions of her slaves, as if she considered them to be her wayward children in a way. It goes back to what we discussed in class about the idea that slaveowners believed they were "helping" their slaves and that the slaves owed their masters for that. She sounded very disappointed for instance when some of her slaves started slacking off in their tasks as it were, and then she had to sell one of her favorite slaves because of it. I guess it is one thing to hear it in class and another in writing from the time the idea that they couldnt understand why the slaves would be unhappy. --Mary P. | ||
