Difference between revisions of "Week 10 Questions/Comments-327 11"
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(→Mrs. Virginia Hayes Shepherd’s memories, 1937) |
(→Sarah Haynesworth Gayle, “An Alabama Diary,” 1828, 1833) |
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'''I found it interesting that in Sarah Gayle’s diary she referred to her slaves as “servants.” Servant implies compensation for work done, however the “servants” she was referring to were obviously enslaved. Why would she, in a personal diary, refer to her slaves as “servants?”''' Could she be trying to hide some sort of guilt that she feels over slavery or selling slaves? It would make more sense if she called slaves servants in a public sphere. The fact that it is a private diary (that presumably no one else will read) is problematic. Could it be that her personal guilt is so much that she cannot even admit it to herself? --Hannah W. | '''I found it interesting that in Sarah Gayle’s diary she referred to her slaves as “servants.” Servant implies compensation for work done, however the “servants” she was referring to were obviously enslaved. Why would she, in a personal diary, refer to her slaves as “servants?”''' Could she be trying to hide some sort of guilt that she feels over slavery or selling slaves? It would make more sense if she called slaves servants in a public sphere. The fact that it is a private diary (that presumably no one else will read) is problematic. Could it be that her personal guilt is so much that she cannot even admit it to herself? --Hannah W. | ||
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| + | The relationships that Sarah Gayle has with her slaves are the most interesting part of this passage. The differences she mentions in the way that she was raised to treat and act around slaves in her parents house and the way she feels towards them now is very telling of her attitude towards her (as she calls them) "servants." At one point in her diary, speaking of slaves in her parents household she says, "I was not allowed to exercise tyranny or injustice of any sort toward them and on the other side, the most implicit submission was exacted toward me." This seems to me to be a different relationship than most other slave households you here of during that time in the South, because it calls for an almost mutual respect between masters and slaves. To add to that idea of mutual respect, calling her slaves servants in it of itself says a lot about how she feels about the slaves in her household. --Grace C. | ||
== Mary Boykin Chestnut’s diary, 1861 == | == Mary Boykin Chestnut’s diary, 1861 == | ||
