After watching the narrative video, there was an expected, but profound impact on me. During one of the narratives, a slave expresses anguish over being freed, stating they were only “freed to starve to death.” Her plantation owners had treated her well, and sounds as though she misses her old life as a slave. I was unaware that some were treated better and more kindly as slaves, than they were as free individuals. More to the point, I did not even know there were kind plantation owners.
Education was not allowed and slaves were forced to learn in secret or not at all. It makes sense, now that I have taken this class, for historians to begin speaking to subjects involved in history, especially since many slaves lived to be ninety or one-hundred years old and many survived long after they were freed and were able to recount slavery and what it was like.
It was small efforts by one person after another after another that allowed a civil rights revolution to begin during a time when American was known as a slave nation. Today, it still goes on. For example, the white plantation owners who had slaves but treated them well were partaking in slavery, but were not treating anybody poorly.
Fanny Berry met an interesting ethical dilemma when her plantation owner attempted to, in no uncertain terms, have his way with her in order to assert power. As she was a human and technically an employee by today’s standards, this was unethical. I assume I would have handled it as Berry did; she fought back and, from the sound of it, clawed the plantation owner’s face until he left her alone.
These narratives allowed me to better understand the tension in the U.S. today. I am not of the mind that any minority should forget or let go of their past, but have at times not understand why there is still so much tension. Hearing narratives makes many things more clear to me and makes me want to be more active in civil rights issues, as it is still apparent that institutionalized racism is alive and well.
I learned how early some children were pulled from their mothers. Many interviewees had never met their mothers or did not remember them. It was upsetting to hear how plantation owners would use the family dynamic as a weapon against slaves to control them, as well. For example, the relationship between a husband and wife were often used against them.
Reflection
This class, and attending Richland College, as shown me I need to research subjects independently in order to get a better picture of history and what happened. I cannot trust a brief synopsis to give me all of the information. I am more curious about the information being given to me. Like a historian, I want to get my information from the source. It becomes more clear to me when I am able to do this. Before attending this class, I was satisfied with whatever information was given to me. I did not seek out information independently and was not very curious about the source of the information. I think it has increased my ability to understand credible information versus information that cannot be trusted.
Moreover, I believe attending the class has helped me in other aspects of my life. I have applied this curiosity to other classes, but also to my everyday life. When I watch the news or am on social media, I do not take information at face value. I research it. I want to know if it is true or not. I do not get overly excited about a click-bait article on Facebook and instead cross-reference it, searching for the original source. It has helped me understand what to trust in my life and what not to trust. It has also saved me a lot of time. Much of the news is not worth watching, as it turns out, because a lot of it is just used for shock value and turns out not to be true, or is from relatively unreliable sources. I no longer help spread this unreliable information, which makes me proud. I do not want to be a part of this problem. I want to be a well-informed citizen who helps stop the problem before it starts, and this class has helped me become that.
