george washington – American History to 1877

April 13, 2014

Commentary on Ask a Slave

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First, I really enjoyed the “Ask a Slave” web series. The woman who played Lizzie Mae did a fantastic job of making sure things were in the correct time period. The questions she was asked were if not hysterical, but sad. If those had been actual questions that she was asked while acting as a slave, then the level of knowledge that people have of American history is astounding. Too many people know too little of the nation’s early years.

There were several instances in the webisodes where Lizzie Mae and/or another character would discuss and/or criticize the real life figures they were discussing. They brought to like several myths about the presidents and about slave life that were not true.

It seems as though many people today have trouble understanding the way slaves lived and the severity of the meaning of the word slavery. It seems as though many people are either not learning the history or choosing to not acknowledge the brutality of it. This could lead to be dangerous, because people not caring about something as cruel as slavery could lead them to be impartial to other things in the present.

April 9, 2014

Lizzie Mae

The Ask A Slave web series really had me in awe. I honestly cannot imagine that people in our present day society are actually that ignorant. Many of the questions seemed so preposterous that it seemed fake at times. In the beginning of each video, it said that all of the questions were real questions though. This makes me really wonder how so many people are so uninformed about slavery.

I really enjoyed watching these videos. They were humorous, but at the same time very sad. It made slavery seem real. So often people think of it as something in the past, and they don’t think twice about it. The sarcasm really emphasized this. Like my classmate said, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are often optimized as being noble, upstanding heroes of America. They did have slaves though, and that is overlooked. Questions regarding “Lizzie Mae’s” children really stood out to me. People who asked questions made it seem like slavery was not that bad.

Another misconception was involving the abolitionist. The general public has the opinion that abolitionists fought for an end to slavery, when it fact it was not that simple. As shown in the web video, the abolitionist had not even talked to a black person before. He also did not believe in slavery, but wanted to send the slaves back to Africa or Jamaica. He furthered this distaste by implying sexism on her. All in all, this demonstrated that not all abolitionists actually cared that much about the actual black slaves.

These videos are a way for people to see a glimpse at slavery, and how our current world perceives it. This is not just an issue of the past though. When Lizzie Mae was talking about making her own clothes, the person asking the question said she did not know who made her clothes. Lizzie Mae then replied saying that someone like her could be making those clothes. This is true, because slavery still exists today. It is sad that people are still going through that, and we are supporting it.

April 9, 2014

Ask a Slave

I, like Thomas brought up in his most recent post, saw Ask a Slave series provided moments of comedy, and simultaneously provided moments of great fear for the knowledge of the American public. The slave character she portrays, “Lizzie Mae,” gives the unique slave perspective often disregarded in the text books. She brings up important issues, such as how the idea of “good” or “generous” slave master was an oxymoron. We glowingly look back at the Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were noble in their freeing of their slaves upon their death. She brings up how Martha Washington held onto all her slaves and how Thomas Jefferson has been known to have had relations with his female slaves. She also talks about how abolitionists were not as great as we think, often they have never interacted with African-American slaves, they were mostly in favor of sending the slaves back to Africa, and they were still very sexist.

But as Rebecca alludes to at the end of her post, this series is almost more a commentary about present day views and beliefs than a informative video on the horrors of slavery. Lizzie Mae brings up how out of touch people are and this is evident by how each video starts with a disclaimer of “names being changed to protect the guilty.” Some of the things that stood out for me was how people still buy into the missionary justification today, that the teaching of Christianity was some how a fair trade for a life of hard labor. In addition, many people asked questions about who watched their children and where did they go to school, completely oblivious to the fact that slaves families were often broken up and sold, and their children were working, leaving no need for them to be watched or educated. Also, many people believe that fleeing north and the underground railroad was not risky, and there was just a super highway and advertisements for it that saved slaves by the thousands.

The moment that had the biggest impact on me was when Lizzie Mae brought up the issue of modern day slavery. We think because we do not have a slave in our house that sews our clothes for us in the living room like George Washington, that our clothing comes from well paid workers. In reality, their are child sweat shops in China that we are still exploiting.