slavery – Page 2 – American History to 1877

April 16, 2014

The Compromise of 1850. Did it work?

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Chapter 21 in The Rise of American Democracy focuses primarily on the political consequences of the Mexican-American War. The issue had primarily to do with the admittance of new states, specifically California, into the union in such a fashion that would preserve the precarious senatorial balance between slave and free states. This had been a polarizing subject even since before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, as Henry Clay’s 1847 address to Congress (my primary source) shows, which highlights how controversial and difficult compromise would be. Yet, thanks to the political wisdom of Clay and the energy of Stephen A. Douglass, a palatable agreement was achieved under which: California was admitted as a free state, New Mexico and Utah were to be admitted without reference to slavery, a new Fugitive Slave Law was enacted, the slave trade was abolished in Washington DC, and Texas received $15 million for relinquishing its land claims to New Mexico. As Clay notes, the Compromise of 1850 was brilliant in its scope; however, it did little but paper over entrenched divisions within American society.

Wilentz foreshadows this failure through anecdotes concerning the Fugitive Slave Law and through an explanation of the rifts that drastically altered the identity of the Democratic and Whig Party. The discussion of the Fugitive Slave Law begins with a story about William and Ellen Craft, who were fugitive slaves living in Boston. When two-slave catchers from Georgia came to apprehend the Crafts, they found an organized group of abolitionists who opposed them at every turn, eventually forcing them to return home empty handed. The abolitionists’ actions actually broke the law because a clause in the Fugitive Slave Law stated that all citizens must aid in the arrest of a runaway slave. This illustrated Northern contempt for the law, solidifying its abolitionist position while further incensing Southern “fire-eaters.” Thus, the relationship grew ever more strained.

Wilentz also points to the divisions among political parties that occurred following the Compromise of 1850 as evidence that the agreement did little to heal deep divides over slavery. As he says, “all efforts to shore up the political center eventually wound up worsening the clash between North and South” (356). The almost-collapse of the Whig Party serves as evidence to this. Alex’s post titled The Rise of American Democracy: Chapter 17 traces divisions within the Whigs to the election of President Tyler and his subsequent falling out with Henry Clay over the national bank. Yet, a decade later, the issue of the bank had fallen into obscurity in the shadow of slavery, a much bigger, more divisive demon that created factions such as the “pro-Fillmore Silver Grays, Cotton Whig Websterites, [or] the antislavery Conscience Whigs” and ensured that the Whigs lost on all fronts to the Democrats. Even they, however, were not without their troubles. As the election of 1852 showed, the southern bloc of Democrats was growing ever more powerful, undermining the stabilizing influence of Northern Democrats.

April 15, 2014

International Politics of Slavery

In Inhuman Bondage, Davis discusses how international politics shaped the way slavery was perceived and addressed during the times of the abolitionist movements. Between Great Britain freeing slaves that they came across by sea, and the Northern states pushing for change, the South was in a bind.

On the international scale, Britain was pressuring the US, along with other nations, and to abolish slavery by freeing the slaves that the Southern states had purchased, without compensation. Davis described Britain’s actions as “a deep-rooted hate for anything America represented” (272). There were even some hints of war from Secretary of State Daniel Webster to the British if they were not compensated accordingly for the slaves that had ben freed. Britain and the US came to an agreement favoring the states and Britain paid reparations.

If the International pressure wasn’t bad enough for the Southern states holding tight onto slavery, the Northern abolitionists were pushing that the new territory to be admitted to be a free state, in an effort to throw off the 11 free/11 slave state balance in their favor. The Missouri Compromise was a major deal in determining the future of slavery in the states, yet the North saw the compromise as a defeat. The rift between North and South only grew larger as time went on, and eventually led the US to the Civil War.

The dependency the Southern states had on slavery due to labor, along with the newer idea that blacks were physically inferior to whites, shaped the political ideologies of Southern politicians in the early 1800s. Politics affected everyone; as Greg pointed out in his post, Southern politics even influenced groups such as Irish Catholics, just so they could gain a stature higher than slaves. International and national pressure for the gradual emancipation of slaves and abolition proved just how deeply the slavery impacted Southern politics.

April 14, 2014

Ignorance in America

The Ask a Slave web series does an incredible job at portraying the ignorance of so many Americans when it comes to distinguishing fact from fiction regarding history. I myself am guilty of thinking I know something but in reality am just basing my knowledge on a secondhand account full of embellishment or opinion. As Alex mentions in his post, Azie Dungey who uses the moniker Lizzie Mae, effectively captures likely sentiments of slaves at the time with sarcasm and witty responses. I find this to be a necessary critique of Americans’ perceptions of history and more specifically of slavery in the early first century of the United States.

I thought it was interesting and effective to include the “hometowns” of the different people asking questions to emphasize that these people are Americans. It may seem hard for us to imagine that these questions are from real people. I think the fact that the videos maintain the appearance of reality with the question and answer style, albeit coming from different time periods, the hometown aspect further grounds this ignorance in our country as a huge problem. One of the best portions of the series was in Episode 3 when Peter Mencken from St. Louis, MO claimed that “slavery isn’t that bad” saying that it is industrious work where you can get room and board. This is seriously concerning that Americans have not come to the realization that slavery was an absolutely gruesome atrocity waged against people of color.

Aside from the obvious disregard for realities of slavery in early history of the United States, this series demonstrates the overall lack of awareness that many Americans possess when thinking about history. One woman asked how many bathrooms Mount Vernon had and another. The general method of researching/thinking about history has become much more apparent for us this semester but we forget that many Americans are simply unaware of this process to think of the certain events and institutions in a historical context free from an interpretation in contemporary terms. I totally agree with Max when he says that our school system does a disservice to our children and teens when hiding our blemishes and focusing solely on the successes and positive aspects of American history. Furthermore, I think as a whole we laud our forefathers as being heroic men of honor and oftentimes overlook their pitfalls and their position as mere humans that are capable of error. The Ask a Slave series is a concise, comical approach to illuminating the aforementioned ignorance and false perceptions of slavery and American history.

April 14, 2014

The Power of Ask a Slave

Azie Dungey’s webseries Ask a Slave exemplifies the power of satire in addressing reprehensible history. She even incorporates critical voices—in the second episode of the second season—that tell her she cannot joke about something as immoral as slavery. This inclusion of criticism, and the series as a whole, reminds me of two Quentin Tarantino movies: Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. In the former, Tarantino examines a special American force that fights Nazi forces in France; in the latter, he displays the vengeful rampage of a former slave. Both movies, respectively, confront perhaps the two greatest travesties in recent history: the holocaust and slavery. However, Tarantino approaches these events from the perspective of satire. In Inglourious Basterds, he shows that the Americans successfully kill Hitler in a movie theater; in Django Unchained, he incorporates several items that would not have been invented for decades. Tarantino intentionally makes his movies partially false and absurd because it allows the audience to digest a very flawed and equally absurd history. Indeed, it may be the only way to discuss these issues without losing the audience.

Likewise, Dungey bases her show on a preposterous notion—a slave of George Washington who can talk with modern Americans. She furthers the absurdity with her introductory banjo music and animation, which is complete with a wink from her smiling face. Dungey incorporates these aspects into her show because it is easier to reach her audience through this medium. She then proceeds to discuss several deplorable aspects of slavery, but presents them in a humorous manner. A guest jokes that Jefferson’s slaves are treated well because he has sex with them; Lizzie Mae spits out an (admittedly funny) flurry of expletives in response to the notion that “slavery isn’t that bad” after all; and she even flips a guest off. The character of Lizzie Mae confronts ridiculous assumptions of slavery with clever, humorous retorts that never fail to make me laugh. While these represent but a few of her jokes, they collectively indicate the severity and sensitivity of the subject matter at hand. Moreover, she addresses the treatment of Indians when her guest “Red Jacket” visits the show. He discloses that he enjoys burnt corn soup because it commemorates the burning of Indian people and cornfields. He furthers that he got an enormous medal in exchange for his people’s land. Dungey’s decision to address Indian suffrage furthers the idea that she is indeed trying to educate people, but in a different way than a documentary or textbook would.

By discussing these issues in a satirical manner, Dungey effectively reaches her audience. Instead of portraying the serious and very real travesties that slaves endured, she jokes about them in a talk-show forum. As “Ask A Slave’s Critique of the American Education System” pointed out, we lack accurate understandings of slavery because of our decision to not educate all children about the dark side of our history. Dungey very much recognizes this problem. In one episode, she talks to children and even changes her introductory text from “protect the guilty” to “protect the innocent.” In this way, she acknowledges that these kids are victims of the system, and that the only way to reform education might be through the power of satire.

April 14, 2014

The Role of Resistance in the Slave Narrative

In her blog post, “Lizzie Mae” Emma addresses the level of ignorance in today’s society regarding slavery and some of the prevalent misconceptions. Given how much we have learned about slavery this semester in HIS 141, I wish I were surprised by how uninformed some of the questions were. Its sad and disappointing, yes, but I’m not really surprised. Prior to my junior year of high school, most of what I knew about slavery in the United States and Canada came from books, TV and talking with my parents. I understood what the definition of slavery was and the general conditions of slavery, but I would consider it a “common sense” level of understanding. No, I wouldn’t have asked the question “So why don’t you take the underground railroad,” but this was the basis of my formal education on slavery. The only time I remember learning about slavery in school before junior year was in primary school, when we talked about the Underground Railroad and individuals like Harriet Tubman. I am glad that I learned about resistance strategies, but if you don’t have the background to understand the conditions of slavery, then you cannot understand the extent to which resistance was necessary and in fact integral to the slave experience.

Resistance and combating ignorance were two of the key themes of the first season of “Ask a slave”. The attitude and sarcasm with which Lizzie Mae answers the various questions would likely mirror the attitude with which a slave might have interacted with white society. Clearly a slave would not have had the same opportunities (if any opportunities) to directly address society and slaveholders on the injustices they were subject to, however the manor in which Lizzie Mae takes the opportunities to assert her identity and agency would have translated between the contexts. In this way, Lizzie Mae’s sarcasm can be seen as a passive form of resistance. It also reveals just how brutal the conditions of slavery were. In the first episode we learn that Lizzie Mae is 28 years old or, as she tells us cheerfully, 116 in slave years. The phrasing of this simple statement mirrors the idea of “dog years”, critiquing through sarcasm the dehumanization of slaves and the extent to which their life expectancies were reduced.

Lizzie Mae also addresses more active forms of resistance in episode four, when she gets a question from Emma the Runaway. At the end of the interaction, Emma asks that Lizzie Mae, to “Put a little hemlock in her tea for me will ya? Just enough to make her sick,” and Lizzie adds, “But not enough to kill her.” With this Lizzie Mae reminds us that even if slaves had few other options than to serve the wishes of their masters, they were not content in this position and took every opportunity to assert their independence and their humanity.

Works Cited:
Black, Jordan. “Ask A Slave Ep.1: Meet Lizzie Mae.” YouTube video, 4:05. Posted by “Ask A Slave: The Web Series,” Sept 1, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1IYH_MbJqA#t=106.

Black, Jordan. “Ask A Slave Ep.4: New Leaf, Same Page.” YouTube video, 4:08. Posted by “Ask A Slave: The Web Series,” Sept 15, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik-fXNjxw58.

April 14, 2014

Ask a Slave

While watching the web series “Ask a Slave,” I was pleasantly surprised by Lizzie Mae’s witty comebacks and the humor she used to educate others. The short videos are based on an actress’s experience posing as a slave at Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. In the series, Lizzie Mae answers questions people ask her. Often time these questions are offensive and almost, if not all, are based on ignorance. I was particularly struck by a homosexual couple who compared their own marriage to the marriage Lizzie Mae faced as a slave.

While there may have been some similarities, like the illegality of their marriage, there are also vast differences. For instance, slave families lived with the constant fear of being permanently separated because of their master’s desires and had to obey their masters or risk death. They were controlled by another human being who thought of them as nothing more than property. The lack of thought or knowledge behind the questions asked to Lizzie Mae, although not entirely surprising, shocked me all the same.

As others have mentioned in their posts, the humor Lizzie Mae used to answer the questions asked of her was enjoyable but should not hide the message behind her videos. These videos point out the general lack of knowledge others possess about history and present a need to show others what helped create the land they now live in. A knowledge about dates is not necessary, rather people need to know of the lifestyle others had and consider the emotions behind the predicaments they faced. Thinking about how others may have felt can greatly change one’s perspectives on an issue.

April 13, 2014

Commentary on Ask a Slave

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 13, 2014

Ask A Slave: A Commentary

In the YouTube web series Ask a Slave, the creator Azie Dungey comically portrays a slave living on George Washington’s plantation in the late 18^th century. Using her historical knowledge of the time period, and an extremely dry wit, she sarcastically answers real questions posed to her by individuals she encountered while working as an historical reenactor at Mt. Vernon. Azie, under the alias of the slave Lizzie Mae, admirably illustrates with humor the shocking lack of knowledge that many Americans possess about early American history.

Dungey’s video really highlights a collective ignorance in America about slavery in the United States. Many of the questions posed to Azie where simply shocking to me. Some of the more outrageous questions and statements included the following: “Slavery wasn’t that bad!,” “Do you have any white friends?,” and “What does George Washington think about Abraham Lincoln freeing all of his slaves?” In my opinion, the questions posed to Azie are just absurd. Moreover, It’s disconcerting to me that people would still think that “slavery isn’t that bad,” particularly because it still exists as an underground institution in today’s society. I found myself wishing that the person who made this statement could face the conditions that early slaves did, if only for a couple of days. Perhaps this would allow them to see what a deplorable, degrading, and dehumanizing practice slavery is.

I feel as if the author of the post Ask a Slave’s Critique of the American Education System made an extremely important point when stating that we cannot let Azie’s message get lost in her humor. Azie’s comedic influence in her work is certainly valuable. It makes her videos more accessible and interesting to her audience, and I feel it is a major factor in why they have achieved such recognition and success. However, it’s all too easy to allow ourselves to just take that humor at face value, instead of looking past it and trying to understand why Azie actually made these videos. I don’t think Azie is just making her videos because these questions are ridiculous or funny. She’s purposely illustrating a rather shocking and sad ignorance about our nation’s history among the general populace

Overall, I feel as if Ask a Slave is an important web series. Dungey’s videos are witty, sarcastic, and supremely funny. More important, however, is the fact that they highlight a real lack of knowledge about the early history of the United States. I feel that we as Americans have a responsibility to learn about the history of our country. While this country is certainly one of the greatest on this earth, many mistakes were made along the way to reach the point where we are now. It’s important to learn about them. We don’t want them to happen again.

April 12, 2014

Ask A Slave’s Critique of the American Education System

The Ask A Slave web series offers a humorous yet eye-opening look into how present day Americans view the institution of slavery. In addition to highlighting the ignorance of those asking questions, the series suggests that their completely misconstrued assumptions and queries also reflect poorly on the way slavery is taught. Furthermore, the equally uninformed people asking these questions demonstrate how myths about slavery have lasted over time and that more attention is needed in correcting these problematic misconceptions.

As Rebecca alluded to in her post, one misconstruction that a character had was that Lizzie Mae’s position as a slave was one that she applied for and that it had its own Human Resources department. While this character’s question shows a lack of general historical knowledge as well, it ultimately undermines the hardships that slaves had to face by equating their struggles to a job in present-day corporate America. A similar connection between slavery and employment is wrongfully made towards the end of Episode five in Season one as a young woman asks if slavery is as hard as her job at Forever 21, which she claims is “like slavery.” This comparison is completely inappropriate as it collates the brutal treatment of slaves to a job, which gives monetary compensation and other benefits in exchange for an employee’s work. Both of these examples exhibit primarily how misguided some Americans are regarding the history of slavery. Additionally, these examples indicate a flaw in the manner in which people are educated relating to slavery in this country.

While Ask A Slave is an inherently funny web series due Azie Dungey’s acting prowess and the absurdity of the questions asked, it is important that the work’s overall message does not get lost in that humor. The piece displays the Americans’ generally misinformed position on slavery, but it also begs the viewer to ask how people would ever conjure up such ridiculous questions. While I believe that Americans certainly do have a responsibility to be informed about their country’s history, part of the blame should be put on the nation’s primary, and in some cases secondary, schooling that tends to hide our blemishes and promote our successes. Ask A Slave is therefore an example of the consequences that can arise as a result of Americans being misinformed on an important historical issue.

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.