In her blog post, \u201cLizzie Mae\u201d Emma addresses the level of ignorance in today\u2019s 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\u2019m 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 \u201ccommon sense\u201d level of understanding. No, I wouldn\u2019t have asked the question \u201cSo why don\u2019t you take the underground railroad,\u201d 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Resistance and combating ignorance were two of the key themes of the first season of \u201cAsk a slave\u201d. 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\u2019s 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 \u201cdog years\u201d, critiquing through sarcasm the dehumanization of slaves and the extent to which their life expectancies were reduced.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cPut a little hemlock in her tea for me will ya? Just enough to make her sick,\u201d and Lizzie adds, \u201cBut not enough to kill her.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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Works Cited:
\nBlack, Jordan. \u201cAsk A Slave Ep.1: Meet Lizzie Mae.\u201d\u00a0 YouTube video, 4:05.\u00a0 Posted by “Ask A Slave: The Web Series,” Sept 1, 2013.\u00a0 <\/b>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X1IYH_MbJqA#t=106.<\/p>\n
Black, Jordan. \u201cAsk A Slave Ep.4: New Leaf, Same Page.\u201d\u00a0 YouTube video, 4:08.\u00a0 Posted by “Ask A Slave: The Web Series,” Sept 15, 2013.\u00a0 <\/b>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ik-fXNjxw58.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In her blog post, \u201cLizzie Mae\u201d Emma addresses the level of ignorance in today\u2019s 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 … <\/p>\n