The\u00a0Ask a Slave<\/em>\u00a0web series does an incredible job at portraying the ignorance of so many Americans when it comes to distinguishing fact from fiction regarding \u00a0history. 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. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0One 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. \u00a0This is seriously concerning that Americans have not come to the realization that slavery was an absolutely gruesome atrocity waged against people of color.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Furthermore, 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. \u00a0The\u00a0Ask a Slave<\/em>\u00a0series is a concise, comical approach to illuminating the aforementioned ignorance and false perceptions of slavery and American history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Ask a Slave\u00a0web series does an incredible job at portraying the ignorance of so many Americans when it comes to distinguishing fact from fiction regarding \u00a0history. 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 … <\/p>\n

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