How did the slavers view what they did?

I must categorically disagree when you argue that there is no such thing as ‘a product of the times.’ Many people are very much a product of their time. It’s like delving into how the Nazi’s rose to power and watching the indoctrination of young German children, raised to both fear and despise the Jews. It’s like exploring the climate of fear and oppression in Stalin’s Russia or the homophobic or misogynistic attitudes that arise in religious cultures. There is always a zeitgeist of the time; a mood or feeling or set of values that represent a period in history.

Many people assume when someone says that someone is a ‘product of the times’ they are redeeming or excusing the behaviour of an individual. Of course this is not true. There are always individual factors that also influence a person’s behaviours and decisions and of course there are always unconventional, rebellious or braver souls who buck trends. There are also those who silently conform, but people are still influenced and moulded to a degree by the circumstances under which they are raised and born particularly in eras before the internet, mass media and social networking when people were largely ONLY exposed to a very limited set of values/experiences.

I do agree however that many slavers simply ‘pretended not to see’ and this is still very valid in today’s world where slave labour exists in an arguably more insidious form; far away, oversees, in hidden factories where it isn’t visible. We no longer, by and large, unless in the case of abductions or sex trafficking, have slaves living in our homes, but we still promote slavery when we do our shopping.

I was intrigued by Master Epps (spl?) because he clearly seemed an unstable man and also a man of privilege and wealth who also disrespected his wife, the law and everyone else as well as the slaves. The slaves, who he so clearly viewed as beneath him, obviously inherited the bulk of his wrath, though he was clearly a bit of a maniac anyway!

I also have to disagree with your declaration that slavery is about white supremacy. There have always been slaves and slavery has included people of every race; from European slaves, African slaves, Russian slaves, Chinese slaves, children, women, men, maids in households, sex trafficked victims, sweat shop labourers and many others. Slavery is as old an institution as prostitution. The African American enslavement is more recent in our history and of course the slaves were dehumanised and treated terribly because of their race, however it is untrue to claim that ALL slavery EVER was racially motivated. Slavery was by and large the rich exploiting the poor ‘other.’ Slavery is almost exclusively a rich man (or woman’s game). Rarely, if ever, do the poor own slaves.

There are obviously strong racist undercurrents in America still. I am not American so I can’t speak personally of the race relations in America, except that I think that America is so large that it enables pockets of seperateness and extremism to fester in a way that is more difficult to achieve in smaller communities, for instance the Maori of New Zealand (a smaller country with a far smaller population). The Maori have a history of having their land invaded and usurped, their women raped and war waged and yet the relationship between the Maori and the Pakeha (white Europeans) is LARGELY peaceful. Perhaps this is because the land mass is so much smaller than America? The two literally NEEDED to find a way to co-habit in the end. In America, such a large land mass enables people to form smaller communities and tribes that never need to interact, meet or cohabit - think the forward thinking NY versus the god fearing little town in Alabama for instance.

I do think your comments about slavery are somewhat misguided. Slavery was not invented by the white man, but it was certainly practiced by the white man in recent history. You also must remember when thinking about history the vast swathes of white people who did NOT own slaves and were not invested in the trade; the poor, the starving, the sick, the Average Joe. Slave owners were by and large wealthy and privileged people as it still largely is today. The sin of the ‘every man’ is that they sit by and do nothing either out of ignorance, fear or cool apathy.

Of course today’s time is also such a hodge podge of everything. It is hard to be blind nowadays when we are so much more educated and informed.

But I am curious as to what the zeitgeist of this time was; how was the economy? How did this period of slavery begin? What was the average American’s perception of slavery? Was it widely opposed? Were many slaves freed or treated well by their ‘masters?’ I am intrigued to learn more about this time and read stories and diaries of the time as this film has really awoken in me a curiosity about the lives of the slaves and also the slave owners themselves; how did they reconcile themselves with what they did? Did they view the slaves as literal beasts/animals or did they pretend to think this to justify their actions?