The “Bright Side” of slavery looks to me like a very narrowly focused argument that is probably true in detail but fails in the broad picture when applied to this side of the Atlantic. The means by which Africans were first put onto the path to slavery in the Americas is the narrow truth. Capture during war, capture during raids, absolute disregard for life, much less anything else, ripping apart families, etc, etc., those were the sunny side of life as espoused by the apologists. And by that very narrow sense, slavery in North America was thought better than what they would have faced in Africa. In the 13 colonies, the argument was that slaves had 3 squares a day, clothing, housing, and as long as they worked and stayed within the laws, they were better off than they would have been in Africa. And of course, not mentioning the other enormous moral transgressions of slavery. The small truth hides the greater lie. In the colonies, people could advance according to their means and abilities. That stopped at the door of slavery. People are capable of enormous rationalizations is all that needs to be said.
Lyle Browning, RPA
> On Aug 14, 2023, at 3:36 PM, Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I often read descriptions of slavery that include the words rape and whipping that one can easily recognize as horrible. But one less often hears about the fact that enslaved people were chattel property. Their relations with all members of society were that of another person's property. They were not John Smith or Mary Jones but rather John, the property of neighbor Frank Smith; and Mary, the property of neighbor James Jones. (And, of course, their "owners'" property rights overrode their family connections.) This is a fact that is not so easy to conceptualize but far worse than any beating. And that relationship with members of their society would not miraculously disappear upon the proclamation of Emancipation or amendments to the Constitution.
> Paul Heinegg
>
> On 8/13/2023 1:19 PM, T. GRAY wrote:
>> Yes….. Respectfully, I find it hard to believe that any learned individual could entertain the thought that enslaved persons found slavery having advantages.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Aug 9, 2023, at 12:19 PM, Crawford, Greg (LVA) <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> The short answer to your question is yes. The 11th-grade public school textbook, “Cavalier Commonwealth: History and Government of Virginia” taught that being enslaved had its advantages and proceeded to list what those advantages were and summed it up by saying "the slave enjoyed what we might call comprehensive social security."
>>>
>>> LVA posted a blog on this topic about the origins of how slavery was taught in 20th century Virginia history text books.
>>>
>>> https://uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2022/09/14/the-measuring-rod-for-southern-history/
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>> Greg Crawford
>>>
>>> State Archivist and Director of Government Records Services
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Meyers, Terry L <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 9, 2023 9:54 AM
>>> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: [VA-HIST] The "Bright Side" of Slavery?
>>>
>>> ChatGPT on the Florida controversy:
>>>
>>> https://chat.openai.com/share/455d6d14-43b7-48f2-9736-8e8f8b526909
>>>
>>> John Lesslie Hall, one of my predecessors at W&M, explored what he called “the bright side of slavery”(without even ChatGPT’s attempts at contextualizing):
>>>
>>> No agricultural laborer has ever had food so nutritious and so plentiful as the plantation negro. He had, as a rule, a kind and considerate master, self-interest and humanity combining to make his master feed him plentifully, clothe him comfortably, see that he was not overworked, and look after him in sickness. His working days were from two to four hours shorter than those of European laborers. (p. 131)
>>>
>>> from: Half-Hours in Southern History (1907):
>>>
>>> https://ia800207.us.archive.org/13/items/halfhoursinsouth01hall/halfhoursinsouth01hall.pdf
>>>
>>> Hall goes on to quote an English historian, Percy Greg, to the effect that “the Southern negro was the happiest agricultural labor in the world,” benefiting from "the vigilant supervision of Anglo-Saxon intelligence, methods, and science” (pp. 133,134).
>>>
>>> Were the history textbooks in Virginia schools this extreme?
>>>
>>> My recollection of the presentation of slavery in 7th grade in a Chicago suburb and then in high school (late 50’s, early 60s) in a Maryland suburb of D.C. is that it was perfunctory at best, with a dry focus on the triangular trade. In music class alone I got a vague sense of suffering as we learned and sang spirituals, but overall slavery didn’t figure much in the school lessons.
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Terry L. Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, Emeritus, The College of William and Mary, in Virginia, Williamsburg 23187
>>>
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