Friday, September 21, 2012
Frederick Douglass And Modern
Slavery
Chris Sullivan
Drapetomania was a supposed mental disorder that caused slaves to run
away from their masters. Anyone paying attention to the emigration of
many Americans to freer countries might think that drapetomania is
striking the wealthier classes.
A man who knew something about drapetomania -- in fact he had it, even if
undiagnosed -- was Frederick Douglass. After his escape he wrote a short
autobiography titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave. His narrative is of interest not just because of its
first hand account of slavery, but because of the insights he relates
that are applicable to many people today.
Many people realize that the government they live under is a criminal
organization, but will jump to its defense when some foreigner criticizes
the actions or policies of their government.
Douglass relates how slaves would argue about whose master was greatest
even though they might hate their master.
"The same traits of character might be seen in Colonel Lloyd's
slaves, as are seen in the slaves of the political parties..... Indeed,
it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among
themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending
for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others. At the very
same time, they mutually execrate their masters when viewed separately.
It was so on our plantation. When Colonel Lloyd's slaves met the slaves
of Jacob Jepson, they seldom parted without a quarrel about their
masters; Colonel Lloyd's slaves contending that he was the richest, and
Mr. Jepson's slaves that he was the smartest, and most of a man. Colonel
Lloyd's slaves would boast his ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson. Mr.
Jepson's slaves would boast his ability to whip Colonel Lloyd. These
quarrels would almost always end in a fight between the parties, and
those that whipped were supposed to have gained the point at issue. They
seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to
themselves. It was considered as being bad enough to be a slave; but to
be a poor man's slave was deemed a disgrace indeed!"
The issue of transferability is evident in people bragging about
their country, school or football team as though they are bathed in some
kind of reflected glory from the entity in question.
An incident that illustrates how slave owners and governments can brook
no disobedience is related in the account of the murder of a slave named
Demby. Mr Gore, the overseer, shot Demby in the head for
disobedience.
"He was asked by Colonel Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted
to this extraordinary expedient. His reply was, (as well as I can
remember,) that Demby had become unmanageable. He was setting a dangerous
example to the other slaves,-one which, if suffered to pass without some
such demonstration on his part, would finally lead to the total
subversion of all rule and order upon the plantation."
This is probably why dissidents such as Sophie Scholl, Cardinal
Mindszenty and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are celebrated here, but indigenous
protesters or dissidents are not.
Learning to read was viewed by Douglass as the road to freedom, but
government schools have blunted the efficacy of this for many people by
teaching them very early lots of erroneous or incomplete
information.
"Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very
kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she
assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at
this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at
once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other
things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to
read....I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing
difficulty-to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was
a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I
understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I
wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was
saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was
gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I
had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning
without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at
whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read."
Government schooling is probably the greatest mechanism of control
yet discovered. It is the modern equivalent of enforced illiteracy.
Reading is fine as long as you don't read the wrong things. This is why
the internet is a lethal menace to government's organized ignorance.
Almost everyone has heard the phrase "bread and circuses" to
describe the method used by Rome to keep the populace pacified, but it
works in almost any setting and with any people.
"This will be seen by the fact, that the slaveholders like to
have their slaves spend those [holi]days just in such a manner as
to make them as glad of their ending as of their beginning. Their object
seems to be, to disgust their slaves with freedom, by plunging them into
the lowest depths of dissipation. For instance, the slaveholders not only
like to see the slave drink of his own accord, but will adopt various
plans to make him drunk. One plan is, to make bets on their slaves, as to
who can drink the most whisky without getting drunk; and in this way they
succeed in getting whole multitudes to drink to excess. Thus, when the
slave asks for virtuous freedom, the cunning slaveholder, knowing his
ignorance, cheats him with a dose of vicious dissipation, artfully
labelled with the name of liberty. The most of us used to drink it down,
and the result was just what might be supposed; many of us were led to
think that there was little to choose between liberty and slavery. We
felt, and very properly too, that we had almost as well be slaves to man
as to rum. So, when the holidays ended, we staggered up from the filth of
our wallowing, took a long breath, and marched to the field,-feeling,
upon the whole, rather glad to go, from what our master had deceived us
into a belief was freedom, back to the arms of slavery."
When someone tries to keep the fruits of his labor or escape
government control, he is denounced as a "tax cheat" or just an
over all ungrateful traitor, the same as with a slave who tries
unsuccessfully to escape. Douglass attempted an escape with some other
slaves, but was thwarted because of someone reporting the plan. In
typical fashion, he was the bad guy for not appreciating his station in
life.
"... Betsy Freeland, mother of William Freeland, came to
the door with her hands full of biscuits, and divided them between Henry
and John. She then delivered herself of a speech, to the following
effect:-addressing herself to me, she said, "~You devil! You yellow
devil!~ it was you that put it into the heads of Henry and John to run
away. But for you, you long-legged mulatto devil! Henry nor John would
never have thought of such a thing." I made no reply, and was
immediately hurried off towards St. Michael's."
While still a slave, Douglass had a lesson in income taxation. He had
learned the trade of caulking ships and was working in a shipyard making
six to nine dollars a week. His master imposed a 99 percent tax on his
wages.
"I was now getting, as I have said, one dollar and fifty cents
per day. I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was
rightfully my own; yet, upon each returning Saturday night, I was
compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why?
Not because he earned it,-not because he had any hand in earning it,-not
because I owed it to him,-nor because he possessed the slightest shadow
of a right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to
give it up. The right of the grim-visaged pirate upon the high seas is
exactly the same."
Later on he says that he was sometimes given six cents out of the six
dollars, so he wasn't taxed at 100 percent. He might also have been
reminded of all the services and conveniences and freedom that were being
provided by his master. After his escape, he got a job and describes the
satisfaction of how it felt to keep all his earnings,
something modern slaves aren't allowed to do.
"It was the first work, the reward of which was to be entirely my
own. There was no Master Hugh standing ready, the moment I earned the
money, to rob me of it. I worked that day with a pleasure I had never
before experienced."
There are lots of books and articles about how to flee the country,
get your assets out and where to settle in relative peace and freedom,
but one thing hard to overcome even if you have the means to leave, is
family and friends.
"It is my opinion that thousands would escape from slavery, who
now remain, but for the strong cords of affection that bind them to their
friends. The thought of leaving my friends was decidedly the most painful
thought with which I had to contend. The love of them was my tender
point, and shook my decision more than all things else"
A man writing in 1845 was obviously not writing for readers of today,
but many of the same dilemmas are confronted by modern people who are
trying to get from under the oppressor's boot.
A man like Douglass could not have imagined the degree of control imposed
by modern governments. It's not too far-fetched to see the day when
paychecks will be direct-deposited to the IRS, and producers sent the
balance by the IRS. Or maybe all debits would be handled by the IRS and
anything they didn't approve of would be disallowed. This would make it
difficult for modern slaves to flee if they should contract
drapetomania.
http://differentbugle.blogspot.com/2012/09/frederick-douglass-and-modern-slavery.html
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