Debasement In Slavery

During the slavery era, the black body was subjected to the debasement of the Europeans to justify their inhumane treatment and discrimination of them. For example, they regarded their hair in a derogatory manner as “wooly” to convince Europeans that they were on the bottom of the evolutionary ladder (Byrd and Tharps, 14). When slavery was abolished, blacks were still targeted as the savages of society, while the white men were presented as the civilized beings. This was repeatedly shown in advertisements, and other examples like The Freak Shows at Coney Island. They were important to the idea of the abnormal black body because “they served to institutionalize notions of disability as the ultimate deviance—thus solidifying Americans’ needs …show more content…
Black women who were of lighter-skinned were located inside the homes while the ones with darker skin were casted to the fields. This was because they were more closely associated to the Europeans. When lice and ringworm infestation broke out in the slave population, they started using rags to cover their bald, badly scabbed heads. They got these fabrics from their masters, and part of the reason it was given to them was to have some form of protection from the scorching sun, and the other to have their unsightly hair hidden. As for the women who resided indoors, they often imitated their white owners fashion so they would appear more tidy like them (13). European people often debased black women their wooly hair because they were akin to the likes of animals, and were also able to justify their inhumane treatment of blacks. They routinely convinced the blacks that everything about them were inferior, and thus were able to effectively control them. The blacks would then pass on these internalized notions to their children, and then most of them will accept it as normal (14). After the civil war, the emergence of the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction period occurred in 1877, but southern whites created Jim Crow and other laws to restrict the rights of blacks, and to separate them from the whites legally. Even Plessy vs. …show more content…
Another important source of the promotion of the freaks were Pre- and post-Darwinian discussions about the similarities between humans and different kinds of apes. Natural scientists were even involved in reinforcing the authenticity of the freaks being exhibited. Some that were displayed as freaks were from western society, but many of them were born in non-western countries as well. The ones casted to the exotic title were mostly blacks (Tomson 32). What made these people be considered freaks was the “racist presentations of them and their culture by promoters” (29). For example, Sara Baartman, or “The Hottentot Venus”, was a typical Khoisan woman from South Africa that gained fame from her distinctive buttocks. This further reinforced the notion that blacks were sexual deviants, as shown in the Tuskegee study. “Zip the Pinhead” was characterized as the “missing link” from apes, emphasizing the notion that they were not necessarily humans. As for “The ugliest Woman in the World”, it convinced the audience that their different features were ugly, and that European standards were the best. Basically, Freak Show was a way for Whites to examine their notion about African-Americans, and the physical attractiveness of the presentations allowed audiences to feel justified for doing so (30). This would lead to