Summary: A Slave Occupation As A Slave

One thing that stood out in the reading was that there was a slave occupation as the slave driver. This makes me wonder how the other slaves perceive these slave drivers; traitors or selfish? I also wonder if they were picked for the job or they asked for it, which makes me think that these slave drivers only thought about themselves and they are willing to hurt other slaves to avoid working or getting hurt themselves. In the reading, West Turner stated, “Ole Gabe didn’t like that whippin’ business. When Marsa was there, he would lay it on ‘cause he had to. But when old Marsa wasn’t lookin’ he never would beat them slaves.” This statement makes it seem they were picked for the job or maybe, perhaps, others picked the job to make their lives easier. There are many speculations on how they came upon the job but, in my opinion, it is worthy of a discussion. …show more content…
On Chapter 3 it stated, “Poor white farmers enjoyed the privileges of free status. They could get married, have families and bequeath their property and their freedom to their descendants… These privileges of freedom - none of them possessed by the slaves – made lesser white folk feel they had a genuine stake in the existence of slavery, even if they did not own a single slave.” Does this mean the slaves are somewhat free? Did these “paternalistic” views of white men set one of the foundations to slaves in the South to long for freedom? There is no doubt that these speculations has captured my attention and would a great