Was Slavery Unjust?

Stories of the ex-slaves are full of “unexpected details, unspoken feelings, and hidden meanings”. Nevertheless, what they were principally about the brutalities all of them experienced being under slavery. These are the stories of people who lived their lives with the perception of being unworthy and obeying white supremacy as a law. The 2,300 ex-slaves who were interviewed in the “frames” of the WPA project have a lot in common with their stories. (al.) They mainly speak about religion, gender elations, material life, slave-master relations and other aspects. Stories of what was like being black in the South, and what a black person had to do in order to survive and protect his right to live on this land. Was slavery unjust? Yes, very much …show more content…
The mentioned above Works Project Administration (WPA) had the goal of stimulating the economy of the country and providing work for people on relief. The Federal Writer’s Project (FWP) was designed as a branch of the WPA. The FWP’s main directivity was the history of the United States of America made on the biases of oral stories of the eyewitnesses. It was made by a group of scholars, artists, and writers on relief who interviewed different people along the country making historical interviews. It is necessary to mention that all these interviews were made throughout 1936-1940 and most of the people who could remember the terrible period of slavery were around 80. What these interviews describe is the respondent’s education, political views, religion, needs, observations, historical events he can share the impressions about. These interviews are nowadays known as WPA interviews and are highly valuable for any person who has the aim to examine the life of slaves during that period and to analyze different aspects of their life. Obviously, the majority of the interviews concerning the slave-issue were carried out by people living in the southern states of America that is to say, with those who used to be slaves. Most of the slaves talked about their owners, the way they treated them and it did to their …show more content…
The first thing Walter remembers is being purchased as a slave by John Calloway. John Calloway took the family to the plantation that was situated 10 several miles of Montgomery in Alabama. The life of the family was very hard there; it is necessary to say that at the age of 10 any of his attempts to evade the work that caused too much pain for him resulted in a punishment. That was the reason it was better not even to say a word against the master’s will. The most ordinary punishment for black people not obeying were whippings and the most awful thing about it was that white overseer never did it themselves but always had another black slave to do it. In other words, that made one brother whip another brother. “One thirteen-year-old girl was whipped almost to death…” (Scott)– he recalls still experiencing shock and pain in his mind. Sometimes dogs, depending on the will of their master, first chased and then murdered the slaves. Therefore, underlining the “awful” treatment that the slaves endured on the plantation to which they worked. The punishments the slaves received seemed to be not punishments at all, but pure mockery. Not to mention, including humiliation and severe beatings. For every small misdeed slaves were always punished without any exceptions. The slaves who spied for the master had some privileges, as to be in favor with the master. By spying, the only aim they