Ex-Slave George Johnson | "Confederate President Jefferson Davis was my master."

One of the books that really impacted my thinking while growing up was the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I had always loved history, especially reading about presidents and war. For a 13 year old kid, it messed up my view of what we learned in history class and what wasn't written.

I'm sure the day will come when all classes play these accounts and give it the rich context it deserves. An awfully weird remark, given that we've celebrated Black History Month since before I was born.

If anyone cares, the other book I remember hit me as hard was when I read 1984 at 15, which might explain how I think about things on here.

Anyways, his interview was interesting in that Jefferson taught his slaves to run his multi-plantation business. His father even got a contract to run a ranch, though the comments said he lost control when disaster struck.

It makes me think of a topic on here when a poster mentioned a counter-factual theory of "if the South abolished slavery on its own." The premise was that if the South never faced the ravages of war and ended slavery without malice, then freed blacks would've ended up in a less hostile environment...whatever etc, etc.

So what if Sherman didn't leave a trail of destruction in the south and set its economy back by half a century? Instead of only freeing slaves and the former owners washing their hands of any responsibility, what if it was law for them to be incorporated into white families? Sounds inhuman to maintain that the oppressed be forced to stay with their abusive captors, but many of the freed slaves became free by title, while becoming dirt poor indentured servants in reality. It's something that popped up when hearing Davis taught and educated his slaves with business and industry. It was neither an act of altruism or trust, but more necessity and likely frugality (gotta pay white work).

In this case, the North was the oppressor and could order the south to do whatever they wanted. The former slaves and former owners already lived together like a family (a horribly f'd up one), so the ostensible goal would be for the white family not to lose their labor and for them to upskill their new black members of the family. What would be most resisted would be the implications over estate ownership. Mandates would be given for training and the carrot would be that the family head would retain control and headcount
(votes). There would also be an option for individuals to leave and change their name.

I dunno it sounds ****ed up and offensive on the surface, but might've ended up a more gentile landing compared to the **** that happened 150 years afterwards. Too bad I don't have a time machine to run sociopathic thought experiments.

 

There is a documentary somewhere where there is recorded audio of former slave testimony

 

It's interesting to hear this. Obviously there were slave owners that were "good people". Thomas Jefferson. That being said, I'm sure there were tons of slave owners that were horrible people and the people that were involved in the trade were horrible people.

Kind of like, I'm sure there are good pimps and madams that do protect their whores. For each one of them, there are probably 20 that don't give a ****.

 

Read Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember it’s a bit hard to read because of the language these former slaves used and the direct transcription of how they spoke but it’s as real as it gets.

 

I found the book Barracoon fascinating: ZNH interviewed the last surviving trans-Atlantic slave. Highly recommend.