Celia, A Slave
In Mclaurin's book "Celia, A Slave," there are moral dilemmas that are inherent in slavery. Slaves were seen to be less than human, and therefore they did not get the same treatment that white people got. Celia, in the book, was accused of murdering her 'master,' and the way that she was treated at her trial (and before, as a slave in the Newsom household) indicates how much corruption is seen in humanity. Slavery is much more complex than many people realize. There are subtleties and issues that belong to it and that plagued both the slaves and their masters. One of these was the ways in which the masters controlled their slaves. Another was how the slaves chose to resist this control. This was a battle that began early on in slavery and did not end until all of the slaves were set free. Because of this, these things was very important to the issue of slavery, but many that are not familiar with the slavery issue do not realize that there are many facets to it, and that control and resistance was a large part of this. Celia did not want to be 'defiled' by the master, and so she fought back and killed him. Naturally, this would have been more understood had she been a white woman, and much easier on her had she been a
There were few ways that the slaves like Celia could resist without a great deal of punishment, but they tried. Many ran away, only to be brought back and punished or killed when they were found. A few did escape to freedom in the North, but there were not many of these. They resisted in their own quiet ways, however. They tried their best to learn to read and to write, and many of them that could read shared the Bible with others. They also sang songs while they worked, and every song was about their pain. They hoped that someone would come along and free them from it, but many realized that they would never be free. This did not stop them from trying to learn and succeed, though, because they felt that their lives were worth more than their masters thought that they were. This helped to control them because they felt that their lives were not worth anything, and that they could never be something more than they were. Another way that they were controlled was by being separated from their families. Most of the slaves were taken away from their wives and husbands, and the children were taken from their parents and sold to other masters. Many never saw each other again. The masters made a strong effort to keep their slaves beaten down. They made them work very long hours and forced them to do hard labor with little food and little rest. Many died, but the ones that survived only grew increasingly more interested in being free and escaping the cruelty that these people heaped upon them. It seemed that control was the most important part of slavery. It was cheap labor, but if the master had no control over his slaves then the work would not get done. To avoid this, he worked his slaves hard so that they did not have the energy to plot anything against him or try to get away. He also made sure that he did his best to make the slaves aware that they had little value as human beings, at least in his eyes. There are still people today, both black and white, that are very bitter about slavery. Many people still are ashamed at the kinds of things that
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Approximate Word count = 1405
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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