Attitudes toward former slaves after their emancipation?

by AlmostAtheist 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  AlmostAtheist

  I'm not a historian -- nor even "an historian" -- so I'm having trouble figuring out where to start to research this. I'd like to see what was written about former slaves as they were absorbed into the nation as free people. I'm guessing there would be comments about what great workers they are, how honest, how appreciative -- much like the praise allegedly heaped on JW's.

  I wanted to see if there was a correlation between the slave's mentality having been raised as a plantation slave and a JW's mentality having been raised as a Watchtower slave.

  Where do you go to get info like that? Would it even exist?

  Thanks!

  Dave
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  RunningMan

  The idea appears to be broached in the 4th Harry Potter book when Dobbie the house elf was freed and came back to work at Hogwarts. I hope this helps.
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  AlmostAtheist

  Dobbie... Dubbie... Coincidence? I think not!
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  mrsjones5

  Hm what what I have just read (can give the links if you like) I could find no comments about how the blacks were such fine workers and other compliments. Most of what I found was about the gradual emancipation of the slaves and how alot of how Black people were held in various forms of (forced) temporary servitude in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois following the abolition of slavery in that region by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

  Josie
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  GentlyFeral

  Try googling "slave narrative" and "Reconstruction", together.

  Gently Feral
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  mann377

  The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond Va. has the most info on the slavery before, during and after the war. Would it surprise you to know that some slave holders were black and went to the caribean after the war? Its like any situation in that it depends on the type of slave and former slave holder. Some slave holders were fair businessmen and others were animals. Its not uncommon to find antiques in the houses of decendents of slaves. These were given to the former slaves after the war, many years after, as an inheritance. Most slaves stayed on as sharecropers because they did not know what to do with their new found freedom. To this day many in the south celebrate "Junteenth" as a day of emancipation. To draw a parallel with the witnesses that leave the plantation of the WTBS would be difficult at best. Its more like the underground railroad (determinded, scared, overjoyed in the end!)
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  FlyingHighNow

  Just be sure to get information from several sources, there is a lot skewed/biased information out there about the War Between The States and Reconstruction.
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  freedomlover

  I had a little different spin on this subject but it reminded me of it when you brought this thread up.....

  I have so much trouble with the dfing/shunning thing that witnesses do to their own flesh and blood. I understand the rationale. I was there once. However, I find it truly intriguing how much people can justify and condone such wrong actions. Then I tried to think of other past historical examples of extreme mistreatment of other people and I thought of the history or slavery in this country and the horrors of the holocaust. I look at those examples, and I remember reading about them in school and I remember thinking to myself that I could never do that to other people. I like to think that I'd be part of the underground railroad or something like that!

  I know the suffering and abuse that people can suffer from being cut off from family. We've all read the horrors of slavery and the holocaust. What I find fascinating is the seeming ease that the human mind has in being told it's okay to mistreat, torture, maim, and even kill other human beings.

  Kind of makes me less angry at those who don't see the injustice of DFing/shunning. Humans have a history of ACCEPTING injustice of other humans. Sad, Sad, Sad........