Andrew Green
11/6/2014
HIST 105
Reaction paper #3
greal-17@rhodes.edu
The Slave Pen
The
readings from soul by soul and African Slavery focused on the slave
pen. There were three major players: the traders, the buyers, and the slaves.
Traders and buyers used slaves to achieve their means, whether it was making
money or achieving a certain type of lifestyle or reputation. Traders wanted to
make money and buyers used slaves to fulfill elaborate fantasies that affirmed
the character they wanted to portray. Traders wanted to get their slaves sold
by any means necessary. They lied about age, health, and their skills.
Slaveholders used slaves to extend their reputations as doctors, slave
breakers, or paternalist masters.
Slaves were in the middle of bargains between traders and slaveholders.
They were used by traders to affirm that that they were younger, healthier, or
more skilled than they actually were. Buyers stripped slaves and asked
questions in order to find out if slaves were actually healthy or if there were
any flaws that could reduce their price.
Traders
dressed up the slaves that they were trying to sell in order to make them look
better and to hide any health problems. Suits would hide the signs that a male
slave is sick or had diseases. Suits hid blisters from disease or could make a
slave look bigger and healthier than he actually was. Long dresses also hid
signs that a female slave had a STD or disease by hiding blisters or tumors.
Traders
required their slaves to be trim, stand straight, and answer questions quickly
in order to induce buyers to buy them.[1]
Slaves were sold based on their size, skin color, or dress. Traders would sell
big, stout males as field hands who could help clear land and do other hard
manual labor out west. Stout female slaves would be sold as breeders. Light-skinned
slaves would be sold as domestic servants and were dressed accordingly. Charles
Ball was worth a thousand dollars for a slave owner clearing a plantation
because of his size. John Parker figured he would be a house slave because he
was dressed better than the other slaves. Henry Bibb was told to act stupid
because light-skinned slaves were said to be smart and runaway risks.[2]
Traders
also controlled the way slaves could act around slave buyers. They were
required to tell lies or act stupid in order to influence a sale. Slaves had to
lie about sicknesses or skills. Slaves had to lie about being a cook, how they
got their scars, or how old they were. Lying about scars hid information from
buyers like if the slave was a runaway or would be a bad influence on the
buyers’ other slaves.[3]
Slaveholders
bought slaves for many reasons. Men like John M. Tibeats wanted the full
privileges of being a white man. He acquired a slave in order to become a true
southern white man. He hoped his newly acquired slave would get him the respect
he sought from his peers, women, and slaves alike.[4]
Other slaveholders used slaves achieve a lifestyle. Women and men would
daydream about using slaves to reduce the physical strain on white women. Slaves
saved women from the strain of raising children. Slaves also saved them from
laboring outside in the hot sun. Men and women bought slaves to either achieve
a lifestyle of independence or start a big plantation.
White
men used slaves to affirm their character by being caring masters, good slave
breakers, or good doctors. Paternalistic slaveholders used their slaves to be seen
as good men and caring masters who sought to reunite family members and
spouses. Slave breakers used this status to get free labor on their plantations
while also crushing the soul of the slaves in their control. Doctors used slave
bodies to affirm their status. They sought respect from being able to heal sick
or dying slaves; which would save buyers thousands of dollars.
Southern
white men got status and respect from other men through their slaves.
Non-slaveholding white men were on the margins of society.[5]
Since slaves usually cost thousands of dollars, large plantations meant that
you were rich. Slaves gave southern white men respect and immense pride. On a
boat J.B. Alexander received respect and made new friends through his
discussion about slaves and being a player in the slave market.[6]
Alexander was so proud to be a slave owner that he could not resist telling
everyone he came into contact with about his slave even though he was sold a
dying slave.
Slaves
were placed in the most precarious position of all the players in the slave
market. They had to watch out for the traders as well the slave buyers. They
almost always faced punishment for lying or telling the truth to a slaveholder.
If a slave told the truth about a defect and cost the slave trader money, he
faced punishment. If a slave lied about a defect or skill in order to be sold
he faced punishment down the road soon as the new master learned of the defect
or found out that he did not have that said skill. [7]
During
sale slaves were subject to humiliating abuses. They had to almost become
detached from their bodies. They were stripped, poked, and prodded in order for
slave buyers to get information about their health or abilities. Because
traders lied, slaves had to give accounts of their lives such as how long they
were with certain masters or how and why they got scars or deformities.
Slaves
soon found out that they had to rely on their own judgments and each other in
order to survive in the slave market. Slaves, like the slave owner who judged
them, would judge the faces of potential owners in order to ascertain if they
were good men. Slaves based their behaviors on potential masters. If a slave
liked a master, they would act respectful and alert hoping they would be
bought. If a slave did not a master they would sabotage the sale by acting slow
or unruly.
Thanks
to the redhibition process, slaves had more information on a buyer than the
buyer had on them. If a man were known for returning slaves, the returned
slaves would tell everyone about the man. Returned slaves would tell what their
old master was like and what he expected. This sharing of information gave
slaves the power to choose their masters. Slaves would sabotage sales to evil
or hard-driving master while enhancing their qualities and attitude in order to
be sold to good masters.
The
slave market was a place that marked changes for slaves, traders, and buyers.
Slaves would receive new owners and homes, traders would make money, and buyers
would fulfill a fantasy. Traders and buyers used slaves to get rich. Traders
got rich from selling the slave while masters got rich from the production of
the slave or because the slaves enhanced their reputation. Slaves’ only power
came from choosing their masters and deciding whether or not they would work.
If a slave did not like their master they could run away, commit suicide, or
entice their masters to sell them because they were more trouble than their
worth.
[1]Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The
Antebellum Slave Market. Page 163
[2] Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The
Antebellum Slave Market. Page 164
[3] Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The
Antebellum Slave Market. Page 174
[4]Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The
Antebellum Slave Market. Page 80
[5] Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The
Antebellum Slave Market. Page 80
[6] Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The Antebellum
Slave Market. Page199-201
[7] Johnson,
Walter Soul by Soul: Life Inside The
Antebellum Slave Market. Page 193
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