The sixth chapter of Soul by Soul really enlightened me about the amount of sheer complexity that surrounded the selling of a slave. Before reading this chapter, I viewed this process as one-sided and never really stopped to analyze the role slaves could play in their own commodification. In addition, buyers and sellers manipulated one another to make a financial gain. The activities that took place in a slave pen were a performance by everyone involved. Traders carefully mapped out a slave’s performance, but the slaves held some power as well in this environment by choosing how to portray themselves while being examined. Johnson states, “slaves in the market were in the position to…subvert to the traders’ elaborate presentations by bending buyers’ perceptions around their own purposes” (Johnson 164).
Slaves did not always remain passive and subservient in the slave trading process. They possessed the means to analyze the potential advantages and disadvantages of particular slave buyers and the ability to react accordingly. In this way, slaves could plot out and possibly choose their future lives. On occasion, owners would converse with the slaves or in front of the slaves and this could reveal the buyer’s criteria and could allow slaves to establish “an informed eye to their own future” (Johnson 171). These owners would employ a variety of methods, such as threats and discipline, in order to gain the trust of the slave, facilitate discussions with the slave, and intimidate the slave. Slave dealers frequently exercised their ultimate control over the slave trade by taking slaves on test runs, during which time the owner could decide whether or not to retain rights to the slaves in question. Slaves could express their feelings about prospective purchasers and could beg for their new masters to buy the remaining members of their family, but ultimately, the owners held the ultimate power in this situation.
By placing myself first-hand into the role of both the slave and owner during the Antebellum period, I identified a few different tactics that I would employ in the slave market beyond those displayed by both owners and slaves in Soul by Soul. When I pondered these techniques, I wondered if they were utilized at all during this period and how effective they may have been. For instance, did slave owners ever bribe slaves or even free blacks to find out the history and truth about other slaves in the slave pen? Were slave owners ever able to exploit “the relaxed [period] between when the last buyer left the yard at six o’clock and the time the slaves went to bed at ten o’clock” (Johnson 170)? Personally, if I were a slave and a potential buyer approached me with the intention to buy me and I was not fond of his personality, I would yell obscenities and utter negative characteristics about myself. Also, since the number of scars on a slave could reveal his disobedience, did a delicate equilibrium exist between punishing slaves and keeping their physical appearances in check? Essentially, slave trading was a complex ordeal full of trickery and deceptions in which slaves did hold some amount of power. The ways in which this power was exerted and how effective it was varied, but it still operated as one of the early means of hearing and discovering the African perspective in American history.
I had the same reaction when I read the 6th chapter, as well. The whole concept of commodification would seem very straightforward and impersonal, but when dealing with the commodification of human beings it becomes increasingly complicated. Slaves were property, commodities that were bought and sold in a market – but they were also human. They still had the ability to choose what actions to take, within certain limits. The commodity could act out, talk back, and influence their value, unlike inanimate commodities. I think it's interesting to think about the “delicate equilibrium” of punishment to excess – I had never considered that outward appearances (like scars or physical characteristics) could be seen as an indication of the slave’s willingness or unwillingness to be subservient to his/her master. In reading "Soul by Soul," and many of the texts we've read for class, I never thought to attempt to put myself into a slaveowners' shoes, to try and think like a buyer rather than like the slave being bought. It's also interesting to consider the power that the slaves did have, regardless of whether or not they had very much of it, since before this class I had naively assumed that the majority of slaves just accepted their lot as someone else's property.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that slaves learned to manipulate the process of being sold in slave pens is an idea I never thought of. Slaves were able to display themselves as commodities while really having their best interest at heart. While on display, Slaves were able to size up slave holders and manipulate their looks and features in order to portray a desirable or undesirable feature. Slave holders associated slave’s physical features with the mental capacities and character qualities of slaves and slaves listened to the conversations of slave holders to understand what work they would be doing.
ReplyDeleteBut I think we also have to note the importance of the Traders role in a majority of the buying and selling of slaves. Traders were able to create elaborate descriptions of slaves that made them more appealing. Traders exploited this market and made even sick slaves seem desirable. This whole concept is so convoluted and twisted. It is something that you really never think about until you are exposed to both sides of the buying and selling of slaves.
Going off of what Hana and Meredith said, I never realized slaves had a hand in their own fate. I don't think they had the ability to plot out their own lives, though. While they could make themselves less desirable with their actions and their attitudes, I think the decision was ultimately up to the slave holders and buyers. In "Soul by Soul" Johnson talks about the lengths traders would go to in order to sell their slaves. Not only does he describe the stories they told, but they also brought doctors to the pens to prove the slaves health and they gave them nicer clothes and baths to make them look more desirable. Slaves were "advertised by their sex, racial designation, age, and skill."(138) If a slave owner wanted someone of a certain criteria, they were going to find a slave that fit the bill.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time realizing that slaves could play a role in the slave trade as well. I also agree with Amanda's comment because the slave master did hold the ULTIMATE decision of whether a slave would be sold or not. But to know that the slave were taking some initial action in attempting to alter the masters' decisions proves that they possessed the capacity to reason and use context clues to figure out certain situations. With these skills, the slaves were able to formulate particular strategies to use to their own advantage.
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