What was the reason for the harsh punishment of slaves for minor offenses? (For example, beginning of chapter 3)


Slaves were treated very poorly and back then anything they did was bad, whether it was a major thing or a minor thing. For example, (in the beginning of chapter 3), slaves were never allowed to steal fruit from a garden. The master had a special garden where he grew all his fruits and any slave to tried to steal the fruit was whipped by the chief gardener. For the master to know if the slaves stole fruit, he covered his fences in tar. This made it so that if a slave tried to get any fruit, he would get tar on him and that showed that they were trying to steal fruit. Some masters were nice, and some of them were extremely rude and didn't care about their slaves at all what so ever. In this example, the master is really harsh and will punish the slaves harshly for minor things.
Slaves were supposed to live in poverty, and be workers for the white people. They couldn't own things white people owned, they couldn't do things white people could do. When a black person did anything or had anything a slave wouldn't have, they were punished. No matter what is was they did, they were punished. This was extremely unfair and ridiculous, but that is how some societies were back then.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Importance of Portia's Speech

In Act 4, Scene 1 (pp. 78-79) Portia gives a speech about the mercy vs. justice ("The quality of mercy is not strained..."). Explain what Portia is saying about justice and mercy, and why it is important in the play. In this scene, Portia is talking to Shylock in court dressed as a man, and she starts by saying, “ The quality of mercy is not strained” (Shakespeare, 78-79). In the remainder of this speech, she is saying how mercy is temporal power, and, “An attribute to God himself” (Shakespeare, 79). She is telling Shylock that although he wants justice, he needs to think about the fact that he cannot look for redemption in this. “Though justice be thy plea, consider this: That in the course of justice none of us should see salvation” (Shakespeare, 79). This play is about a Christian and a Jew. In that time period, the Christian would have the upper hand. In this case however, they make a deal that the Christian could not abide to. This gave the Jew the upper hand and h...
Read more

The Merchant of Venice - What is the climax?

    According to the 5-act play structure, the climax or turning point of the play should have happened in the third act. Did it happen? If so, what was it and what central conflict was addressed? If not, discuss the central conflict that has not yet been resolved.     My group acted out and discussed the third act together, and I think we can all agree a lot happened in this act. First off, Bassanio picks the right chest, (with Portia’s help) and wins her hand in marriage. But shortly after, he has to leave for a little bit and Portia says she going to join a coven until he returns, (she is actually going to dress like a man and find some people with Nerissa). Another big thing that happened in this act is Shylock’s daughter Jessica, runs away with her lover and takes a bunch of Shylock’s money and possessions with her. One of the things she took was her mother’s ring, (which Shylock later finds out she traded for a monkey). Something else that happened is the rum...
Read more

Nick Carraway is, “inclined to reserve all judgement”. True or False?

On the first page of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway (who is the narrator of the story) says that he is, “inclined to reserve all judgement”. Whether this is a true statement or not is to be determined. However, as the story has progressed, he seems to not be following his own statement. He has been judging people from the first few pages. For example, on pg. 2, Nick says, “Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him”. “What foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men” (Fitzgerald, 2). There are many more examples I could put in this to explain how he seemed judgemental, but I also think this could just be the way he wrote. He was very poetic, and very serious but blunt. This might be the way Fitzgerald wanted the narrator to be...
Read more