In recent years, there’s been a lot of discussion about the portrayal of slavery in modern history books, particularly those labeled as “woke.” Some argue that these accounts exaggerate the conditions and impacts of slavery.
I’m looking for a well-rounded, evidence-based perspective on this topic. How do modern portrayals of slavery compare with historical evidence? Are there any significant discrepancies or common misconceptions in how slavery is represented today? What primary sources or historical records can help provide a clearer understanding of the realities of slavery?
Those woke history books, the ones they have you read in schools, are actually bullshit for the most part.
They leave out a lot of things. Slavery in the United States was way worse than what you read in them books.
Imagine being born a black kid around that time.
You’d have no idea the hell that awaited you.
Maybe you’re lucky enough to be born on a small plantation, a few dozen slaves instead of a few hundred.
Still ain’t no picnic, mind you.
But at least you might be treated like, I don’t know, a farm animal instead of a wild one. Fed enough to work, maybe even patched up when you get sick or hurt.
It’s a long shot, but there’s a chance you could make it to old age, wrinkled and worn out but still breathing.
Now, if you’re unlucky enough to be born on one of those big plantations, the kind with hundreds of slaves, well you’re in deep shit.
You’re not a person there, not even an animal.
You’re a tool, a piece of machinery that needs to be maintained just enough to keep it running.
You’ll work from sunrise to sunset, maybe even longer if the master’s feeling generous.
You’ll eat slop that would make a hog puke, sleep on a dirt floor, and get whipped for the slightest infraction.
And the beatings… Jesus, the beatings. They weren’t just punishments, they were sport.
The masters, the overseers, even the other slaves would join in, taking turns laying into you with whips, clubs, anything they could get their hands on.
They’d break your bones, tear your flesh, leave you bleeding and begging for mercy. And when you finally collapsed, unable to take another blow, they’d leave you to die, your body a mangled mess.
And the women… the women had it even worse.
Not only did they suffer the same backbreaking labor and brutal punishments as the men, but they were also subjected to the constant threat of sexual violence.
The masters would rape them at will, sometimes in front of their husbands or children.
They’d father children with them, then sell those children off as if they were livestock.
There’s even accounts of groups slave owners gangraping black girls as young as five years old.
The psychological toll of slavery was just as devastating as the physical one.
The slaves were stripped of their identities, their families, their culture. They were reduced to nothing more than property, their lives completely at the mercy of their masters.
The constant fear, the humiliation, the hopelessness… it’s no wonder so many slaves took their own lives.
The vast majority of slaves lived a life of unimaginable misery. And even the “kind” masters were still complicit in a system that was fundamentally evil.
So yeah, slavery was way worse than that woke nonsense.