Young Writers Society

Note: I despise slavery. I also despise my slave-owning ancestors. We've lived in Tennessee for generations.

As @IvoryRose said, it was very brave of you to go out on a limb and take up the "Southern aristocrat" view of slavery. As such, rather than argue of fight slavery, I'll be focusing on how well-written and organized this is.

You've done an excellent job of explaining how slave owners and other pro-slavery people felt about slavery. You've strengthened their arguments with Christian beliefs and built it around the basis that there were (and actually still are) pro-slavery Christians.

Throughout my political campaign, I have sought to be honest with you, fellow men and women. I have strived to clear any misunderstandings and false rumors that have circulated by means of those who oppose my possible election, and now I am seeking to put to rest a diseased idea: that I offer up opposition to slavery.

It is interesting that you decided to go with the south's perspective instead of the usual slave's point of view. In fact, I think it was pretty brave of you considering the fact that there's always that one person who refuses to believe that it was a normal part of life back then. However,that's a topic for another day. A strong point about the article is that the main character is shown as a human. Although,I agree that slavery is one of the worst things in American history *cough cough world history cough *. I also disagree with showing these people as devils because OMG a slave owner back then was super rare. It was a common practice and many of these people were raised to believe that it was right. Mark Twain thought slavery was fine,until he met one and started asking himself "Is it right?" Hypercritical people are another example that is rarely brought up. The people that were against it would by products made by slaves. Which begged the question are you any better? Personally,I thought it was interesting and deep. You should slavery as a negative thing that people weren't so sure about. Brought up the question of who's the real primitive beings without saying what was said before and with out showing the people of are past as demonic butt holes. I'll probably check out more of your writing after this.
~Ivory Rose

Hi there!

So wow, yikes, I'm glad you said right in your author's note that this was an assignment and that it in no way reflects your views on slavery. Otherwise I would be incredibly concerned, because this felt very real.

The first thing I'm going to do is contradict MJ a bit. While slaves were legally objects, few people denied they were living things. White people didn't act like they thought slaves were akin to a lamp or other inanimate object - but (pro- or anti-slavery, no matter) they did think black people were simplistic and childlike, "primitive," to use the narrator's word (a common word used to describe anyone who wasn't white back then, really), at best, more akin to animals than people at worst. (They were treated an awful lot like livestock, especially those who worked in the fields and those at auction.) You're all right there in terms of authenticity.

On that note, you also captured the accurate - highly flawed and intensely creepy and hateful, but accurate - thought that many pro-slavery white people had that being slaves was actually somehow good for black people. "Oh, they're so primitive, we're just enslaving them and forbidding them to learn to read so they can become civilized."

What? But that's totally how people thought - plus many people erroneously used the Bible to defend slavery or even explain why it was God's will, the "natural order" of things, the way things were supposed to be.

I also like that you made this particular slaveholder someone who claimed not to condone beating slaves - people sometimes think that because a slaveholder was "kind" to their slaves, that was okay, or at least okay by the standards back then. But...that person still owned people. And I think you kind of remind us that here, that just because a person is "kind" to their slaves doesn't make them any less wrong/misguided/frankly horrifying.

(see also: people who freed their slaves in their wills, i.e. once they were dead and didn't need slaves anymore)

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I also find parallels between this speech and some of the things happening today. "Well, if we don't exploit people, we can't possibly have these products or turn a profit!" even though through history there are countless counterexamples. "Make America strong again!" So I don't know if you actually had today's politics in mind while you wrote this or if there just happen to be parallels because there actually are parallels, but I think that made it even more cringeworthy and powerful.

Cringeworthy as, like, a compliment here. As you say, there's no good way to justify slavery...because it's bad, period, end of story. Based on my prior knowledge of American slavery and the various movies I've seen and books I've read where there was any insight into a pro-slavery perspective, I think you've done a great job showing the frighteningly flawed thinking people used to explain why owning people was fine and dandy.

May I ask, were you assigned specifically to write from the Southern perspective? Or did you decide to? And if you did decide to, why?

Hey there! MJ stopping by for a review brought to you by RevMo. Without further ado, my thoughts.

It is not cruelty as humanity, but ingenuity as a people that has brought such an idea to America

so we must dotake measures to ensure that these slaves are not tempted to rebel against their masters

I lack the history knowledge to properly review this essay, but I have to commend you for delivering it in an entertaining way. Keep up the good job!

hi.i think this is a really great recreation of a typical colonial american speech. keep in mind that colonial americans were very religious protestants. so it was norm to use biblical verses in a speech. try reading stuff by american founding fathers to get better ideas. another thing is the language. the word ladies and gentlemen is a new one. i don t think that colonials used it. keep in mind that slavary was a norm then. as well as dueling, ignoring women rights etc. even lincoln himself didn t believe in freedom of negros. i seems like you are intrested in history. i love history too. especially american history. altough i am not american myself. i hope one day you write a historical fiction. i am really waiting to read yours. good luck.