Genovese

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Oct 14 17:32:44 PDT 2000



>CB: Didn't I just say that ? The fact that it was so brutal is in
>part why slave behaviors which you and Genovese interpret as
>evidencing consent was not consent but dissembling, wearing a mask.
>For one thing the slaveowners demanded that the slaves act as if
>they consented to being slaves. It was fake consent.

***** Gabriel's revolt in 1800 involved at least 1,000 and perhaps many thousands of slaves. Gabriel himself was a blacksmith. The insurrectionists had themselves made swords, bayonets, and cullets....In a system of labor that is predominantly social, revolution and counter-revolution are closely intertwined. Though the revolt did _not_ attract national attention, it impelled the slave owners to become declared enemies of the idea of gradual abolition, which had hitherto held sway among semi-liberal circles in the South. (C. L. R. James, Ch. 14 "Stalinism and Negro History," _C. L. R. James and Revolutionary Marxism_, eds. Scott McLemee & Paul Le Blanc, NJ: Humanities Press, 1994, p. 190) *****

In part, revolts (especially after the Haitian Revolution) created fears amongst whites, and slave owners' fears of slaves & free Negroes made most of them, in reaction, more intransigent racists & anti-abolitionists than before -- hence the 1817 creation of the Colonization Society (which schemed to "deport all free Negroes to Africa" [James, p. 191]) & the eventual necessity of the Civil War.


>This demonstrated by the character and historical misrememberance of
>Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom was a covert opponent of slavery. His overt
>behavior pretended to consent.

"Brer Rabbit" stories developed by slaves are about using cunning to outwit enemies.

Yoshie



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