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The Longest Memory

The Longest Memory. The Slave Trade The Cotton Industry Treatment of Slaves The Abolitionist Movement The Role of Women in Society Contemporary Influences. The Slave Trade. From Africa to America Slavery as a Business Disease Point of Sale. Great-Granddaughter.

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The Longest Memory

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  1. The Longest Memory • The Slave Trade • The Cotton Industry • Treatment of Slaves • The Abolitionist Movement • The Role of Women in Society • Contemporary Influences

  2. The Slave Trade • From Africa to America • Slavery as a Business • Disease • Point of Sale

  3. Great-Granddaughter • “I told him I had a dream about Africa. He said, between supervising which part of my body I should wash next, what did I want to go and do something like that for?” (p 123). • Whitechapel has given up on dreaming - he accepts his role as slave. But Chapel hasn’t. • Whitechapel stops struggling to be free… • Is this theme of ‘hope’ a redeeming feature in the text?

  4. The Slave Industry • I have heard many overseers say: ‘I have made my employer 20, 30, and 40 more hogsheads (barrels) of sugar than any of my predecessors… and though I have killed 30 or 40 Negroes per year or more, yet the produce has been more than adequate to that loss’. • Slave overseer’s evidence to British Parliament, 1791

  5. The Cotton Industry • Cotton was the basis of wealth for European people in the Southern States of the USA during the 18th and early 19th century. • Slaves were an integral part of this industry.

  6. The Plantation • “I said that in so far as a man’s labour will always be required in the cotton, corn and tobacco fields, to name some, I could see no end to slavery”. (Editor of The Virginian, p13). • “The runaway intended to rob the plantation of his labour for ever more.” (Editor of The Virginian, P 107).

  7. Slave traffic through England • Many slaves passed through Europe on their way to the new world. • This was a one-way trip - slaves never returned home.

  8. Treatment of Slaves • Control through fear. • “… slaves are humans. Whip them to death; there’s proof”. (One of the plantation owners in The Longest Memory, p69).

  9. The Abolitionist Movement • Moves to stop slavery • 1831 - William Lloyd Garrison, from Massachusetts. He used his newspaper to fight slavery. Later he campaigned on behalf of Native Americans and also for votes for women. • Frederick Douglass, a former slave, self educated - came to be the main leader of the struggle for freedom. • Harriet Beecher-Stowe, a white writer of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book which condemned slavery in 1852 • Lydia is the daughter of Mr. Whitechapel. Many of her anti-slavery ideals are included in the editorials in The Viginian.

  10. The Role of Women • Not allowed to vote • Most marriages were arranged • Not allowed to enter into professions (such as medicine) because women were considered to be too emotional and irrational • Expected to cook and clean and manage the house - not encouraged to go outside.

  11. Lydia • Falls in love with the slave Chapel • Intends to run away to “the North” where she will meet Chapel and they can marry • Expected to act with ‘lady-like’ etiquette (p 92) • Is Lydia free? • Writes to The Virginian both before and after Chapel is murdered

  12. The Editor... • “It all sounds rife with variables to be practical, though I grant you it is an intelligent question from a lady”. (Editor of The Virginian, P114). • “I credited her at the time with intelligence. I see now I was grossly mistaken. She exhibits a love for Blacks that clouds her ability to reason about any subject involving them.” (Editor of The Virginian, P 121).

  13. Cook • Woman and a Slave - thus her rights are doubly severed. • Married to Whitechapel despite her loss of “purity” - she feels indebted to him for this. • Expected to make her own family a second priority. • Abused and neglected by Mr Whitechapel, Whitechapel and Mr Sanders Snr.

  14. Nurturing • “All my life two pots are never empty. One is in the Master’s kitchen. The other is my own. I sometimes take from one to fill the other. Or after the sight of the first one all day, I can hardly face the second. The two pots are never empty… Yet my pot is sweeter to me.” (Cook p83).

  15. Contemporary Influences

  16. Lynchings • Racial hatred • Fear and intimidation • Ritual abuse • Traditions • Ignorance and misunderstand-ing

  17. Freedom • Race riots in the 1960’s • New perspectives • Acceptance of different cultures and races into American society • Hear Martin Luther King

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