Slavery and Firsthand Experience - Research Paper Example

English Slavery and Firsthand Experience Slavery was a critical issue during the 16th to early 20th century, an issue that was battled by all brilliant philosophers, ethics-oriented individuals, and religious followers as well. However, most of the people who fought against slavery did not have firsthand information pertaining to slavery and the few who did were very opposed to slavery with a passion. Some of them had made it their course to eliminate slavery completely from the face of the planet. Literature was one of the key ways through which most writers expressed their emotions about slavery. Understanding slavery requires firsthand experiences, which expose an individual to slavery issues in real life thus assisting these individuals oppose slave owners and slavery systems with all their might. Slavery was mainly advocated for by capitalists, who saw slavery as a way to reduce expenses and amass easy wealth. Slavery has been highlighted in several literature sources showing how much slavery was appealing to business owners. Merchants, for instance, and farmers mainly emphasized on the importance of slavery in reduction of costs and completion of large tasks within a short span of time. Farmers on the other hand, used slavery to plough their fields faster and even plough bigger lands. In the eyes of the slave traders, merchants, farmers and other business owners, slavery was not a bad thing, since it was an easy way to make money. Individuals who opposed slavery greatly must have experienced it first hand, and would have vowed to fight against it, and not support anyone who supported it as well. For instance, this has been highlighted in Daniel Defoe’s story "Robinson Crusoe” where Crusoe adopts both perspectives, having been a merchant and farmer, and also suffering the grave effects of slavery while in captivity. Crusoe who was initially anticipated to be a lawyer, by his father had decided to become a merchant, same as his father and in the event he had decided to pursue large scale farming in Brazil, where he had owned a large plot of land. After viewing the positive outcomes of slaves in the lands of other farmers as well, he had decided to go to Africa, to seek slaves. Crusoe’s quest for slavery shows the positive attributes of slavery in the perspective of the slave owner, thus giving an unrighteous justification for its existence. Similar to Crusoe, slavery even in the contemporary context has been emphasized by even large companies, for instance the likes of Wal-Mart and apple, which seek cheap labor in the low cost nations such as China and the Philippines. However, for people who advocate for slavery to be opposed to slavery as the rest of the world sees it, they need to experience it first hand, either by viewing how slaves live or even listen to a slave talk about their problems. Crusoe for instance, after being enslaved and running from slavery, he developed a need to help the oppressed people. For instance, Crusoe assisted Friday and all the Spaniards who had been captured by the cannibals since he understood how terrible slaves felt (Defoe 288). Additionally, even after realizing that his farm in Brazil was profitable, after he had returned to England, since he understood how much suffering slaves were going through or him to amass the fortune he had received, he sold the land, and shared his wealth with the trustworthy window who had saved his fortune for all those years. Slaves also were submissive to their leaders, but also loved the leaders who might have experienced slavery or shared their pain. Some masters treated their slaves much better as compared to others. For instance, in Charlotte Brontë’s "Jane Eyre", Rochester, the master of the Thornfield estate has been depicted as a dark man, a representation of African or Black, whose roots are Jamaica. Historically, Jamaica has been a British colony, showing that Rochester had experienced slavery from first hand experiences, which thus explains why he was so good to his servants all through the manor. Jane Eyre had experienced slavery first hand as well, since she had grown up with her cruel aunt who not only despised her, but also inflicted her with considerable pain and misery. Additionally, she had also worked for another slave master, Mr. Brocklehurst, who was equally cruel and abusive (Brontë 66). Working for Rochester for her was a new experience. She finally worked for a master whom she loved. As such, she gave high quality services teaching the student she had come to teach at the estate, and to some extent she even grew some affection for him, where she started to love him. This thus shows that slavery is also relative to the actions of the master on the slaves. A caring and loving master is not seen as slave master but rather a master of servants. Slaves as such are people who work under the conditions of cruelty and brutality, and equally low compensation for all their efforts and their service as well. Additionally, first hand experiences determine how much one advocates for slavery. As evidenced in "Robinson Crusoe” and Joseph Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness", the richest market for Slaves was Africa and the slave traders were exclusively Europeans. Since there had been no instance of slavery amongst the Europeans, in their perspective, slavery was not a bad thing. This is not to justify its existence as previously cited, but rather to explain why for Europeans slavery was not viewed in much a negative light as was the case amongst Africans and a few anti-slavery emphasizing parties. For Europeans, slavery was a means to save on costs, for Africans however, the ideology was not shared, and for them slavery was purely oppression. In the Heart of Darkness, Kurt and Marlow saw the extents of cruelty and squalor to which the European and the settlers living in Congo treated the locals (Conrad 17). In the piece, the title, the heart of darkness highlights the settlements which the Europeans lived in, where they had caused to much pain and suffering to the locals, thus leading to the view of the settlements as circles of darkness, since they held no positive praise in their manner of leadership amongst the people. The fact that Kurt and Marlow saw the cruelty of the imperial regime as in human and utterly unjustified motivated Kurt to launch an attack on the British ship, despite the fact that Marlow was of British descent. Comparable to the case of the Beloved, by Toni Morrison, the Garner’s who led the plantation well, all the slaves working in the farm were very happy, despite the fact that they are slaves. However, when the changes in the leadership occur after the death of Mr. Garner, the takeover by the cruel brother in law of Mrs. Garner led to an overall change in the leadership. Notably, the cruelty of the leaders is what made the slaves try to escape from the farm, and not the fact that they were actually slaves (Morrison 29). The book expresses cruelty from a new perspective showing how brutal some of the slave masters were. However, masters that interacted with their slaves consistently and understood their pain and problems, treated their slaves as servants, giving them more peace as compared to the slave masters who showed no remorse nor interacted with their slaves at any given level. As such, slavery cannot solely be judged on the fact that it existed, but rather on the manner in which the slaves were treated by their masters. Cruelty and brutality was high among people who had not experienced or shared the experience of their slaves, but those who had an idea of the level of pain and misery the slaves were undergoing were relatively kinder to their servants. As cited in the commencement of the paper, slavery has varied perspectives. For slave traders, slaves are a way to make a saving, and are a good bargain for labor, whereas for onlookers who might have interacted with the slaves and seen the mistreatment they undergo, feel or share their pain, thus calling for the abolishment of slavery. As such, for the world to change, and contemporary slavery to be banned, placing slave traders or capitalists in environment where they understood the level of pain and emotional torture their servants were undergoing would largely contribute to the eradication of slavery or cheap labor, as commonly referred to by most individuals. Despite this truth, slavery still exists in contemporary society. Works Cited Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Charleston Publisher, 1864. Print. Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque. London: W Taylor, 1719. Print. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Print. Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Random House, 2008. Print. Read More