Red Record Ideas

In the text Red Record by Ida B. Wells, Wells discusses what lynching was and what was happening to African Americans post Civil War. In the text Red Record the terms "Negro Domination", anarchy, and sadism come up. The idea of  "Negro Domination" is that Southern white men considered that no Negroes had rights that the white man had to respect and acknowledge. Southern white men felt this way because of the fear they had that African Americans were going to advance in society and overthrow them. Ida B. Wells expresses the idea of anarchy, the absence of government, or lawlessness and disorganization in a society, by showing how the Southern whites were taking the law into their own hands The U.S government at the time did nothing to stop this and didn't even bother to punish the white m. African Americans were being lynched for almost any offense and no evidence was required.en and women who were lynching the African Americans at the time. The term sadism means to get pleasure out of watching pain being inflicted by others or enjoying inflicting the pain themselves. Groups like the Klu Klux Klan, the regulators, and the lawless mobs all would chose to either murder one man or dozen because they felt it supported their cause.

Jrc in class assignment

Some slaves were treated decently, these slaves sometimes had food and shelter, while other slaves were treated terribly and often were made to fear their masters. In When I Was a Slave, edited by Norman R. Yetman, we see how Frank  Bell was treated by his slave master in New Orleans, Louisiana. Frank Bell worked in his master's saloon where he was mistreated and threaten to be killed often throughout the day. Bell was very afraid of his slave master because often his slave master said to him, "I'll hunt and kill you nigger" (Yetman 10). Bell's slave master continued to instill fear into him by killing Bell's wife, who he married at the age of 17, and made him dispose of the body in the river close by. According to Frank Bell, he had to continue doing his master's "dirty work" when it came to disposing bodies in the river because in his master's saloon there were usually shootouts and Bell had to get rid of the evidence to avoid being in trouble with the law. Frank Bell was only one example of how slaves were so afraid of their masters that they were never willing to disobey a single order.

Blog Assignment One

Benjamin Banneker wrote a lengthy letter to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, in which he criticized how Jefferson felt no compassion for the slaves around the U.S. Banneker just wanted Jefferson to realize that all humans were equal, and should actually be treated so. He also made it clear that he wasn’t a slave and that he was of the African race. “…however variable we may be on society or religion….relation to him.” Banneker felt that no matter what the color of your skin was you were born with inalienable human rights and they can’t be taken away from you just because you were a different skin tone. In the Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, we see the life of slave through the eyes of a former slave by the name of Oludah Equiano. In Equiano’s narrative we see the different emotions felt during a slave’s time on labor camps. For example there was time when Equiano was taken away and on the boat he was on he saw people swimming freely in water deeper than their ankles. At most Equiano has only ever seen water that would just cover his feet, small streams and puddles. But here on this boat Equiano saw people swimming in deep water, coming back up only for a quick breath of air. He was in awe and amazed by what he was seeing for the first time. Then there was the time when he tried running from his master. Equiano was paralyzed with fear when he heard noises of leaves rustling in the forest, because he knew that at any second he could be caught and executed by his slave master.

            Although slaves, their masters and the people who traded and sold them are all human beings with emotions, slave masters and traders most of the time didn’t feel grief or pity on the slaves. The reason most slave masters and traders didn’t show these emotions were because they enjoyed what they were doing. They all knew perfectly well that when they were punishing the slaves, they could possibly go too far and kill them. The reason they enjoyed this was because they felt power over others, they felt like they could control people and tell them to do whatever they please. Slaves couldn't do anything but obey their master’s orders and this was where masters got their pleasure, which overshadowed most 

of their other emotions like pity and sadness for the slaves.

Opinion on the cluster

When I registered for the Language of Human Rights cluster I wasn't really sure what to expect starting off. I decided to register for this cluster because I wanted to explore more about Human Rights and as to why its so hard for countries to just band together and have peace. I know its very hard for countries to just throw away their differences and just have peace all around but what I wonder is why we don't work harder to getting this peace that a lot of people so badly want. The reason I feel these classes go together I guess would be cause depending on how a person or group of people speak or the languages they know, other people would possibly just use that as an excuse to judge someone or outcast them, stripping them of some of their human rights. So far I'm liking what I see, hopefully the classes will only continue to get better.

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