Chapters 7-9: Up From Slavery
Please use this thread for discussing Chapters 7-9: Up From Slavery.
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in the case of the most of these visits, there had been no notice given in advance that a stranger was expected, I had the advantage of seeing the real, everyday life of the people. In the plantation districts I found that, as a rule, the whole family slept in one room, and that in addition to the immediate family 58 there sometimes were relatives, or others not related to the family, who slept in the same room. On more than one occasion I went outside the house to get ready for bed, or to wait until the family had gone to bed. They usually contrived some kind of a place for me to sleep, either on the floor or in a special part of another’s bed. Rarely was there any place provided in the cabin where one could bathe even the face and hands, but usually some provision was made for this outside the house, in the yard. The common diet of the people was fat pork and corn bread. At times I have eaten in cabins where they had only corn bread and “blackeye peas” cooked in plain water. The people seemed to have no other idea than to live on this fat meat and corn bread- the meat, and the meal of which the bread was made, having been bought at a high price at a store in town, notwithstanding the fact that the land all about the cabin homes could easily have been made to produce nearly every kind of garden vegetable that is raised anywhere in the country.
I had similar mixed feelings about the attempt to reproduce the local dialect in print. You just reminded me that I barely think about it anymore since I've been reading sections of Leon F Litwack's "Been In The Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery" and other sources where the dialect is reproduced in print. I'm thinking that in many cases there might be more lost than gained by translating to standard English.DWill wrote:I'm not sure how I feel about Washington capturing the dialect of the poor, rural blacks. It seems incongruous, at least, with the elevated tone he strives for in his prose. Dare I say a little of the minstrel show? He seems to be impressing upon the readers just how backward this population is.
That quote has been bugging me because it contradicts a passage I quoted from Chapter 1.Robert Tulip wrote:The Black Belt, so called because it has the best soil and therefore that is where most of the slaves were located.
His critique of rural black life:
in the case of the most of these visits, there had been no notice given in advance that a stranger was expected, I had the advantage of seeing the real, everyday life of the people. In the plantation districts I found that, as a rule, the whole family slept in one room, and that in addition to the immediate family 58 there sometimes were relatives, or others not related to the family, who slept in the same room. On more than one occasion I went outside the house to get ready for bed, or to wait until the family had gone to bed. They usually contrived some kind of a place for me to sleep, either on the floor or in a special part of another’s bed. Rarely was there any place provided in the cabin where one could bathe even the face and hands, but usually some provision was made for this outside the house, in the yard. The common diet of the people was fat pork and corn bread. At times I have eaten in cabins where they had only corn bread and “blackeye peas” cooked in plain water. The people seemed to have no other idea than to live on this fat meat and corn bread- the meat, and the meal of which the bread was made, having been bought at a high price at a store in town, notwithstanding the fact that the land all about the cabin homes could easily have been made to produce nearly every kind of garden vegetable that is raised anywhere in the country.
He went on to explain how white folks didn't have any skills because the slaves performed all the chores. But later on he reveals the truth that many of the slaves were indeed broken. In another passage he described a family that had literally ONE fork, but also made payments for a musical organ that no one played.Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did. p.6