From: Tim Patterson
Date: 3/27/00
Time: 1:19:17 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.168.59
How are slave holders portrayed? What effect has slavery had on them? How is the north portrayed? What is the effect of slavery on it? Here the Slave holders are portrayed as monsters in human clothing. They only appear to be humans in their appearance but their actions would show them to be uncaring towards their slaves, regarding them as pieces of property or animals at best. One illustration shows two men unmercifully cutting up a slave in Kentucky and then disposing of his parts in a fire. While the slave McIntosh is being burned in St. Louis white people gather around and laugh as if this man’s death is a form of entertainment. The slave owners seem to have no remorse when they auction a mother away from her baby and in another scene a white aristocratic couple say “Poor things, they can’t take care of themselves,” though they aren’t poor because they are in horrible bondage. This couple see the slaves as creatures that can’t take care of themselves, while the actual scene shows the slaves doing all sorts of tasks like gardening and carpentry, which shows off their talents and skills. The slave owners also have no regard for the slave’s emotions or attachments, like in the scene of a master whipping a slave for showing concern for her baby who is about to taken over by a snake. Years of slavery have made the masters cold to their slaves, not that there was a whole lot of compassion, but here there is no connection between master and slave. The master is in his class and the slaves are in their class. But putting it in terms if class does not do the images justice. Its more like the slave is a pet of the master without an sense of self-awareness. And the master is this way because he is in the position where he can demand anything of his slaves. The North is portrayed as part of the problem really. In three the scenes the North is portrayed and in every one they are viewed as if they were working along side of the South to keep the machinery of slavery running. Two of the comics show the North working to keep the slaves in the South and the third shows the racism of the North in granting freedmen positions in society. The North are seen as agents of the South, prefering to side with their fellow states rather then the former slaves. But in these comics they are only showing the attitudes of the Northern governement and not really the attitude of the people. I think that slavery in the South has affected the North greatly in that the North would feel obligated to help the South keep run away slaves in line based on the fact that they exist in the same union. These illustrations show the North as more of a racist entity enacting their true feelings by helping the South. The artist here shows that the North is racist because of their willingness to submit to Southern laws and concerns.