No Longer Yours: Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North CarolinaMain MenuCreative Commons LicensePreface and AcknowledgementsArcOnline Maps and ArcStory MapsAdditional Project ComponentsIntroductionEarthWoodFireWaterWindEscapingNetwork to Freedom Underground Railroad LocationsMaps and Additional ResourcesResourcesBrian Robinson351175f8b63e375b96b75c26edde5534c94e8162Torren Gatson9cd3f098d43ed240801c35d1d0fd0737b5602944Rhonda Jones4c7a2610c10c17f5b487bcebc8abbbf64c221aa6Arwin Smallwood329b2d587e93ceaac77a3b3e316b5ce377128ac0Self-Publish
Understanding Slavery via Narratives James O. Horton
12021-12-01T18:27:53+00:00Earth-Slave Life1plain2021-12-01T18:27:53+00:00 Scholars will never be able to fully explain the life of the enslaved, as it is an impossible task. Life cannot be described by words, as life is to be experienced. Or, as Howard Thruman wrote, "the living content of experience is always richer than the articulation of experience." We cannot tell you how it felt to be an enslaved person, nor can we tell you what they saw through their eyes. The understanding we have gained is based on records and autobiographical accounts, some rich and others not so much-ultimately no source is complete, and researchers do the best they can with what they have.
This section on the life of the enslaved focuses on some broad and direct circumstances in the life of the enslaved.
This entire book is about the life of enslaved people. Unfortunately, the nature of explaining requires we break up and compartmentalize life to understand the different aspects of the life of enslaved people. Nonetheless, it should always be kept in mind that life is not so neat, and much is lost when attempting to do so. To focus on the hand is to ignore the foot; to focus on the foot is to overlook the kidney. All things go together. Like the body, life works together.
See Lerone Bennet World of the Slavefor a more general overview of slavery