The Making of Latin America Blog

Hi Victoria! I totally agree that it can be really hard to tell whether actions were resistance, assimilation, or just survival instincts. There seems to be such a gray area where what the slaves were doing may not have been just one or the other. When humans are put in such awful conditions, often times they are more focused on trying to survive one day to the next because the brain automatically switches to survival mode. 

One of the more interesting but sad takeaways for this week of class for me was the psychological affects of slavery. Often when we learn about slavery, we focus on the physical punishments the slaves received, like beatings or being put in the stocks. Thus, I was surprised to read about the mental struggles slaves faced in this weeks readings. One of the more shocking ones to me was when Manzano was locked up in in a cellar where there were dead bodies. He mentions that he wasn't given much food or water, but he seems more affected by the mental trauma of being locked with dead bodies for days rather than by the lack of food and water. The psychological affects of slavery on Manzano can also be seen in his constant fear. Unpredictability, especially in the lives of children or teens, is debilitating. Manzano rarely can predict if his mistress will be furious with him, or mild and somewhat understanding. Because of this Manzano lives in a state of perpetual fear, which hinders his ...

Hi Lillie! I found your post super interesting. I think the point you brought up about people trashing each other just because they disagree on a certain point is so true. People seem like they can't get along just because they don't agree perfectly, which is ridiculous. I also think this issue may appear worse than it is, though, because of things like social media. Videos of encounters where people are fighting get lots of views, so in a way it seems our society focuses more on these negative encounters because they go viral, whereas videos of normal, civil interactions don't. In all, I really like your post!

 This week, I found our discussion of slavery on plantations to be interesting. Specifically, I found the peasant breach to be a fascinating concept. The idea that some slaves could work to gain a little money and buy their freedom was new to me. I found it interesting, though, that the plantation owner or manager could keep the slave from buying his or her freedom. This makes sense, though, because when push came to shove the slaves still were not in a position of power. However, to me it seems to put the slaves between a rock and a hard place. If they didn't work very hard, they wouldn't be given free time and most likely would not have the opportunity to work their own land, keeping them from buying their freedom. They also could face punishments. But if they worked too hard, they would be given some land to use and could earn money towards their freedom, but in the end they wouldn't be able to because they were too valuable of a worker. So if a slaves worked too hard, i...