• ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    AKTUALLY most southern farmers only rented slaves from the big plantations. Totally a different thing.

    • Haste_Hall [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Lmao wait is that a thing that people say, somehow I've missed that one

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It was a real thing, according to encyclopedia.com about 20 percent of slaves in South Carolina were being rented every year by 1800 and the process was outlawed in 1845 based on a fear that slaves on smaller farms would get used to the relative freedom they had there. The average elsewhere was about 5%, so it was never more than a niche practice for a certain class of white landowner that couldn't afford to buy a slave but had enough land to benefit from hiring one temporarily.

        None of this in any way detracts from how horrible an institution slavery was. (I don't feel like I need to say that on this site, but just in case)

        • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I hit my limit on feeling horror about the physical abuses of slavery a long time ago, like after you hear how they transported slaves to the Americas in the first place every other horror is just like “yeah sounds about right”

          Every time now I feel a new horror about slavery it’s because I hear something about how mundane it was. Like at the American history museum in DC (which is gross) there was a sign from a slave auction and it just proudly proclaimed something along the lines of “Our slaves never run away!” And the idea that you could just say that, with no reflection, is horrifying.

    • happybadger [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Literally I only rent ONE SLAVE out to people. Just ONE. I got that slave from my dad, I don't need them, I just rent them out to make a bit of extra money. Why is that such a bad thing???? Just because people can rent out 20% of slaves in South Carolina using the money they make from renting out one slave to buy more????