Thursday, March 5, 2015

Why did he stay in the loft?

Treatment of runaway slaves that were recaptured was absolutely awful. Plantation owners felt the need to use them as an example to show the other slaves that they better not even think about attempting to escape. In Louisiana, all of these actions were even legal due to the "Black Code" put in place. This allowed slave owners to crop the ears, brand them on the shoulder, palms or face, or even cut leg tendons to prevent them from ever walking away again. Whipping slaves was also another common method of punishment - an extremely painful one at that. Slaves could be killed for something as little as saying something disrespectful to a white person. Imagine the punishment they would receive if they did something of this measure. To be a recaptured slave would have been the worst thing imaginable, unless of course you were a recaptured slave with triple manslaughter on your hands. This would have resulted in immediate (or perhaps a prolonged painful) death for the slave, viewed as no better than a pig for slaughter.


No comments: