In this very important topic of slavery; Dr. James Horton a history professor , historian and president of an organization of American Historians, discusses slavery as complex, misunderstood and significant. The approach Horton communicated to his audience was the excellent use of logos , ethos and pathos. For me that is i felt due to his expertise and over all profession gave the audience credibility that he was very educated on the topic of slavery and all he discussed was from his own research and study through all his career. I also did relate to a very successful man like Horton during his argument when he said when he was in school he was not really aware of slavery and its over all history. He believed slavery started in the year 1840, but reality slavery has been existent as the dawn of man. He stated the misunderstandings on taking place in a southern institution when it was really a nationwide most of its existence. The significance and logical approach when Horton said " Slavery has believed to be somehow marginal; in a political , economic and social life ". As difficult and upsetting the discussion of slavery is there is more to it that i really never opened my mind to even want to know; because the discussion of slavery brings anger and sadness for me, however Horton also gave me a new approach on how i view slavery. I still feel very emotional but i also now understand why it happened the way it did.
The purpose and point of view from Horton is his discussion i can say was not to develop controversy. It was to educate more about slavery to his audience in the sense of giving the audience information beyond the standard on what is told in history books. He discussed misconceptions on where it took place the vast majority of the time. How african labor saved the 13 colonies from dying out. He spoke about the contradiction between the great words in our Declaration of Independence that preached over all freedom but yet our founding fathers owning slaves of their own. Horton says " Slavery is a central understanding on what America was about" with this being said i interpreted this as a necessary evil that had to occur at that time.
In class we all discussed and also viewed in a map on how slaves were brought to Latin America. That to me was very shocking, and it connected to what Horton discussed on how only six percent of slaves were brought to America and all were brought to Caribbean's or Latin America the vast majority. We also discussed in connection to Hortons discussion in the growth of rice by slaves in which plantation owners were clueless in but yet took advantage for their growth as well as cotton , tobacco and cane. There was a great questions among my classmates. If slaves did obtain they key in the growth of for example rice why did they not use that for their advantage? it is very reasonable i actually agreed to that , but it did make since the answer to the question is, slaves were not told to farm rice; they actually started the growth because they felt in that specific place they were was a great area to grow rice and took it upon themselves to do so.We discussed the way slaves were not able to rebel and how now statistically there are ways in the discovery on how many adults and kids were in the slave ships. And for me the thought of kids also involved in this is quite sickening.
The great question we discussed was the about our founding fathers and its contradiction with advocating freedom while owning slaves. We spoke about how Thomas Jefferson believed slavery maintained order and prevented chaos.While having this subject discussed in class i felt the topic of slavery is very difficult and sensitive to speak about especially that now a days we are experiencing slight similarity with our president now and the topic of immigration.It makes me think now more than ever the history sadly does repeat itself. And how it will effect our political , economic and social life. This is why Hortons discussion gave me such reasoning , even though i am still upset with it all that will not ever change.
My questions now remain; Why is there no discussion on how slavery impacted in Latin America? What will happen now in the future? , Did we not learn from our mistakes? and Will there now be a new "America`s Great Contradiction"?