Slave Mentality Research Paper
Emily Miles
H. Lee Barnes
English 101G
November 14, 2010
The Slave Mentality
Endurance is the heart and soul of all nations, all races, and all people. But what happens when the only nation you know stands guard against your smallest of achievements and takes as its prize your history, language, and who you are as a person? What would you do if your true nation did not recognize you as its child, and your adopted nation refused to recognize you as a person? In this section, we will try to understand “slave mentality” and how it relates to the destruction of the American dream in African Americans. Keep in mind that the incorporation of the psychology behind slave mentality is only the second …show more content…
Among the first of his allegations was that he had a foolproof method for controlling black slaves, and that this method would reign supreme for at least 300 years. His plan was simple; it required slave owners to take a different approach to long-range comprehensive economic planning in order to maximize productivity. He likened the African male, female, and child to horses, and how to “break” them. It is interesting how he categorized the method of destruction of a human race with razor sharp military precision. “Take age, intelligence, size, gender, status on plantations, attitude of slave owners, and ‘color’ or shade” (Lynch). In order to truly understand the significance of these points as a whole, every category will be addressed to some degree. Willie Lynch began with his plan for the African man with a new saying; “Take the mind, leave the body.” A man in practically every culture is the head of the household, and the woman is, by virtue, psychologically dependent on the man. If his power is stripped, it would then be fairly easy to manipulate the female and her child. For example, …show more content…
If you train a female horse to eat out of your hand, she will in turn teach her offspring to do the same (Lynch). The male slave master will only deal with the female slave once the process of “breaking” is complete. He must first make sure that she will give her body, with no objections, at any time the master feels the need to relieve himself. He rapes the slave women as all rapists do—for power. Of course, it is more complicated than that, (it always is). He needs new slaves to sell for profit or keep for free. He also did not want to be killed in his sleep by the Africans for his heinous crimes. The most sinister reason, however, was to keep the Africans divided amongst each other, which brings us to another category, “color.” “Crossbreeding the nigger means taking so many drops of good white blood and putting them into as many nigger women as possible, varying the drops by the various tones that you want, and then letting them breed with each other until another circle of color appears as you desire.” The field nigger and the house nigger were born out of this reasoning. This is important because of the psychology of what he was trying to achieve and how it relates to African Americans
H. Lee Barnes
English 101G
November 14, 2010
The Slave Mentality
Endurance is the heart and soul of all nations, all races, and all people. But what happens when the only nation you know stands guard against your smallest of achievements and takes as its prize your history, language, and who you are as a person? What would you do if your true nation did not recognize you as its child, and your adopted nation refused to recognize you as a person? In this section, we will try to understand “slave mentality” and how it relates to the destruction of the American dream in African Americans. Keep in mind that the incorporation of the psychology behind slave mentality is only the second …show more content…
Among the first of his allegations was that he had a foolproof method for controlling black slaves, and that this method would reign supreme for at least 300 years. His plan was simple; it required slave owners to take a different approach to long-range comprehensive economic planning in order to maximize productivity. He likened the African male, female, and child to horses, and how to “break” them. It is interesting how he categorized the method of destruction of a human race with razor sharp military precision. “Take age, intelligence, size, gender, status on plantations, attitude of slave owners, and ‘color’ or shade” (Lynch). In order to truly understand the significance of these points as a whole, every category will be addressed to some degree. Willie Lynch began with his plan for the African man with a new saying; “Take the mind, leave the body.” A man in practically every culture is the head of the household, and the woman is, by virtue, psychologically dependent on the man. If his power is stripped, it would then be fairly easy to manipulate the female and her child. For example, …show more content…
If you train a female horse to eat out of your hand, she will in turn teach her offspring to do the same (Lynch). The male slave master will only deal with the female slave once the process of “breaking” is complete. He must first make sure that she will give her body, with no objections, at any time the master feels the need to relieve himself. He rapes the slave women as all rapists do—for power. Of course, it is more complicated than that, (it always is). He needs new slaves to sell for profit or keep for free. He also did not want to be killed in his sleep by the Africans for his heinous crimes. The most sinister reason, however, was to keep the Africans divided amongst each other, which brings us to another category, “color.” “Crossbreeding the nigger means taking so many drops of good white blood and putting them into as many nigger women as possible, varying the drops by the various tones that you want, and then letting them breed with each other until another circle of color appears as you desire.” The field nigger and the house nigger were born out of this reasoning. This is important because of the psychology of what he was trying to achieve and how it relates to African Americans