Uncle Tom's Cabin Web Experience
Katherine Goodrich, Jheel Patel
Auctioning
Despite changes in the North in relation to the treatment of blacks, the continuation of the slave trade encouraged the treatment of blacks as mere property and a way to gain profit in the South. Black people's connection to the plantation economy was the downfall of their continued position in Southern society.
Comparison to the Animals
The connection to blacks as property is exhibited through their frequent connection to animals. This made them the equivalent of uncivilized beings that needed to be "trained" in the eyes of the South. This image shows that even when hours of work has been done, the position of whites over blacks continues in the South in the form of constant verbal abuse.
Abuse in Children
The lack of sympathy or empathy is evident in the abuse of black children by the whites. The treatment continues the analogy in the south of blacks as animals and property. The system will not be stopped in the South unless forced because they continue to prepare their children for lives as slaves and use them for hard labor from an extremely young age.
Jheel Patel
a. Some other images that were subtly conveyed in the illustrations were the fact that the white children seemed to be comfortable around black people. This showed that they were later socialized to dislike black people and that as a child, they saw everyone equally.
b. Something that I found interesting was the fact that there were actually white kids that were hanging out with black people. I assumed that they wouldn't be allowed to because of their parents, but they were actually hanging around blacks.
Katherine Goodrich
a. Each image conveys the cyclic system of slavery through the use of children, either the abuse of the black children or the continued familiarization of white children with the lives of slaves in their daily lives.
b. I was the most surprised by the component of slave children in the images. I didn't realize that the brutality of slaves began from their childhood.