How do you think the African American slaves were treated They were treated like animals because that s how they were seen They were forced to work in fields Field work might consist of plowing weeding planting and tending tobacco corn cotton sugar cane tomatoes or other vegetables Inside work might include cooking cleaning babysitting and similar tasks If they didn t do what they were supposed to do than they would be punished Most punishments would be no food for whatever meal or it would be whipping Slaves were bought and sold at auctions like household objects or livestock used as barter or payment for debt or their services were sold to earn money for their masters That is not okay at all because they are human beings Gordon or whipped Peter Gordon was an African American slave who escaped from a Louisiana plantation in March 1863 gaining freedom when he reached the Union camp near Baton Rouge He became known as the subject of photographs documenting the extensive scarring of his back from whippings received in slavery He had escaped in March of 1863 from 3 000 acre plantation of John and Bridget Lyons who owned him and nearly forty other slaves at the time Upon arrival at the Union camp Gordon underwent a medical examination on April 2 1863 which revealed severe keloid scars overgrowth of scar tissue from several whippings He says himself Ten days from today I left the plantation Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me I was two months in bed sore from the whipping
In response to increasing violence against women the modern civil society has witnessed a mobilization of discourse on empowerment Rather than focussing on issues impeding freedom from violence these discourses seek to capacitate grassroots actors especially women to be liable for their own welfare and development This is highly problematic as such self regulatory modes of governance allow the state to conveniently relinquish its responsibility as guarantor of rights and shift the focus from women as beneficiaries to women as change agents Sharma 2006 p62 In the context of neo liberalism Sharma provides a comprehensive analysis of Mahila Samakhya s MS hybrid form It is interesting how an organization that started with an aim to conscientize subaltern women became depoliticised bureaucratized and enmeshed in the development discourse Sharma 2006 p65 I believe that the programme s crossbred structure is rather a marriage of convenience between the state and non state actors
