The White People Double Standard of Value
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On the contrary, the reality shows that the black people are enslaved by white people. Even law approves the slavery. This indicates that there is
double standard: inequality over equality, injustice over justice. This is portrayed in the quotation below:
The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality, and the rattling of the poor slave’s chains,
almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the Capitol
Northup 2014: 20
A slave pen is constructed so well that people can not recognize that there is slavery in their state. The world seems does not recognize and care
about this kind of situation. He emphasizes his statement in the Chapter 4 as quoted below:
So we passed, hand-cuffed and in silence, through the streets of Washington – whose theory of government, we
are told, rests on the foundation of man’s inalienable right to life, libery, and the pursuit of happiness Hail
Columbia, happy land, indeed Northup, 2014:30
How ironic it is. A slave pen is built near Capitol, Washington. This shows the contradiction of what people said that Washington is a state that
upholds justice and equality but it has a slave pen that has no justice to black slaves.
The slaves have no rights towards law and they have no protection.In the South states, a black man defending himself against a white man is
punishable by death as Northup 2014: vii says, “slaves had no right to trial by jury and were not allowed to testify against whites.” Schneider 2007: 59
also adds that since southern courts did not allow blacks to testify against whites, and since the word of a white was almost always taken against that of
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a black, kidnappers’ victims were hard put to prove their right to freedom. The law supports slavery without any consideration that black people are also
the people who need the protection of law and rights. It gives full control to any white men to seize, whip and shoot any black slave who does not have
any pass. This situation shows the injustice toward black people as slaves. b.
Religion Religion is one of key themes in Twelve Years a Slave. It becomes an
ambivalent role that faith is played in the slavery of the United States southern states. It can be both a tool of strengthening and oppression.
Religion, on this case Christian teaches the fellow to love the neighbor, be kind and help each other. In this novel, William Ford has done to
his slave as quoted below: We usually spent our Sabbaths at the opening, on which
days our master would gather all his slaves about him, and read and expound the Scriptures. He sought to inculcate in
our minds feelings of kindness towards each other, of dependence upon God – setting forth the rewards
promised unto those who lead an upright and prayerful life. Seated in the doorway of his house, surrounded by his
man-servants and his maid-servants, who looked earnestly into the good man’s face, he spoke of the loving kindness
of the Creator, and of the life that is to come. Northup, 2014: 63
William Ford is considered as a man of unquestioned Christian character. He is, according to Northup 2014:58, “a model master, walking
uprightly…and fortunate was the slave that came to his possession.” Essentially the question is, how can a “good” Christian man participate so
deeply in the corrupted institution of slavery? This shows the double standard that occurs in America.
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On the other hand, religion will become the oppression of the slave as Peter Tanner, Ford’s brother-in-law has done with his slaves. This is
portrayed in the quotation below:
Tanner was in the habit of reading the Bible to his slaves on the Sabbath, but in a somewhat different spirit………
The first Sunday after my coming to the plantation, he called them together, and began to read the twelfth chapter
of Luke. When he came to the 47
th
verse, he looked deliberately around him, and continued – “And that
servant which knew his lord’s will,” – here he paused, looking around more deliberately than before, and again
proceeded – “which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself” – here was another pause – “prepared not
himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. That nigger that don’t take care – that
don’t obey his lord – that’s his master – d’ye see? – that ‘ere nigger shall be beaten with many stripes. Now,
‘many’ signifies a great many – forty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty lashes. That’s Scripter
Northup, 2014: 86 Peter Tanner gives the stressing to Bible verse to the black people as
reminder of their status as the slaves which are: have to obey their master or they should receive lashes from the master. He does not consider black people
as his neighbor, has the same position. Within a ‘Christian’ culture the misuse of such passages gives a theological justification to Tanner’s brutal
mistreatment of his slaves.