Chapter II Slavery And Injustice In America As Portrayed In Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years A Slave
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Literary Sociology
Literary Sociology is derived from two kinds of knowledge that are related to
each other: literature and sociology. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in their book
entitled Theory of Literature (1977) gives explanations about the definition of
literature, and its relation to sociology. Wellek (1977:89) said that literature is a
social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. It “imitates” “life”;
and “life” is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the
inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary
"imitation." In practice, literature can obviously take the place of many things—of
travel or sojourn in foreign lands, of direct experience, vicarious life; and it can be
used by the historian as a social document. Much the most common approach to the
relations of literature and society is the study of works of literature as social
documents, as assumed pictures of social reality. Used as a social document,
literature can be made to yield the outlines of social history (Wellek 1977:98-99).
Elizabeth Burns and Tom Burns in their book entitled Sociology of literature
and drama: selected readings (1973) give the explanation of sociology of literature
and its relations to literary works such as novel. This is a compilation of several
experts’
journals
who
explainthe
literaturetosociologywhichmeansdealingwiththe
society.
Burns
relationshipof
(1973:9)
says,
“Literature is an attempt to make sense of our lives. Sociology is an attempt to make
9
sense of the ways in which we live our lives.” Lenvin in Burns (1973:31) says,
“Literature is not only the effect of social causes but also the cause of social effects.”
Burns (1973:10) said that sociology is a critical activity which its purpose is to
achieve an understanding of social behavior and social institutions which is different
from that current among the people through whose conduct the institutions exist.
Novel is one of many ways to share the ideas, opinion, or feeling through
literary work. Taine in Burns (1973:66) said that the novel as ‘a kind of portable
mirror which can be conveyed everywhere, and which is most convenient for
reflecting all aspects of nature and life.’ This statement can be acceptable because it
is true that novel can be taken anywhere and shared to everyone. It contains and also
portrays all aspects of nature and life, such as society in a certain time as Reeve in
Wellek (1977:223) says, “The Novel is a picture of real life and manners, and of the
time which is written.”
Novel has a close relationship to society and also history. Novels often
represent the era or period when they are written. Zeraffa in Burns (1973:35) said
that novel derive more closely from social phenomena than do those of other arts…;
novels often seem bound up with particular moments in the history of society. He
also added that that the novel is directly concerned with the nature of our situation in
history, and with the direction in which that situation is to move. The novel’s
emergence as an art form affirms, essentially, that there was no society without
history, nor history without society. The novel is the first art to represent man
explicitly as defined historically and socially (Zeraffa in Burns 1973:38-39).
James in Burns (1977:36) said that the novelist analyses the data of social
life, interpret them, and tries to determine their essential features in order to transmit
10
them in writing. Zeraffa in Burns (1977:45) said that the novel has for long had rules
and laws which emerged from the history of society itself, since novelists wished to
show that society was both cause and consequence of human nature.
Slave narrative is often used to portray the life and struggle of slaves: the
reality of slave that they have been through. Rodriguez (2007:394) said that critics
define slave narratives as first-person autobiographies written by slaves and exslaves that describe their lives in servitude and their efforts to become free. It is
served as powerful weapons in the abolition struggle. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in
Rodriguez (2007:394) says, “slaves narrative represents the attempts of blacks to
write themselves into being”. Because of this, most slave narratives contain a central
scene in which the slave first encounters a “talking book” and ultimately becomes
literate.
2.2 Historical Approach
Historical approach is a kind of literary approach that is used in analyzing
literary works, especially for literary works that relates to event or social condition
that is happened in the past. According to Ratna (2013:65), historical approach
considers the historicity of literary works that is analyzed. This approach is the most
appropriate used in analyzing historical literature and novel. Nevertheless it does not
mean that literary works without any dominant elements of historicity can not be
analyzed historically. This approach traces the meaning of what has been written by
the author itself. It focuses on how it relates to other works, so that it can be known
the quality of its historical elements. It considers the literary works relevance as
social documents: they represent and reflect the period at the time.
11
Generally,
historical
approach
is
more
relevant
in
frameworkof
traditionalliterary history, literary historywiththe implicationsof theauthors, literary
works, andcertain periods, with the object ofindividualliterary works. There
areseveralissuesthatbecomethe targetobject ofa historical approach:
1. Changes of language in the literary work as the result of the republication
2. Function and purpose of the literary work at the time it is published.
3. The position of author at the time of writing
4. Literary work as the representation of its era.
2.3 Social Issue
Social issue has various definitions because it is broader than just one aspect
that is concerned. Social issue is an undesirable condition conducted by a group of
people that affects the society. According to Wikipedia, social issue refers to an issue
that influences and is opposed by a considerable number of individuals within a
society. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's
control and local geographical environment. In some cases, a social issue is the
source of a conflicting opinion on the grounds of what is perceives as a morally just
personal
life
or
societal
order.(Retrieved
from
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issue 13 March 2015, 12.33 am).
BagjaWaluya in his book Sosiologi: MenyelamiFenomenaSosial di
Masyarakatgives explanations related to social, society, social phenomenon and
social issue as well. Social issue is defined as social phenomena that do not
correspond between the desired things and the reality. Soekanto in Waluya (2009:16)
12
said that there are four factors that cause social issue and lead todeficienciesin the
human lifeorsocialgroup:
a. Economic factor, such as poverty and unemployment
b. Biological factor, such as contagious disease
c. Psychological factor, such as mental disorder
d. Cultural factor, such as juvenile delinquency
There are so many social issues that emerge in social life, such as poverty,
violence, suicide, sexual abuse, human rights, racial discrimination, slavery and
injustice. Social issues that can be found in this novel are slavery and injustice.
2.4 Slavery
Slavery is one of social issues that occurs in the society life.Slavery is the
state of being a slave, a person who is legally owned by another person and forced to
work for them. Slaves are the outsiders who are brought forcibly to serve their
masters, or in a particular way are removed from their community membership,
because they owe something or it is because of doing a criminal or as a prisoner of
war.
Slavery enters human history with civilization. It happens when people have
their own large farm or workshop and need other people who can harvest their widerange farm and take care of their properties as well. It is a real benefit to acquire a
reliable source of cheap labor, costing no more than the minimum of food and
lodging. These are the conditions for slavery. Every ancient civilization uses slaves
and it proves easy to acquire them.
13
There are several ways to acquire slaves. First is war. It is the main source of
supply, and wars are frequent and brutal in early civilizations. When a town falls to a
hostile army, it is normal to take into slavery those inhabitants who will make useful
workers and to kill the rest. Second way is the pirates who offer their captives for
sale. Third way is a criminal who is sentenced to slavery. Fourth way is the people
who can not pay their debt. It can bring the end of the liberty. Fifth way is the
impoverished sell their own children. Sixth way is the children of slaves are
themselves
slaves.
(Retrieved
from
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=cio#ixzz3
UYbuBDHe16 March 2015, 9.02 PM )
Slavery happenedsincemany centuries ago in many countries: Sumer, Ancient
Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient India, Ancient
Greece, the Roman Empire, the IslamicCaliphate, the Hebrew kingdoms in Palestine,
and
the
pre-Columbian
civilizations
of
the
Americas
(retrieved
from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery on Monday 19 Jan 9:45 am).
Slavery still exists until now, even thought it is not exposed or hidden in
many countries, many regions, and many workplaces or factories. As reported in
2013, there was a criminal case related to slavery in Tangerang, Indonesia. People
who were employed as laborer in an iron wok factory should faced slavery: they
were promised Rp.700.000 wages per month and got facility. On the contrary,
workedfromsix in the morninguntiltwelve o'clockandjustgotbreakfastandlunch.
Iftheworkerdid notcomply withwhat was ordered, thenthe workerswould belocked
upinastorehousenext door to thefactory. Iftheycomplained about their misery, they
would also getbeaten. The boss slapped and threatened the workers if they tried to
14
escape, they would be shot and thrown into the sea (retrieved from
http://dwikacahayu.blogspot.com/2014/11/etika-bisnis.html on Monday 19 Jan 2015
9:40 am).
2.5 Injustice
Injustice is a quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. The sense
of injustice is a universal human feature, though the exact circumstances considered
unjust can vary from culture to culture. While even acts of nature can sometimes
arouse the sense of injustice, the sense is usually felt in relation to human action such
as misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is uncorrected or else sanctioned by a
legal system or fellow human beings.
There are so many various definition of injustice. Barry S Levy and Victor W
Sidel in their book Social Injustice and Public Health (2013) give explanation about
the relationship of social injustice to many aspects of public health. According to
Levy (2013), social injustice creates conditions that adversely affect the health of
individuals and communities. It denies individuals and groups equal opportunity to
meet their basic human needs. It violates fundamental human rights. It is defined as
the denial or violation of economic, sociocultural, political, civil, or human rights of
specific populations or groups in the society based on the perception of their
inferiority by those with more power or influence. The roots of social injustice are:
poverty and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor; maldistribution of
resources within the society; racism and other forms of discrimination; weak laws or
weak enforcement of laws protecting human rights and other rights; and
disenfranchisement of individuals and groups from the political process.
15
Roy Lavon Brooks in his book When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy
Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice (1999) gives a definition of
injustice-human injustice-based upon a synthesis of the instruments of international
law:
A human injustice is the violation or suppression of human rights or
fundamental freedoms recognized by international law, including but
not limited genocide; slavery; extrajudicial killings; torture and other
cruel or degrading treatment; arbitrary detention; rape; the denial of
due process of law; forced refugee movements; the deprivation of a
means of subsistence; the denial of universal suffrage; and
discrimination, distinction, exclusion, or preference based on race,
sex, descent, religion, or other identifying factor with the purpose or
effect of impairing the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise, on an
equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the
political, social, economic, cultural, or any other field of public life.
(Brooks, 1999: 7)
2.6 Slavery in America
Dorothy Schneider and Carl J. Schenider in their book Slavery in America
gives detail explanations about slavery in America: the slavery in Africa, the first
slavery in America, slave life, work, runways, rebels, until the end of slavery in
America. Slavery in America began in the 16th century until 19th century. The slaves
were African who were taken from West coast of Africa and brought to the North
American colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Schneider (2007:49) says,
“Probably they hired the blacks as indentured servants, bound to work for a fixed
term of years, rather than as slaves for life……Little else is known about their lives,
though at least one for a time enjoyed freedom and property. Others certainly came
in the early days as indentured servants, but by 1660 the Virginia labor force
included blacks in bondage for life.”
16
In all the English colonies, north and south, slavery got off to a slow start in
the 17th century but increased rapidly in the 18th century, as the colonists recognized
the need for a large labor force to develop the new continent. They looked first to the
Indians and then to Africans, who were already laboring as slaves in vast numbers
elsewhere in the New World.
Over time, slavery moved to south. It was because the South planters needed
many hands to clear, drain, and cultivate the fertile lands along the coast. With the
invention of the cotton gin and the boom in the international demand for southern
cotton, planters turned to the Southwest for new, fertile land and to slavery to supply
the workers for this labor-intensive crop.
In 18th century, the slavery spread throughout the American colonies because
the African slaves were cheaper and more plentiful labor source than indentured
servants who were mostly poorer Europeans. But, most of slaves were treated so
badly by their master.
William Goodell in the book The American Slave Code in Theory and
Practice: Its Distinctive Features Shown by Its Statutes, Judicial Decisions and
Illustrative Facts. It is a key antislavery work centering on legal discourse and
practice. This book gives more understanding about slave code that is used at the
time. It also shows that the slave shall always be reputed and considered as real
estate; shall, as such, be subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by
law, and they shall be seized and sold as real estate. Goodell (1853:15) said that it is
often maintained that the ‘legal relation of master and slave” is not a criminal one,
and that there is no sin, or moral wrong, in the mere fact of sustaining that relation.
17
According to 2 Brevard’s Digest, 229 ; Prince’s Digest, 446 in South
Carolina in Goodell (1853:23) says, “slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and
adjudged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors,
and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and
purposes whatsoever.”
Civil Code, Art.35 in Louisiana in Goodell (1853:23) says, “A slave is one
who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him,
dispose of his person, his industry and his labor. He can do anything, but what must
belong to his master.”
Civil Code, Art.173 in Goodell (1853:23) says, “The slave is entirely subject
to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual
rigor, or so as to maim and mutilate him, or expose him to the danger of loss of life,
or to cause his death.”
Statue of June 7, 1806; 1 Martin’s Digest, 612 in Goodell (1853:24) says,
“Slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate; shall, as such, be subject
to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by law, and they shall be seized
and sold as real estate.”
The slave codes that have mentioned before show how bad slave status and
position are towards society in America. Slave as considered as an subject, a real
estate, not a human being. They are treated as a thing that can be possessed and sold
by their masters. As Goodell (1853:77-78) says, “Slaves are not persons in the view
of the law, for any purposes of benefit to them; as will hereafter be more fully
shown. The rights of a slave are not recognize, and no limitation of the master’s use
18
of him can come from that quarter. “The slave” (says the law) “is entirely subject to
the will of his master.” Nothing, therefore, can prevent the master from putting him
to any use he pleases.
The Slave Code places slaves upon a level with other live cattle. It never
attempts or pretends to protect the slaves. It is known that they are only as mere
animals. Their rational and moral natures, not being recognized by the laws, can
claim no legal protection. The slave has not equal protection, in some respects, with
other animals.
Mr. Samuel Blackwell in Goodell (1983:80) visited many of the sugar
plantations in Louisiana, and says:
That the planters generally declared to him that they were obliged so
to overwork their slaves, during the sugar-making season, (from
eight to ten week,) as to USE THEM in seven or eight years. For,
said they, after the process is commenced, it must be pushed without
cessation, night and day, and we cannot afford to keep a sufficient
number of slaves to do the extra work at the time of sugar-making,
as we could not profitably employ them the rest of the year.
2.7 Treatment of Slaves in America.
The treatment of slaves in America varied by time and place, but was
generally brutal and degrading. Whipping, execution and sexual abuse of women,
including rape, were common.
Schneider (2007:90) said that the slave system was founded on and sustained
by brute force—physical punishment. Both masters and mistresses themselves could
beat their slaves or order them beaten by overseers, black drivers, or men employed
for that purpose in slave jails. Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling,
hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding and/or imprisonment. Punishment
19
was most often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but
masters or overseers sometimes abused slaves to assert dominance. Slave masters
even beat pregnant women, devising ways to do it without harming the baby. Slave
masters would dig a hole big enough for the woman's stomach to lay in and proceed
with the lashings. In addition, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese in Schneider (2007:90) says,
“Mistresses whipped slave women with whom they might have shared beds, whose
children they might have delivered or who might have delivered theirs, whose
children they might have suckled and who frequently suckled theirs.”
The mistreatment of slaves frequently included rape and the sexual abuse of
women. Some slaves died while trying to resist sexual attacks. Others sustained
psychological and physical trauma. The sexual abuse of slaves was partially rooted in
the patriarchal nature of contemporary Southern culture and its view of women of
any race as property. After 1662, when Virginia adopted the legal doctrine partus
sequitur ventrem, sexual relations between white men and black women were
regulated by classifying children of slave mothers as slaves regardless of their
father's race or status.
Jenny Hill in Schneider (2007:85) explains the bitterness of such treatment
when she was separated from her husband and child to be enslaved:
How well I remember how I would sit in my room with
the little ones on my lap and the tears would roll down my
cheeks as I would ponder the right and wrong of bringing
them into the world. What was I bringing them into the
world for? To be slaves and go from morning to night.
They couldn’t be educated and maybe they couldn’t even
live with their families. They would just be slaves. All that
time I wasn’t even living with my husband. He belonged
to another man. He had to stay on his farm and I on mine.
That wasn’t living—that was slavery.
20
Particularly in the Upper South, a population developed of mixed-race
(mulatto) offspring of such unions, although white Southern society claimed to abhor
miscegenation and punished sexual relations between white women and black men as
damaging to racial purity.
This treatments and punishment towards slaves show how worst slave is
viewed by white people: they consider the slave as a subject, not a human being as
they are. Schneider (2007:91) says, “The punishments inflicted on slaves testify to
the worst side of human nature. Slave owners inflicted not only commonplace
beatings with lashes designed to hurt but also horrifyingly inventive tortures. They
were often tinged with perverted sexuality and sadism. For proof of their excesses
historians do not need the writings of abolitionists, who focused on them with a kind
of sick fascination. The testimony of former slaves, the diaries of southern women,
southern newspapers, and publicrecords teem with accounts of these unspeakable
cruelties.”
21
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Literary Sociology
Literary Sociology is derived from two kinds of knowledge that are related to
each other: literature and sociology. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in their book
entitled Theory of Literature (1977) gives explanations about the definition of
literature, and its relation to sociology. Wellek (1977:89) said that literature is a
social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. It “imitates” “life”;
and “life” is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the
inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary
"imitation." In practice, literature can obviously take the place of many things—of
travel or sojourn in foreign lands, of direct experience, vicarious life; and it can be
used by the historian as a social document. Much the most common approach to the
relations of literature and society is the study of works of literature as social
documents, as assumed pictures of social reality. Used as a social document,
literature can be made to yield the outlines of social history (Wellek 1977:98-99).
Elizabeth Burns and Tom Burns in their book entitled Sociology of literature
and drama: selected readings (1973) give the explanation of sociology of literature
and its relations to literary works such as novel. This is a compilation of several
experts’
journals
who
explainthe
literaturetosociologywhichmeansdealingwiththe
society.
Burns
relationshipof
(1973:9)
says,
“Literature is an attempt to make sense of our lives. Sociology is an attempt to make
9
sense of the ways in which we live our lives.” Lenvin in Burns (1973:31) says,
“Literature is not only the effect of social causes but also the cause of social effects.”
Burns (1973:10) said that sociology is a critical activity which its purpose is to
achieve an understanding of social behavior and social institutions which is different
from that current among the people through whose conduct the institutions exist.
Novel is one of many ways to share the ideas, opinion, or feeling through
literary work. Taine in Burns (1973:66) said that the novel as ‘a kind of portable
mirror which can be conveyed everywhere, and which is most convenient for
reflecting all aspects of nature and life.’ This statement can be acceptable because it
is true that novel can be taken anywhere and shared to everyone. It contains and also
portrays all aspects of nature and life, such as society in a certain time as Reeve in
Wellek (1977:223) says, “The Novel is a picture of real life and manners, and of the
time which is written.”
Novel has a close relationship to society and also history. Novels often
represent the era or period when they are written. Zeraffa in Burns (1973:35) said
that novel derive more closely from social phenomena than do those of other arts…;
novels often seem bound up with particular moments in the history of society. He
also added that that the novel is directly concerned with the nature of our situation in
history, and with the direction in which that situation is to move. The novel’s
emergence as an art form affirms, essentially, that there was no society without
history, nor history without society. The novel is the first art to represent man
explicitly as defined historically and socially (Zeraffa in Burns 1973:38-39).
James in Burns (1977:36) said that the novelist analyses the data of social
life, interpret them, and tries to determine their essential features in order to transmit
10
them in writing. Zeraffa in Burns (1977:45) said that the novel has for long had rules
and laws which emerged from the history of society itself, since novelists wished to
show that society was both cause and consequence of human nature.
Slave narrative is often used to portray the life and struggle of slaves: the
reality of slave that they have been through. Rodriguez (2007:394) said that critics
define slave narratives as first-person autobiographies written by slaves and exslaves that describe their lives in servitude and their efforts to become free. It is
served as powerful weapons in the abolition struggle. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in
Rodriguez (2007:394) says, “slaves narrative represents the attempts of blacks to
write themselves into being”. Because of this, most slave narratives contain a central
scene in which the slave first encounters a “talking book” and ultimately becomes
literate.
2.2 Historical Approach
Historical approach is a kind of literary approach that is used in analyzing
literary works, especially for literary works that relates to event or social condition
that is happened in the past. According to Ratna (2013:65), historical approach
considers the historicity of literary works that is analyzed. This approach is the most
appropriate used in analyzing historical literature and novel. Nevertheless it does not
mean that literary works without any dominant elements of historicity can not be
analyzed historically. This approach traces the meaning of what has been written by
the author itself. It focuses on how it relates to other works, so that it can be known
the quality of its historical elements. It considers the literary works relevance as
social documents: they represent and reflect the period at the time.
11
Generally,
historical
approach
is
more
relevant
in
frameworkof
traditionalliterary history, literary historywiththe implicationsof theauthors, literary
works, andcertain periods, with the object ofindividualliterary works. There
areseveralissuesthatbecomethe targetobject ofa historical approach:
1. Changes of language in the literary work as the result of the republication
2. Function and purpose of the literary work at the time it is published.
3. The position of author at the time of writing
4. Literary work as the representation of its era.
2.3 Social Issue
Social issue has various definitions because it is broader than just one aspect
that is concerned. Social issue is an undesirable condition conducted by a group of
people that affects the society. According to Wikipedia, social issue refers to an issue
that influences and is opposed by a considerable number of individuals within a
society. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's
control and local geographical environment. In some cases, a social issue is the
source of a conflicting opinion on the grounds of what is perceives as a morally just
personal
life
or
societal
order.(Retrieved
from
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issue 13 March 2015, 12.33 am).
BagjaWaluya in his book Sosiologi: MenyelamiFenomenaSosial di
Masyarakatgives explanations related to social, society, social phenomenon and
social issue as well. Social issue is defined as social phenomena that do not
correspond between the desired things and the reality. Soekanto in Waluya (2009:16)
12
said that there are four factors that cause social issue and lead todeficienciesin the
human lifeorsocialgroup:
a. Economic factor, such as poverty and unemployment
b. Biological factor, such as contagious disease
c. Psychological factor, such as mental disorder
d. Cultural factor, such as juvenile delinquency
There are so many social issues that emerge in social life, such as poverty,
violence, suicide, sexual abuse, human rights, racial discrimination, slavery and
injustice. Social issues that can be found in this novel are slavery and injustice.
2.4 Slavery
Slavery is one of social issues that occurs in the society life.Slavery is the
state of being a slave, a person who is legally owned by another person and forced to
work for them. Slaves are the outsiders who are brought forcibly to serve their
masters, or in a particular way are removed from their community membership,
because they owe something or it is because of doing a criminal or as a prisoner of
war.
Slavery enters human history with civilization. It happens when people have
their own large farm or workshop and need other people who can harvest their widerange farm and take care of their properties as well. It is a real benefit to acquire a
reliable source of cheap labor, costing no more than the minimum of food and
lodging. These are the conditions for slavery. Every ancient civilization uses slaves
and it proves easy to acquire them.
13
There are several ways to acquire slaves. First is war. It is the main source of
supply, and wars are frequent and brutal in early civilizations. When a town falls to a
hostile army, it is normal to take into slavery those inhabitants who will make useful
workers and to kill the rest. Second way is the pirates who offer their captives for
sale. Third way is a criminal who is sentenced to slavery. Fourth way is the people
who can not pay their debt. It can bring the end of the liberty. Fifth way is the
impoverished sell their own children. Sixth way is the children of slaves are
themselves
slaves.
(Retrieved
from
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=cio#ixzz3
UYbuBDHe16 March 2015, 9.02 PM )
Slavery happenedsincemany centuries ago in many countries: Sumer, Ancient
Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient India, Ancient
Greece, the Roman Empire, the IslamicCaliphate, the Hebrew kingdoms in Palestine,
and
the
pre-Columbian
civilizations
of
the
Americas
(retrieved
from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery on Monday 19 Jan 9:45 am).
Slavery still exists until now, even thought it is not exposed or hidden in
many countries, many regions, and many workplaces or factories. As reported in
2013, there was a criminal case related to slavery in Tangerang, Indonesia. People
who were employed as laborer in an iron wok factory should faced slavery: they
were promised Rp.700.000 wages per month and got facility. On the contrary,
workedfromsix in the morninguntiltwelve o'clockandjustgotbreakfastandlunch.
Iftheworkerdid notcomply withwhat was ordered, thenthe workerswould belocked
upinastorehousenext door to thefactory. Iftheycomplained about their misery, they
would also getbeaten. The boss slapped and threatened the workers if they tried to
14
escape, they would be shot and thrown into the sea (retrieved from
http://dwikacahayu.blogspot.com/2014/11/etika-bisnis.html on Monday 19 Jan 2015
9:40 am).
2.5 Injustice
Injustice is a quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. The sense
of injustice is a universal human feature, though the exact circumstances considered
unjust can vary from culture to culture. While even acts of nature can sometimes
arouse the sense of injustice, the sense is usually felt in relation to human action such
as misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is uncorrected or else sanctioned by a
legal system or fellow human beings.
There are so many various definition of injustice. Barry S Levy and Victor W
Sidel in their book Social Injustice and Public Health (2013) give explanation about
the relationship of social injustice to many aspects of public health. According to
Levy (2013), social injustice creates conditions that adversely affect the health of
individuals and communities. It denies individuals and groups equal opportunity to
meet their basic human needs. It violates fundamental human rights. It is defined as
the denial or violation of economic, sociocultural, political, civil, or human rights of
specific populations or groups in the society based on the perception of their
inferiority by those with more power or influence. The roots of social injustice are:
poverty and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor; maldistribution of
resources within the society; racism and other forms of discrimination; weak laws or
weak enforcement of laws protecting human rights and other rights; and
disenfranchisement of individuals and groups from the political process.
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Roy Lavon Brooks in his book When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy
Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice (1999) gives a definition of
injustice-human injustice-based upon a synthesis of the instruments of international
law:
A human injustice is the violation or suppression of human rights or
fundamental freedoms recognized by international law, including but
not limited genocide; slavery; extrajudicial killings; torture and other
cruel or degrading treatment; arbitrary detention; rape; the denial of
due process of law; forced refugee movements; the deprivation of a
means of subsistence; the denial of universal suffrage; and
discrimination, distinction, exclusion, or preference based on race,
sex, descent, religion, or other identifying factor with the purpose or
effect of impairing the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise, on an
equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the
political, social, economic, cultural, or any other field of public life.
(Brooks, 1999: 7)
2.6 Slavery in America
Dorothy Schneider and Carl J. Schenider in their book Slavery in America
gives detail explanations about slavery in America: the slavery in Africa, the first
slavery in America, slave life, work, runways, rebels, until the end of slavery in
America. Slavery in America began in the 16th century until 19th century. The slaves
were African who were taken from West coast of Africa and brought to the North
American colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Schneider (2007:49) says,
“Probably they hired the blacks as indentured servants, bound to work for a fixed
term of years, rather than as slaves for life……Little else is known about their lives,
though at least one for a time enjoyed freedom and property. Others certainly came
in the early days as indentured servants, but by 1660 the Virginia labor force
included blacks in bondage for life.”
16
In all the English colonies, north and south, slavery got off to a slow start in
the 17th century but increased rapidly in the 18th century, as the colonists recognized
the need for a large labor force to develop the new continent. They looked first to the
Indians and then to Africans, who were already laboring as slaves in vast numbers
elsewhere in the New World.
Over time, slavery moved to south. It was because the South planters needed
many hands to clear, drain, and cultivate the fertile lands along the coast. With the
invention of the cotton gin and the boom in the international demand for southern
cotton, planters turned to the Southwest for new, fertile land and to slavery to supply
the workers for this labor-intensive crop.
In 18th century, the slavery spread throughout the American colonies because
the African slaves were cheaper and more plentiful labor source than indentured
servants who were mostly poorer Europeans. But, most of slaves were treated so
badly by their master.
William Goodell in the book The American Slave Code in Theory and
Practice: Its Distinctive Features Shown by Its Statutes, Judicial Decisions and
Illustrative Facts. It is a key antislavery work centering on legal discourse and
practice. This book gives more understanding about slave code that is used at the
time. It also shows that the slave shall always be reputed and considered as real
estate; shall, as such, be subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by
law, and they shall be seized and sold as real estate. Goodell (1853:15) said that it is
often maintained that the ‘legal relation of master and slave” is not a criminal one,
and that there is no sin, or moral wrong, in the mere fact of sustaining that relation.
17
According to 2 Brevard’s Digest, 229 ; Prince’s Digest, 446 in South
Carolina in Goodell (1853:23) says, “slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and
adjudged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors,
and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and
purposes whatsoever.”
Civil Code, Art.35 in Louisiana in Goodell (1853:23) says, “A slave is one
who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him,
dispose of his person, his industry and his labor. He can do anything, but what must
belong to his master.”
Civil Code, Art.173 in Goodell (1853:23) says, “The slave is entirely subject
to the will of his master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual
rigor, or so as to maim and mutilate him, or expose him to the danger of loss of life,
or to cause his death.”
Statue of June 7, 1806; 1 Martin’s Digest, 612 in Goodell (1853:24) says,
“Slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate; shall, as such, be subject
to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by law, and they shall be seized
and sold as real estate.”
The slave codes that have mentioned before show how bad slave status and
position are towards society in America. Slave as considered as an subject, a real
estate, not a human being. They are treated as a thing that can be possessed and sold
by their masters. As Goodell (1853:77-78) says, “Slaves are not persons in the view
of the law, for any purposes of benefit to them; as will hereafter be more fully
shown. The rights of a slave are not recognize, and no limitation of the master’s use
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of him can come from that quarter. “The slave” (says the law) “is entirely subject to
the will of his master.” Nothing, therefore, can prevent the master from putting him
to any use he pleases.
The Slave Code places slaves upon a level with other live cattle. It never
attempts or pretends to protect the slaves. It is known that they are only as mere
animals. Their rational and moral natures, not being recognized by the laws, can
claim no legal protection. The slave has not equal protection, in some respects, with
other animals.
Mr. Samuel Blackwell in Goodell (1983:80) visited many of the sugar
plantations in Louisiana, and says:
That the planters generally declared to him that they were obliged so
to overwork their slaves, during the sugar-making season, (from
eight to ten week,) as to USE THEM in seven or eight years. For,
said they, after the process is commenced, it must be pushed without
cessation, night and day, and we cannot afford to keep a sufficient
number of slaves to do the extra work at the time of sugar-making,
as we could not profitably employ them the rest of the year.
2.7 Treatment of Slaves in America.
The treatment of slaves in America varied by time and place, but was
generally brutal and degrading. Whipping, execution and sexual abuse of women,
including rape, were common.
Schneider (2007:90) said that the slave system was founded on and sustained
by brute force—physical punishment. Both masters and mistresses themselves could
beat their slaves or order them beaten by overseers, black drivers, or men employed
for that purpose in slave jails. Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling,
hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding and/or imprisonment. Punishment
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was most often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but
masters or overseers sometimes abused slaves to assert dominance. Slave masters
even beat pregnant women, devising ways to do it without harming the baby. Slave
masters would dig a hole big enough for the woman's stomach to lay in and proceed
with the lashings. In addition, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese in Schneider (2007:90) says,
“Mistresses whipped slave women with whom they might have shared beds, whose
children they might have delivered or who might have delivered theirs, whose
children they might have suckled and who frequently suckled theirs.”
The mistreatment of slaves frequently included rape and the sexual abuse of
women. Some slaves died while trying to resist sexual attacks. Others sustained
psychological and physical trauma. The sexual abuse of slaves was partially rooted in
the patriarchal nature of contemporary Southern culture and its view of women of
any race as property. After 1662, when Virginia adopted the legal doctrine partus
sequitur ventrem, sexual relations between white men and black women were
regulated by classifying children of slave mothers as slaves regardless of their
father's race or status.
Jenny Hill in Schneider (2007:85) explains the bitterness of such treatment
when she was separated from her husband and child to be enslaved:
How well I remember how I would sit in my room with
the little ones on my lap and the tears would roll down my
cheeks as I would ponder the right and wrong of bringing
them into the world. What was I bringing them into the
world for? To be slaves and go from morning to night.
They couldn’t be educated and maybe they couldn’t even
live with their families. They would just be slaves. All that
time I wasn’t even living with my husband. He belonged
to another man. He had to stay on his farm and I on mine.
That wasn’t living—that was slavery.
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Particularly in the Upper South, a population developed of mixed-race
(mulatto) offspring of such unions, although white Southern society claimed to abhor
miscegenation and punished sexual relations between white women and black men as
damaging to racial purity.
This treatments and punishment towards slaves show how worst slave is
viewed by white people: they consider the slave as a subject, not a human being as
they are. Schneider (2007:91) says, “The punishments inflicted on slaves testify to
the worst side of human nature. Slave owners inflicted not only commonplace
beatings with lashes designed to hurt but also horrifyingly inventive tortures. They
were often tinged with perverted sexuality and sadism. For proof of their excesses
historians do not need the writings of abolitionists, who focused on them with a kind
of sick fascination. The testimony of former slaves, the diaries of southern women,
southern newspapers, and publicrecords teem with accounts of these unspeakable
cruelties.”
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