Thursday, April 06, 2006
Finished Kindred
I've read other good slave novels, such as Beloved, but Kindred does a better job conveying the moral abomination, the moral travesty of slavery. The conceit of a free black woman forced into slavery for months, being willing to grovel herself into the role of house nigger to avoid being whipped out in the fields drives home the horror better than any film or history book I've ever read.
It is still incredible that America allowed slavery so long into its existence, allowed segregation for a century afterwards, allowed lynching & cross burnings, and denied such basic human rights to other human beings for millenia. Amazing that intelligent people could rationalize the enslavement of another human being, and that it took a war to finally settle the issue, and another 100 years for the reconstruction amendments to be obeyed.
It is still incredible that America allowed slavery so long into its existence, allowed segregation for a century afterwards, allowed lynching & cross burnings, and denied such basic human rights to other human beings for millenia. Amazing that intelligent people could rationalize the enslavement of another human being, and that it took a war to finally settle the issue, and another 100 years for the reconstruction amendments to be obeyed.
