The Confession of Latrese Mugumbo

[JesusA (imported)]

WOW!!! Slammr has produced an incredibly powerful story. For those who read the Archive for the castration-count, it ranks very high on the scale. For those who read for powerful ideas, this may be the best yet.

By reversing a familiar story, one that most of the Americans here read in high school, Slammr has brought home the power that was contained in the original when it was new. This IS The Confession of Nat Turner with all the impact that the original would have conveyed at the time it was written in 1831. Slammr has made the necessary changes to SLAM home to the Archive reader just what the original would have said to a White slave owner in the American South.

It’s a powerful condemnation of man’s inhumanity to man. AND, it’s a great story for the Archive.

The description of the slave raid could easily be a slightly edited version of many contemporary accounts that were published describing raids in Africa. Although the slave boys who were castrated in the African raids were destined either for the Moslem lands of North Africa and the Middle East or were for domestic use guarding the harems of some of the African kings.

Castration was rare, but certainly not unknown in the American colonies, or later in the United States. There are records of Colonial congregations debating whether a truly Christian slave owner could castrate his slaves. Different congregations came to different answers. There are ample descriptions of judicial castrations of slaves in states ranging from Massachusetts to South Carolina. One South Carolina slave rebellion resulting in 27 castrations. There are descriptions of eunuch house slaves in New Orleans at least, though they probably existed elsewhere as well. In my research, I have come across an ad for a runaway slave that stated that he could be recognized because he "had been recently castrated and the wound not yet healed."

Slammr brings the period home to us by setting it in our future. Great job!

[Charlieje (imported)]

What can I say, but to add my "Yeah, what he said" to Jesus' post.

I am ashamed to admit that I did not know who Nat Turner was, so Slammr's story has been a double bonus for me. I know who he was now... I spent most of the day reading all I could find on the 'net about him.

We Canadians sometimes like to be smug and judgmental of the US and its period of slavery, but we have no right. We had slaves in Canada too, folks! There weren't very many, and it's not a well known fact, but it's true. On the very farm where I grew up there was a very old concrete pad with iron rings imbedded, and I was told it was the ruins of a slave shack - where slaves were kept overnight when working in the fields.

When I was 12 years old, I was working one day in an unfamiliar field, baling hay for a neighbor, when I went to where I knew there was a water pump for a drink of water. I arrived at the pump a few seconds after a boy who was more or less my own age, and very obviously MicMac Indian. When I approached (this was in 1950) the other boy backed away. I grabbed the pump handle and began to pump, then when I said to the boy "You were here first, I'll pump while you get your water" he looked at me as if I had two heads! As far as I can remember that was my first encounter with racism, except for being on the receiving end for being English Protestant, which was minor, really. That Indian boy could not believe that a white boy would pump water for him!

So you see, racism is everywhere!

Thank you, Slammr! Who knows? With all that's happening right now in the world, your story could be prophetic. Think about it, folks!