Comments on: Plantation Politics: House Slave versus Field Slave

By: UNN.com Throwback Week — Revisiting the Field Negro and the House Negro « Uppity Negro Network

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:02:52 +0000

[...] or in other words, the whole field Negro versus house Negro dichotomy. I had approached this topic back in May 2008 referring to “plantation politics” on the heels of the Jeremiah Wright debacle and the Obama campaign, but a year and some [...]

By: Ba-Dunk

Ba-Dunk — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:06:11 +0000

shorten this please! thank you!

By: JEAn

JEAn — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:56:46 +0000

see above

By: JEAn

JEAn — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:56:03 +0000

What do you think of Obama now?

By: AP

AP — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:39:30 +0000

Since mention was made of the topic of the ‘house’
and the ‘field’ slave — I just wanted to note that
this false concept that so many people have
– that the lighter-complexioned chattel slaves
“had it easier” or “thought they were better”
than the darker-complexioned slaves -– and
/ or largely “relaxed in the big house” while
the darker-complexioned slaves “suffered
in the fields” — is very much (just like the
infamous ‘Willie Lynch Letter’ Hoax) all VERY
MUCH AN URBAN MYTH (and, is one which,
in nearly every way that’s possible, completely
defies the true historical recorded account).

The historical record shows that
those enslaved people who were of a
lighter-complexion (i.e. mulatto-lineage)
and that were found on the continental
United States during the antebellum
(chattel-slavery) era were actually treated
MUCH WORSE than were those enslaved
people who were of a darker-complexion.

In fact, the record shows that most of the White
people (especially the White women) tended
to look upon the lighter-complexioned slaves
as being mere ‘mongrels of miscegenation’
(resulting largely from the rapes caused by the
plantation ‘Overseers’); in their disgust at the
sight of these slaves — insisted that they
be “banished to the fields”; and also then
purposefully reserved most of the ‘big house’
positions (ex. mammy, cook, driver, etc.) for
the darker-complexioned slaves — who most of
the White people had perceived as being “more loyal,
more docile, less competitive, etc.”, and, even more
important, they were also of a skin tone which
could never cause them to be seen as being
any part-’white’ (and even worse, perceived as
“possibly” also being “a member of the family”
–as it were– of a given plantation ‘Owner’).

And this maltreatment was generally even much
more so the case if the lighter-complexioned
enslaved person was even remotely ’suspected’
(by, say, a wife, sister or daughter — who ran “the big
house”, while a ‘male’ family member ran “the plantation”)
of possibly being the offspring of a given plantation
‘Owner’ (or his son, or father, or brother, or any other
male found in the plantation ‘Owners’ White family).

In addition, the few lighter-complexioned enslaved
people that were actually permitted to do any work
in the “big house” were (as a punishment for having
the lowly status of “mongrel” and in order to make sure
that they did not become “too uppity”) kept under a
much more severe work supervision (by both the
White women who ran the plantation household and
also by the darker-complexioned enslaved people
who had been placed over the lighter-complexioned
enslaved people and given various “rewards” in an
exchange for the promise to ‘keep an eye on’ them)
than were most of the (more trusted and seemingly
endeared) darker-complexioned enslaved people.

Books by Deborah Gray White; Paula Giddings; bell
hooks; J. California Cooper; William Wells Brown;
etc. expose the truth about the urban-myth and
show that the lighter-complexioned enslaved
people received NO special treatment and were,
instead (due to being seen as mere “mongrels of
miscegenation”) usually treated much worse than
were most darker-complexioned enslaved people.

The hatred, fear and mistrust that many of the antebellum
and post-antebellum era White southerners felt toward the
people who were both of a light-complexion (mulatto-lineage)
and were also chattel-slaves, is very strongly presented
in the ‘D.W. Griffith’ racist film ‘Birth of a Nation’– where
pretty much all the trouble, tragedy and dangers found
experienced by White southern families in the film is
falsely presented as being caused by “uppity” Mulattoes
who ‘needed to be taught “their place” among White people’.
(i.e. they “needed” to be beaten, raped, lynched, etc. by the
“proud” White people who had been reared to make it clear
that they felt “no connection” to any non-White person).

Anyone who would like any additional information
on this topic can feel free to contact me directly.

Hope this information is helpful
& that everyone has a great day.

– AP (soaptalk@hotmail.com)

By: Anymos

Anymos — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:53:19 +0000

I find this very rash, the concluding lines
“certainly not advocating that blacks take up arms and start killing random white folk as did Nat Turner, but…” questions competence and credibility. Nat Turner did not go round shooting dead people but a targeted set of people.

By: Devin

Devin — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:59:48 +0000

Great write up… Good analogy using House slave versus Field slave mentality because this mindset still exist within the black community. You will have some people within the black community argue that Dr. Wright shouldn’t have said the things in which he did because it will hurt Obama’s changes of becoming the first Black President. To those I will say this, your are missing the big picture here. While I agree that their statements on the surface might be true but what everyone is failing to see from my perspective is the fact that Man alone can not evoke change. God has to work within us all to accomplish change for the world to see. I would love to see the first Black President in my lifetime, but how Obama handled this situation is a bit unnerving to me. While I know that he is being political by disowning him in public I feel that with a little more tact this could have been a non issue now. I have heard several within the white communtity label Dr. Wright a “hatemonger” but as of yet, I have not seem anyone present hard evidence that would dis-credit what he has said. I haven’t even seen anyone attempt to do so because most opinions are still based off sound bites.

By: jlazard10

jlazard10 — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:52:09 +0000

Thanks for reading!!! If you happen to find a website with Dr. West’s opinion, could you forward it to me.

JLL

By: t. m.

t. m. — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:02:55 +0000

hi,
I just wanted to let you know that someone is profitably reading you–

I’m a white woman, twice your age probably. Your last several entries are helping me think.

I was trolling the web, looking for what Cornel West might have said about Wright. . . but found you instead.

Keep writing,
T.