English 1: What was Thompson’s theory of the relationship between sanctions and slavery?

Whipping was a part of a slaves life. It was a tragic time.

Thompson talks, in his autobiography, about a whipping that the “masters” did. Some slaves just took it, and others tried to oppose it. He told one story that got to me. This was the story about, when he went to a neighboring plantation. He arrived and walked in, because he knew the people. The sight he saw was horrible, the “mistress” was running around chasing a girl that looked to be around eight years of age. She was bleeding and Thompson says that the blood was streaming down he back and dripping on the floor. What had she done? Dropped a plate.

This story got to me. I know that slaves beat but for some reason I never pictured a little girl or boy for a matter of fact, being beaten to that extent. Maybe the reason is I could never, in a million years think of doing that to a child.

But Thompson shows that not all slave owners were horrible people. Some rarely beat their slaves. Some were even “kind” if you can say that, to their slaves. They understood that when you are cruel to your, I hate to say this but “product” or “livestock” they wont produce good results. He mentioned some owners that even built churches for their slaves and they had amazing crops. He said this was because he earth wasn’t filled with cruelty.

So in my opinion his theory was that if you have cruel sometimes downright evil sanctions on your slaves, they wont produce for you. And if you don’t have bad sanctions for them, they will help you and make money for you.

THANKS for reading this essay. I hope you like it, I’ll post more soon and have a great day!