To Be A Slave, 1968Excerpt, p. 76 There are two ways in which a man can be enslaved. One is through force. He can be penned behind fences, guarded constantly, punished severely for breaking the slightest rule, and made to live in constant fear. The second is to teach him to think that his own best interests will be served by doing what his master wishes him to do. He can be taught that he is inferior and that only through slavery will he eventually rise to the "level" of his master. The southern slave owner used both. The first was the way of the whip, the threat of the auction block, and murder. Its aim was to make the slave live in constant fear.... The second way was more subtle. Its aim was to brainwash the slave, to destroy his mind and replace it with the mind of the master. In that way the slave would enslave himself and there would be no need to police him. A slave should have no sense of himself that was separate from the self the master wanted him to have. Thus it was that no black had a name of his own. He was given the surname of his owner, no mater how many owners he might have during his life. |
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