My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass (pg40-42)

It's curious to me how they always say that history is written by the victors, but yet we are always subjected to the lessons found in America's entanglement in slavery. Granted it is always written from the perspective of the freed slave, or the victorious Northern abolitionist, nonetheless I can't think of a sadder, less victorious standpoint than that of the slave. I find this to be true and surprising in a point made by Frederick Douglass in the reading assigned this week when he discusses the life of a slave child up until the point which he would be transferred to field or house labor. He shares with the reader that since children were not yet valuable to the slave owner, being too small and too weak, they spent most of their days having more enjoyment than even their while adolescent counterparts. In fact, according to Douglass, "the slave-boy escapes many troubles which befall and vex his white brother." Slave boys could run around, get dirty, swim in their clothes, and just basically enjoy whatever little they had at their disposal to its fullest extent without too much concern of the effects thereof or the reprimand that could accompany their actions had they been white or been bred to be respectful and peaceful like white children were. These images paint an idyllic picture, an almost Utopian happiness and what I feel is a rather stark contrast to the typical image we, as students, are subjected to frequently when in the discussion of slaves. I realized while reading this however that there is really no way to prove that what Douglass says is true or false. Not many other slaves could read let alone write, and abolitionists and slaveholders alike were not involved to such a grand extent in the life of young slave children to deny or affirm what Douglass shares. This adds a quiet sadness to the images he shares with his reader because unless we accept it word for word it left me wondering if perhaps while wanting to teach us about the ills and negatives of slavery, Douglass wanted to show us, and perhaps needed to show himself to some degree, that is wasn't all bad all the time.