Interview With Toni Morrison Essays - Racism, African Slave Trade

Interview With Toni Morrison I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal more about history, we automatically understand a great more about contemporary life. Also, there's more of the past for imaginative purposes than there is of the future. Q. Beloved is dedicated to the 60 million who died as a result of slavery. A staggering number -- is this proved historically? A. Some historians told me 200 million died. The smallest number I got from anybody was 60 million. There were travel accounts of people who were in the Congo -- that's a wide river -- saying, ''We could not get the boat through the river, it was choked with bodies.'' That's like a logjam. A lot of people died. Half of them died in those ships. Slave trade was like cocaine is now -- even though it was against the law, that didn't stop anybody. Imagine getting $1,000 for a human being. That's a lot of money. There are fortunes in this country that were made that way. I thought this has got to be the least read of all the books I'd written because it is about something that the characters don't want to remember, I don't want to remember, black people don't want to remember, white people don't want to remember. I mean, it's national amnesia. Q. You gave new insight into the daily struggle of slaves. A. I was trying to make it a personal experience. The book was not about the institution -- Slavery with a capital S. It was about these anonymous people called slaves. What they do to keep on, how they make a life, what they're willing to risk, however long it lasts, in order to relate to one another -- that was incredible to me. For me, the torturous restraining devices became a hook on which to say what it was like in personal terms. I knew about them because slaves who wrote about their lives mentioned them, and white people wrote about them. There's a wonderful diary of the Burr family in which he talks about his daily life and says, ''Put the bit on Jenny today.'' He says that about 19 times in six months -- and he was presumably an enlightened slave owner. Slave-ship captains also wrote a lot of memoirs, so it's heavily documented. There was a description of a woman who had to wear a bell contraption so when she moved they always knew where she was. There were masks slaves wore when they cut cane. They had holes in them, but it was so hot inside that when they took them off, the skin would come off. Presumably, these things were to keep them from eating the sugar cane. What is interesting is that these things were not restraining tools, like in the torture chamber. They were things you wore while you were doing the work. Amazing. It seemed to me that the humiliation was the key to what the experience was like. There was this ad hoc nature of everyday life. For black people, anybody ! might do anything at any moment. Two miles in any direction, you may run into Quakers who feed you or Klansmen who kill you -- you don't know. When you leave the plantation, you are leaving not only what you know, you are leaving your family English Essays

Homeless people essays

Homeless people essays When was the last time you saw a homeless man or woman in the street? Did you ever wonder what events had to have happened to make that person want to or have to live in the streets with no place to go to? There are many things that could have happened to them which might have contributed to their problem. The reasons are different for each and every person. Some of the more major issues that contribute to this are lack of affordable housing, declining welfare assistance, and mental illness. Homeless and the working poor are not able to get enough money to afford a house. The National Coalition for the Homeless clearly states, A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness (Why Are People Homeless). There is not much done these days to help with affordable housing for everyone. The homeless problem will continue to increase if nothing is done. Supply of low-income housing has declined precipitously making it harder for those with low wages to acquire a house (Wright). The high expense of an average house is more than someone working on minimum can afford and still have enough for other needs. Any accident or emergency could prevent them from making a payment or getting what they need. James Wright reports, in his article homelessness, [Adult education programs, emergency fund and transitional housing programs] have made the lives of many homeless people more tolerable, but they do not address low-income housing crisis. Welfare and soup kitchens cannot help the nations homeless population in the long run. We need a good solution that will help prevent and give a long-term solution for homelessness. Affordable homes would make a large difference in the current status of homelessness in this country. Affordable housing is a major problem that affects numero ...