Have students review Foreman’s essay in class and have them write down what they think the key take-away of the piece is.
Class Discussion:
- What is the difference between calling someone a slave versus enslaved? Why does it matter?
- What are some of the terms we can use for people who owned or sold enslaved people?
- This guide is less than a decade old. What has changed about the way we use language about racism/slavery/injustice in the past twenty years that has made this necessary?
- How does the archive perpetuate racism and brutality?
- What should we be attentive to when discussing, translating and working in the records of the slave trade?
- How do we filter the extreme racism and brutality of records of the slave trade to
preserve people’s dignity and agency?
Introducing concept of specialized language in the slave trade:
Introduce terminology used by slave traders to describe enslaved people: skin color (mulatto, griffe, etc.); occupation (driver, coachman, field slave); age (boy/man/girl/woman); physical appearance (likely, strong, lively); mannerisms and behavior (intelligent, obedient, prone to running away, likes to drink)
- How do we use this language to get a better picture of the lives of enslaved people without replicating the discrimination and dehumanization inherent in the descriptions?
- Develop a glossary of terms found by students in the records and explain what they meant in the nineteenth century and how those terms were used as part of the system of oppression.
- Discuss which terms can be used in our discussions of the slave trade and which need to be replaced with less loaded language.