Starting with the first link of extracting a chigger. The painting pictures a black woman on her knees extracting a chigger from a white mans foot sitting on a stool. The chigger was a bug known for spreading disease and infection primarily starting by burrowing and laying eggs on foot. Now these infections can result in severe pain and discomfort, if not removed can result in festering wounds on feet and will spread to other parts of the body. There was risk to removing them as well, any open wounds to the woman removing the chigger could very easily receive the same infection which just goes to show how little they care for the black woman taking care of the man. I also am aware of the 2 men in the tavern watching the encounter happen, possibly they too have chiggers that need to be removed that they would like her to remove. So a dangerous operation to say the least dealing with what could be a terrible infection.
The second link of my blog post. This document has a very heavy weight to it for me, cause it shows on document how little they were valued and you see that by this receipt. sold for the same price as a couple pairs of shoes today. absolutely remarkable the change. The picture shows the receipt of mom (Jane 18 years old) and her son (Jalen 1 year old) Being sold for the low cost of 600$ for both the mom and son. I found this image shocking. It’s definitive proof of the sale of humans and to me that was just repulsive. It shows the document and the agreement of the selling of the slaves as well as the now ownership of any kids she will have in the future.
I went through many documents but just found these ones interesting to write on for this weeks very productive blog post. See y’all this week!
