This week’s content focused primarily on the history of slavery and the unexplainable treatment towards enslaved people. My previous education of slavery did talk about the violent and incomprehensible treatment of enslaved people, which I am very grateful in knowing. It is beyond important to truly understand the basis in which our country was formed. Aside from the minimal information I did learn in my middle and high school education regarding slavery, a large component of my knowledge does come from social media. While the Black Lives Matter movement has been around for a while, this past summer has had a huge impact on my life and my knowledge regarding the topic. I have learned so much from listening to complete strangers talk about their families’ origins and what they went through by just living in the United States. This forms the research question:
What are some of the way’s treatment of enslaved people from the times of slavery formed today’s society?
To find primary sources, I could ask questions to a family who has lived through the struggles of being a Black family in America. This could include conversations over social media, if there were comfortable with that, or using communication such as facetime or even zoom. Aside from directly talking to a family, I could find historical documents or autobiographies of an enslaved person who lived through the time of slavery and compare those situations to some of the struggles that current families are dealing with in current America.
Some complications could arise from how emotional this topic can be. It is hard to relive such a violent past. I could reframe the question to gear more towards how families in today’s society would like to honor their ancestors. It would be great to access autobiographies from enslaved people and read exactly the life they lived. From the original question, I would be able to see patterns in human behavior and notice how American society has learned or not learned from their violent and exploitive past. I hope to see a pattern in which people in todays society understand the trauma of the experiences of enslaved people and how that trauma can carry on through generations.
I really like the continuity element of your research question to draw a clear thread between the past and present. Engaging with people today about the legacies of slavery is a very important step– I know some scholars who conduct oral histories and it’s fascinating work! As you described, pairing contemporary sources with historical ones would be equally important in addressing your question.