Slavery’s Pleasant Homes
Slavery’s
Pleasant Homes told by L. M. Child is a sorrowful story that presents a clear
picture of how racism, slavery, marriage, and classism as institutions were
used by Frederic Dalcho to oppress and humiliate George, Rosa, Mars and Marion.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss, investigate and analyze all the major
elements in the story and how these elements can be linked to the various
characters such as Frederic and George Dalcho, Mars, Marion and Rosa. This
paper seeks to investigate who is morally culpable for perpetrating the worst
thing that humanity has ever encounter. It is also my goal to recommend
possible power structures that can be substituted for those which existed
in the story. I also attempt to address current sexist, racist and classist
practices that are demonstrated in the United States and how these practices
promote and encourage oppression, male supremacy, violence, and the
exploitation of the powerless, weak, poor, unprivileged and vulnerable
population. In order to fully understand each element in the story “Slavery’s
Pleasant Homes” and how these can be attributed to each of the other characters
in the story and their moral implications, it is also important to briefly
state and connect the major events in the story to their moral significance.
Therefore, I attempt to find out whether or not Frederic’s actions were morally
ethical?
Frederic Dalcho was a rich man who lived in the south in Georgia and was
married to a young and beautiful lady name Marion who also had two servants to
her possession. These two servants may have been given to her by her parents as
a family arrangement to serve in her newly wedded home. Frederic was probably
the son of a rich man who may have died and left all the wealth in his
possession as well as slaves even though he also has other siblings probably
from a different mother. According to the story “Slavery’s Pleasant Homes,” he
also has a brother by the name of George who is likely from his father side. It
is assumed that George made have been from a different mother meaning that he
might have had a different skin color.
Frederic enslaved
his own brother George and considered him his favorite slave. Isn’t that
immoral? How could someone who claims to be a good and respected person in the
community enslave his own brother, because they both never came from the same
parents? It can be assumed from the story that Frederic’s wickedness to his own
brother may have been grounded on the basis of racism; George’s mother was a
black woman. He expressed his hate for his brother after noting that George and
Rosa fell in love with each other. Even though he has his wife who is also
beautiful and intelligent, he desired to forcefully rape, torture, beat and
subsequently murder Rosa, because she refused to go out with him or resisted
having sexual intercourse with him when he tried to rape her. His actions,
according to Kant’s moral theory, contradicted that of goodwill and portrayed
example of extreme wickedness. Kant best described his behavior in the
following word, “behaving contrary to duty is considered an immoral actions;
whereas, or merely in accordance with duty or out of a sense of duty, as when
we identify rationally the rule that tells us the right thing to do, and we do
it” (Waters, 2008).
Dealing with
others fairly is a moral responsibility that we all should strive for if we
want to achieve a good moral standard. She furthered noted by commenting on
Kant’s moral theory stating that “we have varieties of duties: to be honest, to
deal with others fairly, to be good to each other (beneficent), to refrain from
being bad to each other, to try to see that justice is done” (Waters, 2008). To
Kant, Frederic’s actions and behavior would be considered unethical and morally
wrong, because he enslaved his own brother, disrespected his wife by raping,
abusing and murdering his slave girl . His intentions in committing these
acts were based on a well-founded desire to achieve a set end, which eventually
lead to pains and sufferings of his subjects. Slavery, racism, sexism, marriage
and classism were institutions that Frederic promoted in order to oppress and
exploit his subjects. These institutions also brought with them ideologies that
the owners used in dealing with their subjects and most of these ideologies
even though they seem to be promoted with the intent to achieve a desire end,
encouraged their perpetrators to inflict pains and sufferings on their
subjects.
In Slavery’s
Pleasant Homes, Frederic disrespected his wife by raping Rosa and beating
her to death. This can also lead us to the conclusion that his actions
demonstrated that he was the leader of the home, thus leading us to another
ideology, which dominated human history, especially the institution of family
for centuries and that is the “male supremacy” or the patriarchal system. The
11th Edition of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary provides
two definitions for the term patriarchy. These definitions are stated below to
give us a clearer understanding about how this word can affect our lives and
how these two definitions are relevant for the purpose of this paper.
Firstly,
patriarchy is defined as a “social organization marked by the supremacy of the
father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and
the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line.” Secondly, it is “a
society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of
patriarchy” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2005). For the purpose of
our study concerning how male supremacy dominated the home of Frederic Dalcho
by practicing the patriarchal system of family and how that institution
(marriage) was used to promote the ideology of male supremacy, gender and class
in the home in suppressing, oppressing and exploiting his wife as well as their
subjects, I will therefore accept the two definitions and based my arguments
that male supremacy in the home is wrong, because it exploit the females of
their legal rights, as well as make her much more like a sex slave subject to
the will and domination of the male. I believe from the reading and
understanding of the nature of the problems that Marion and Rosa both
experienced in the story that Frederic’s actions as a husband and slave owner
was inappropriate and an abuse of nature and his action constituted one of the
immoral acts that humanity has ever experienced. His actions were based on
selfish desires and should not be considered as a universal law. As a husband,
it is expected that he should have respect, care and love for his wife. His
attitude towards his wife shows that he does not consider her part of his live,
but rather as a sex slave or possession that he has no concrete feelings for.
The community in
which these acts happened is also of importance to consider if we really want
to unearth the significance of Frederic’s actions to Marion, George, Rosa and
Mars. A community is composed of people of diverse social and economic class.
It can be assumed from the story that some people of that community also kept
slaves. This is because, after considering all that Frederic did to his wife,
George and Rosa, the community still honor him as a respectful and honorable
person without showing due respect to those who were victimized by this wicked
creature of their community. It can also be concluded that Frederic may have
used his influence as a rich man as well as slave owner to render some
assistance to the community while he was yet alive.
However, it can
also be assumed from Kant’s moral theory that his good gesture to the people of
his community may have been based on an end result, which is to gain
recognition and respect as oppose to doing it out of goodwill without expecting
an end result for what has been done. I also feel that the community didn’t do
well in handling the issues that Frederic committed to his wife, Rosa, George and
Mars. I feel that they were discriminated, ridiculed and criticized for crimes
that they didn’t initiate. Frederic should have been the one to be criticized
and subsequently punished because of his immoral acts against these powerless
and vulnerable people.
Works Cited
Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition. 2005, Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Springfield, MA
Child,
Lydia Maria. "Slavery's Pleasant Homes." The Online Archive of
Nineteenth-Century U.S. Women's Writings. Ed. Glynis Carr. Online.
Internet. Posted: Summer 1997.
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cUSWW/LB/SPH.html. Accessed: June 10,
2008.
Waters, Summer I. WSC. (Lecture and Study
Sheet on Race and Gender), 2008
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