" [......]The box had done what Sweet Home had not, what working like an ass and living like a dog had not: drove him crazy so he would not lose his mind. By the time he got to Ohio, then to Cincinnati, then to Halle Suggs' mother's house, he thought he had seen and felt it all. Even now as he put back the window frame he had smashed, he could not account for the pleasure in his surprise at seeing Halle's wife alive, barefoot with uncovered hair--walking around the corner of the house with her shoes and stockings in her hands. The closed portion of his head opened like a greased lock."
This quote illustrates how freed slaves had to create routines in an attempt to survive. These routines served as outlets so that they wouldn’t go crazy but it purposely minimized a person's ability to think. That’s what slavery had done to them, it had reduced them to property and animals. In trying to suppress the memory of slavery you give up any possibility of a future because by denying the existence of the past you create instability in the future. People can not move further unless they learn to cope and accept what happened in the past. However, contrary to what many conservatives might tell you, with something as traumatic as slavery you can’t simply “accept it and move on”. The first step in healing should not be for the victim to accept it, the first step in healing should be for the perpetrator to accept that they did something wrong. Instead of trying to pretend it didn’t happen by calling it “Atlantic triangular trade”, as a nation we should more openly acknowledge that slavery was a big part of our history and it still has lasting effects that we can see today. Only after we have condemned these actions can we begin to see lasting change.
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