Response to Nicos Blog

  I am writing this to respond to Ms. Colomer's blog ( NicosWorld ) on the book "Slave and Citizen" by Frank Tennenbaum. She makes a few very interesting points in her blog about Tennebaum.  She writes "I found myself questioning whether or not he had an actual stand on slavery or was just leading us to a point where we make our own decision." in the first paragraph of her blog.(Colomer) In my opinion this means that she didn't think Tennenbaum had an actual stand on slavery. I agree with her statement because after reading more of Tennenbaums' "Slave and Citizen" i realize that his tone doesn't truly show if he favors or wants to get rid of slavery. I believe that Tennenbaum writes about slavery in a very general way and this is often shown in the passage as he switches between positive and negative results of slavery.

  Ms. Colomer shows that she believes this because of her saying that Tennenbaum "tends to contradict himself" in her blog.(Colomer) I have gotten many different feelings from reading “Slave and Citizen” but I still cannot tell If Frank Tennenbaum  wanted abolition of slavery of if he favored it.  His opinions and statements were very general although there was a lot of citation to back up his work. She writes “Reading over parts of the book like this brought me to question what is Tannenbaum really trying to say? What is his point out of the so many he makes?” as the ending sentence to the paragraph.(Colomer) I agree with the author of NicosWorld blogs because I myself can’t see which side he is on if any.

Blog numero dos ( 2 )

I've struggled through most Frank Tennenbaums "Slave and Citizen" for the past 3 weeks. I realized after getting to page 3 in the online version of it that i had no interest in the book. I finally got myself a copy of the book itself and that has helped me greatly in getting to read it. I find many points made in the reading interesting and i can understand and see how it all played out and led to our present time. I am from South America and its very interesting reading about the history of the other countries and the details behind the forced "migration" of the "negros" to the Americas. Honestly i cannot tell what tone is used in "Slave and Citizen". Towards the end of the book his tone changes and this is something i wouldn't have realized without someone else pointing that out to me. He seems to become very sexual in his writing in his closing of the book. In my opinion the major claim is the difference in how slavery was viewed and treated in the northern and southern hemisphere. I agree with Tennenbaums statements that in the southern hemisphere "negro slaves" has liberties unknown to those that were in the northern hemisphere. He shows several examples of this and being someone from South America i can relate to this all slightly. In Guyana, the country in which i was born, there is still great tension between the people because of skin color, race, and simply areas where you were born and raised. Tennenbaum claims that the majority of the southern hemisphere was the "negro". I agree with tennenbaum in this claim based on the time period it was said about.

Summary Of Slave And Citizen

In discussions of slavery, one controversial issue has been the differences in slavery in Brazil and America. On one hand Frank Tennenbaum claims that negros in Brazil were allowed to climb the social ladder and had liberties that American slaves never did. He shows this in slave and citizen by saying " even under the empire the negro and the mulatto ... had an acceptance unthinkable in the american scene" . Tennenbaums arguement that slavery was very different in Brazil is supported by quotes from other authors in his work. i agree with Tennenbaums statements on differences in slavery between America and Brazil. Tennenmaums also states that the majority of southern America was negros. I believe that this played a major role in allowing slaves in Brazil to climb the social ladder and get jobs unthinkable to slaves in America.

Classmates Twitters

I favorited Paul's tweet saying " ... fact of american life bering different without the negro" because it is very similar to a post i made myself. Without the american negro we would not have advanced as much as a society. "If it wasn't for the history of the slave trade we would never have a foundation of social and economical power." which was written by Leticia was also a favorite of mine because it also states the point that Paul raised saying that without slavery and the "negros" we would not have been able grow as much economically and socially.

English 101 Bloggy

 I'm not normally the type to read a book about slavery but since it is required for class I'm slowly getting through "Slave and Citizen". I've learned a lot about slavery and I've refreshed my memory on a lot about it from reading this book. Frank Tennenbaum's views about slavery and how it affected our world is something that i have to agree and disagree with. He has a very old fashioned way of thinking and makes the it seem like this was all an adventure rather than something horrific. Tennenbaum states " ... an adventure on a grand scale, involving diverse peoples, varying cultures, millions of human beings" at the beginning of his book. As a picky reader he has already caught my attention with just his usage of words to perk curiosity in a read.

 The way slavery was looked at in South America and North America were also different. He cites other works to prove his points which shows that he isn't a man who is speaking blindly but one giving his opinion on a matter and supporting it. "Negros" in South America had liberties that those in North America did not. Interracial marriage was allowed and some women of color of higher social status had slaves of their own. Tennenbaum shows statistically that the majority people in the South Americas were "negros". This made them the "dominant" race. In comparison to North America who's majority was Caucasian South America was most populated by "negros".

 Tennenbaum makes a point that without the slave trade many countries wouldn't have grown as fast economically. I agree with this point but i also disagree. The slave trade allowed for many countries to make money easily by simply selling off human life of another country. I believe that the slave trade allowed for quick expansion into the Americas and that it was the foundation that transformed it into a place where opportunities for life were everywhere. Many countries were able to profit considerably by taking part in trafficking slaves and being consumers to these slave vendors. I disagree with this because in my opinion there were several other ways to hasten growth economically without the sacrifice of a fellow human being. I also believe that the slave trade was horrible because in general people looked down on "negros" in that time period. Slave trafficking did not start because of its profits. It started because of how people viewed each other. They had specific class and race systems and chose who were on the bottom. This idea that "negros" were below everyone else is what allowed for so many to go along with it without hesitation or any major actions to stop it.

Diagnostic

  The struggle for an American Negro to be recognized as an American without those who take his skin color into consideration has been a long and hard battle over the years. “The history of the American negro is the history of his strife” was a part of the passage that stood out most to me as it states what the passage is about. It describes the American Negro struggle to be seen as one being and not someone who was part of two different worlds.  I believe this is a significant point because it states that American Negros want not to become one or another of these two but to become one whole of the combined two.  In my opinion I think it is very important for a human being to be able to feel as if they are simply looked upon as another human being without this idea that they don’t belong because of differences culturally or in race/ethnicity.

   

  Skin color left a brand on American Negros. They were seen as Americans of a lower tier.  Being seen as if they were not worthy of opportunities only added to the struggle of wanting to be an American who is respected and thought of as an American without the paradigm that having a dark skin tone changed his or hers loyalty to the country. They wanted not to change America, or to change themselves so that they became something that they were not. The struggle was to be someone who was seen as African American, someone who was both but one.  “This longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self “was the quote that I felt summarized most of the passage.