To Be A Slave

To be a slave. To be owned by another person, as a car, house, or table is owned. To live as a piece of property that could be sold. To be considered not human, but a "thing" that plowed the fields, cut the wood, cooked the food, nursed another's child; a "thing" whose sole function was determined by the one who owned you. To be a slave. To know, despite the suffering and deprivation, that you were human, more human than he who said you were not human. To know joy, laughter, sorrow, and tears and yet be considered only the equal of a table. To be a slave was to be a human being under conditions in which that humanity was denied. They were not slaves. They were people. Their condition was slavery. They who were held as slaves looked upon themselves and the servitude in which they found themselves with the eyes and minds of human beings, conscious of everything that happened to them, conscious of all that went on around them. Yet slaves are often picture as little more than dumb, brute animals, whose sole attributes were found in working, singing, and dancing. They were like children, and slavery was actually a benefit to them -- this was the view of those who were not slaves. Those who were slaves tell a different story. Here are their stories -- in their words.