“Not even the most estimable slave woman could defend herself against sexual demands of white overseers. Slaves were subject to revolting physical punishment and to degrading callousness.”
Them Dark Days focuses on the suffering of slaves both psychologically and physically in the hands of their white overseers in the rice plantations. The book does not spare the reader from the cruelty and torture that were morally unacceptable but were inflicted either way. The suffering of women in the plantations from rape to physical abuse from the white overseers who were essentially male are described to express the painful truths.
“This record of human misery undermines the claim of the eminent British geologist Sir Charles Lyell that the rapid growth of the slave population proved the happy condition of low-country slaves.”
The book incorporates journals, testimonies, and letters to offer a clear and vivid presentation of what the plantation and lives of slaves were like. Contrary to most historical accounts, the documents in the book debunk certain claims and assessments regarding the Southern plantations. For instance, the accounts of the geologist affirmed that the conditions were not terrible are rejected by claims in the Fanny Kemble’s journals. Even though Kemble’s journals have also been criticized for altering information, her accounts described terrible conditions, particularly for the women.
“Slavery in the American rice swamps was a hateful system of domination and exploitation, and one of its products, unsurprisingly, was hate.”
The book aims to argue that slavery was an atrocious institution that any individual who knew the harsh truth could not tolerate it. It affirms that the success of the Southern plantations is tied to extreme human suffering through denial of human dignity. Through historical accounts, the details of the practice have been glossed over hence rendering it as a product of its time. However, even in the context of the period, the acts were still too evil to be justified that was fostered by hate and also produced more hate.
