Textual Background and Context
This
image is advertising the sale of slaves, preferably the Great Sale of Slaves.
It is says the age categories for each slave for example, 3 Bucks aged from
20-26, strong and able-bodied. The poster also shows how well the slaves will
be able to work, by saying how strong and how able they are to work. There are
five different categories such as: 3 Bucks, 1 Wench, 1 Wench, One Buck, and 17 Bucks.
Even though some are the same categories, it differs in their age and their
ability to work, some are men and some are women. One woman even has a 6 month
old baby for sale with her. The poster also states that only cash can be used
to buy the slaves. It lastly shows who is in charge of the Great Sale of
Slaves, which in this case is John Carter.
This
poster really catches me off guard. I don’t think slavery is right to begin
with so seeing this poster is just very strange to me. I also don’t think its
right for the slaves to have names such as Bucks and Wenches. This poster may
have gotten a lot of attention back then for the purchase of slaves, but that doesn’t
mean its ethical at all. Slavery shouldn’t have happened at all so the purpose
of this poster doesn’t really work for me at all.
This
image adds more understanding to Uncle Tom’s Cabin because that whole book was
basically about slavery. We saw multiple times in UTC how slaves were being
purchased. So this poster announcing the Great Sale of Slaves fits right into
the book and gives us an image of what those posters must have looked like.
It's interesting to look at pictures and posters from that time period, even though they go against our ethics of today. It makes me wonder if how slaves felt themselves looking at these posters. White buyers saw these posters as advertisements and were a way to get information about the upcoming slave trade. But for a slave looking at it and seeing their information laid out for everyone to see, how they well they work, how much they weigh, their age, and how much they would cost. In a way having those posters out in the open for slaves to even see just adds to the dehumanization of slaves and further shows them where they are in society.
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