Enslavers’ grief and joys were underwritten by wealth extracted from enslaved people
Evidence
The enslaved people at Northview were silent observers who watched as the Barbers experienced seasons of joy and sorrow, all the while growing wealthier at their expense. They witnessed the tragedy that struck in 1849, when Margaret’s five youngest children died of dysentery, leaving the oldest son, John Adlum Barber, the sole survivor. The couple buried their sadness by throwing themselves headlong into the construction of a new family home. … Over the next four years, an extravagant mansion, designed by renowned local architects, was erected on the highest point of the property. The house boasted two ballrooms, “countless bed and drawing rooms, crystal chandeliers, and enormous mirrors.” The candlelit drawing rooms in the big house were in sharp contrast to the slave quarters on the far side of the property, way out past the stables and the corn crib. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 60
Categorization
- XREF: The mansion raised after the children’s deaths echoes Brown’s earlier diagnosis in The Whiteness of Wealth that white wealth is built on an inheritance the enslavers could cash out while the enslaved could not. — connects to: Wealth purchased privileged burial places in Saint-Domingue’s churches — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 51; Enslaved people made up a quarter of one enslaver’s wealth — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 78; Descendants of enslavers long benefited financially from slave labor — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 564 (+8 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Wealth purchased privileged burial places in Saint-Domingue’s churches — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 51; Enslaved people made up a quarter of one enslaver’s wealth — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 78; Descendants of enslavers long benefited financially from slave labor — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 564 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Slavery’s prosperity suppressed antislavery and assimilationist thought
#complicates(0.72) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 350