Fred D'Aguiar's book "The Longest Memory" - review

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THE LONGEST MEMORY

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a few European nations ruled America. They grew sugar, tobacco, coffee, ginger, cotton and various other things that were craved by the Europeans. Imprisoned in these plantations were about two and a half million black slaves. Fred D’Aguiar’s book “The Longest Memory” is about one man’s account of being a slave in America, how he was treated and how it affected him.

Fred D’Aguiar shows that the business of slavery corrupts everyone involved in it by using multiple narrators of different status, age and race to give different points of views about slavery to the reader. Each character is corrupt or has been affected by corruption.
The main characters in the book “The Longest Memory” are Whitechapel, Mr Whitechapel, Chapel, Sanders Senior, Cook, Lydia and Sanders Junior.

First of all the theme of this book is about corruption, slavery. Slaves were bought and sold like cattle. To buy slaves, plantation owners went to markets. The branding that indicated who ruled them was black skin; this was obvious and could be seen by everyone. Any skin colour darker than white skin became a sign that they were inferior, dumb, had no beliefs, reckless and needed to be controlled. Since Africans were brought to America against their will, it was easier to use them as slaves. It was also more economical to use blacks as slaves. Runaways were recognized readily.

Before human rights movements, it was these thoughts of blacks that made it acceptable to take them from their families to work under harsh conditions and live on the barest of essentials, because white people believed they were doing them a favour. A so-called "normal" family was impossible for most slaves. Slave masters did not hesitate to break up slave families when a profitable sale came along.

The major corrupt aspect was the constitution at the time. Slavery caused major changes in America when it was legalized in 1661. Black slaves became the personal property of white men. Laws were passed. It was strictly forbidden to teach slaves to read and write or to give them books. Slaves could not raise certain crops, nor could they buy or sell goods. All whites had the power to arrest runaway slaves. Slaves could be awarded as prizes in raffles, wagered in gambling, offered as security for loans and transferred as gifts from one person to another.

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Another corrupt aspect of the past was discipline. Only recently has it been enforced that striking your children should be avoided and disciplining children in schools by using force like the cane has been made illegal. However then, 200 lashes to a runaway slave was not uncommon.

Mr Whitechapel is the owner of the plantation. He is a good man and believed that one should take care of his slaves. This is shown particularly whenever he tells of Sanders Senior and Junior.

Sanders Senior is a man who hasn’t got any respect for slaves. He is severe with Mr Whitechapels ...

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