In my Humanities class, we have been studying slavery in the American colonies. To gain a more personal understanding, we went outside and pulled apart cotton, made hoecakes and switchel, and sang slave songs. I'm really glad we did these activities because it made slavery a lot more real. It's easy to push back slavery into the "too far from recent memory to be relevant" category, but it's really important that we don't forget our country's true roots and that these were real people with these real atrocities happening to them that pushed racism into American culture for a long time.
It happened to be particularly hot out when we were sorting the cotton, which was a lucky coincidence because it better mimics how horrible it would be in the sweltering summer months. We only sorted cotton for a short time, but I could quickly see how this task could be so mind numbing and labor intensive. The debris and seeds had to be sorted out of the cotton while keeping as much usable material as possible to meet the near impossible requirements (some slaves had to pick at least two hundred pounds of cotton a day).
Making the hoecakes and switchel was a lot more enjoyable, though. The hoecakes were simply corn meal, butter, and water. It is considerably easier to make hoecakes today since we can use electric griddles, but we learned about how little resources slaves were given and how hard it was to be properly nourished. Switchel was one drink they made to help bridge this gap. It was meant to be a quick burst of energy, so it was made out of apple cider vinegar, water, and molasses.
We also sang a slave song and did a dance. The dance was a little hard for me since I'm not exactly a natural born dancer, but it was still a fun experience. The song we sang was "Wade in the Water," a slave spiritual song. It was about wading through the water to avoid being traced by bloodhounds while escaping, but the lyrics were simply "Wade in the water / Wade in the water, children / Wade in the water / God's gonna trouble the water," to avoid suspicion. Singing was very important in slave culture because it was one of the few ways they could express themselves. Overall I really enjoyed the activities and I really appreciate that we were able to do them.
Making the hoecakes and switchel was a lot more enjoyable, though. The hoecakes were simply corn meal, butter, and water. It is considerably easier to make hoecakes today since we can use electric griddles, but we learned about how little resources slaves were given and how hard it was to be properly nourished. Switchel was one drink they made to help bridge this gap. It was meant to be a quick burst of energy, so it was made out of apple cider vinegar, water, and molasses.
We also sang a slave song and did a dance. The dance was a little hard for me since I'm not exactly a natural born dancer, but it was still a fun experience. The song we sang was "Wade in the Water," a slave spiritual song. It was about wading through the water to avoid being traced by bloodhounds while escaping, but the lyrics were simply "Wade in the water / Wade in the water, children / Wade in the water / God's gonna trouble the water," to avoid suspicion. Singing was very important in slave culture because it was one of the few ways they could express themselves. Overall I really enjoyed the activities and I really appreciate that we were able to do them.