Still, it does call to mind the maxim that children grow up to be like their parents-a point Northup makes again in later chapters when discussing Edwin Epps’ son-and offered a subtle challenge for Christian parents in Northup’s time to raise a new generation of children who are taught to treat all people with dignity and kindness. The only explanation Northup could make was in the master’s upbringing: “Looking through the same medium with his fathers before him, he saw things in the same light.” As justification for Ford’s slave-holding empire, that explanation seems to fall short. Edwin Campbell X Morrow, (29 June 1968 16 March 2014) known professionally as DJ Edwin, was a DJ, remixer, songwriter and producer. The intermingling of religion and slavery in the antebellum South was problematic, and Northup had to address it as it related to William Ford, who eventually became a Baptist preacher. He is, according to Solomon, “a model master, walking uprightly…and fortunate was the slave that came to his possession.” Essentially the question is, how can a “good” Christian man participate so deeply in the corrupted institution of slavery? Solomon struggles with the answer. There is an internal moral struggle for Solomon here because he finds William Ford to be a man of unquestioned Christian character. Tibeats.Ĭhapter VII begins a new phase in Northup’s narrative and offers the first hands-on evidence of what it was like to be a human owned by another human. Eventually, Platt is assigned to work with one of Ford’s hired hands, a short-tempered, white carpenter named John M. Platt also earns himself a reputation as the “smartest nigger in the Pine Woods” as a result of this success. He is consistently drunk and disorderly, waking the slaves up in the middle of the night to dance for him. Epps is extremely cruel and inhumane, taking pride in breaking his slaves' spirits. In gratitude for Ford’s kindness, Platt devises a way to transport lumber via waterway instead of over land, thereby saving the master a lot of money. Tibeats eventually sells Solomon to Epps. There’s a whole yeoman or middle-class slave-owning group of people we don’t. On Sundays, Master Ford makes a habit of gathering his slaves for a church service, preaching to them from the Bible and encouraging moral behavior. Epps falls firmly within the average of that group, having owned between eight and 12 slaves at any given time. This continues through the summer of 1841. Eliza is assigned to work in the house Platt is sent to work in Ford’s lumber mill. When they reach the Ford plantation, they are greeted warmly and treated kindly by both William Ford’s wife and by his slaves. According to Northup, “there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.” Platt and Eliza (now named “Dradey”) are transported by their new owner, William Ford, to his home in the “Great Pine Woods,” on the banks of the Red River in the Avoyelles and Bayou Boeuf region of central Louisiana.
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