Black Dispatches

[mithen]

One of the best parts of writing "The House of the Earth" (if by "best" one means "most agonizing") has been doing research on slavery in America and in general.  I was reminded of that when I came across this news story about Jefferson Davis' slave, who was a spy for the Union, and other slave spies.  There's a whole book out called Black Dispatches on the topic that I'd love to get my hands on.  It's amazing--people didn't see slaves as anything but furniture, so they talked freely about strategic secrets right in front of them.  That seems so... karmically fair, somehow, that their own ignorance and inhumanity could be turned against them.  And I'm always awed and humbled and amazed by stories of what people under such impossible conditions will do to fight for their freedom.  No fictional story could do them justice.

Comments

[mithen.livejournal.com]

It's funny, set the slavery off-world and make it some kind of crazy "World of Gor" thing and I don't mind it at all, it's a kind of bizarre romp--maybe because you can make the (far-fetched) argument that it's part of the alien culture and you can strip it of some of the bloody realities of Earth culture. But if it's on Earth, with humans, it's a lot harder for me to see it as something...ugh, "fun" isn't quite the word. "Romantic"? On Earth, I can't buy it as a facilitator of romance, only as an obstacle to a real relationship.

It's been fascinating to read about slavery as an adult. As a kid one kind of absorbs the information in the history books and doesn't really process it...as an adult it hits home a lot harder to read about auctions and breeding and children being sold away from their parents.