wcaleb’s Twitter Archive—№ 13,841

1. The Bill O'Reilly comments spotlight (among other things) the pedagogical challenges for teachers of the history of slavery.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 64 Retweets ❤️ 96 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
2. Serious historians know that slavery was not monolithic and that living conditions for enslaved people varied across space and time.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 32 Retweets ❤️ 41 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -5 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
3. But historians also know that modest gains in enslaved people's living conditions, food, housing, were won in struggle, not given freely.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 32 Retweets ❤️ 44 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @wcaleb
4. A garden patch, small "wages" for enslaved artisans: owners had to be forced to concede such things by collective struggle by slaves.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 25 Retweets ❤️ 31 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -8 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
5. As teachers we want students to see this complex reality, to show that people in slavery fought to improve their lot, sometimes won.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 25 Retweets ❤️ 30 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood +3 🙂

…in reply to @wcaleb
6. Yet the reality is that some students will hear talk of any small improvements in enslaved people's lives the way O'Reilly hears it.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 26 Retweets ❤️ 33 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
7. White profs have to be especially careful of wrong impressions: students hear whites undercutting slavery's horror all the time.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 25 Retweets ❤️ 34 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood 0

…in reply to @wcaleb
8. Especially easy for a student to hear a white prof's points about enslaved people's small victories & interpolate O'Reilly denialism.
On twitter.com ♻️ 24 Retweets ❤️ 31 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @wcaleb
9. That's one reason I made @Every3Minutes and use it in class in the context of discussing enslaved people's variable situations.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 24 Retweets ❤️ 28 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
10. The slave trade highlights the precarity of any improvements in living conditions that slaves managed to wrest from oppressors.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 18 Retweets ❤️ 20 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -6 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
11. O'Reilly comments only reinforce the need for teachers to stress the "chattel principle," not working conditions, as essence of slavery.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 35 Retweets ❤️ 45 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -4 🙁

…in reply to @wcaleb
12. The daily working lives of enslaved people varied; the daily fear and threat of sale away from families and the familiar did not.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 40 Retweets ❤️ 52 Favorites 2016 Jul 27 Mood -6 🙁