House Slave versus Field Slave

Plantation Politics: House Slave versus Field Slave

May 1, 2008 by the uppity negro


Well it seems to me that there is a parallel that is emerging called plantation politics: the politics of the slaves in the field were often different from the politics of the slave who got to sleep in the Big House–I mean White House. You see the slaves on larger plantations who worked in the field would often direct their angst toward the big house where their master lived. So it posed a dichotomy of loyalty when the master would artfully pick a slave to work in the big house. This slave who once was from the field, was now working in the place where their anger had once been directed, and the ultimate question is where do their loyalties lie.

It’s not a hard stretch of the imagination to believe what a quandry the slaves in the house were facing. Realize now that often times they received better food, and a better place to sleep, even better clothing, they were no longer toiling in the hot sun doing back-breaking work during the summer months, and they were protected from the elements during the winter months. The house Negro had to deal with where their loyalties lie.

But the field Negroes–ohhhh, the field Negroes–they knew where their loyalties lay. They were beholden to God and to themselves and each other. They knew where to direct their anger, it was usually at the white man who would stand on the veranda and look out over the plantation, over the legalized and systemitized economy that kept them in bondage. Whether or not their master was a fair one (and fair by what standards) or not, the master was still overseeing and actively participating in what was keeping them in bondage.

It seems to me that Jeremiah Wright was and is speaking about the politics of, shall we say, the field Negroes (and yes, in this case I’m substituting this n-word for another n-word). So, you mean to tell me that Wright’s stance on AIDS, and on 9/11 and governmental involvement has not been uttered in barbershops and beautyshops nationwide with addresses that include Martin Luther King Street or Drive? The place where conspiracy theories are birthed and thrive are in these establishments. Granted many of them have faulty logic and are outright outlandish at times, I’m just shocked at how quickly blacks have been ready to throw Wright and his proclamations overboard just to see a black man in the Big House?