Remember: The world knows slavery is wrong but it’s
interesting that Hunting was an outlet for freedom (especially in the Old
South). It would be nice to think of female slaves hunting but ditto on this
one. There were also white slaves but discriminating historians left that part
out because the more extreme tales of slavery were advertised because of the
more potent effect. All accounts were not horrendous. With that being said I
have read some pretty murderous and heart wrenching accounts of plantation life
for black, white, and Indian slaves.
I was reading an online book by Nicolas W. Proctor called
Bathed in Blood: Hunting and Mastery in the Old South. There are many examples
of how hunting is negative from the non-hunters standpoint. I was surprised to
find the sport of Hunting used as a platform to elevate the role of male slaves
in the Old South. Yes, hunting elevated the human condition when it was at one
of its worse cases in history. In the form of hunting, hope was alive with the
re-enforcement that the male slave was still a man and a provider even in the face
of captivity.
There was a section that I will quote that Proctor wrote, “Living
in a society predicted upon constant degradation, a simple act of generosity
could become a symbol of resistance. The point of view of the slave that hunted
was a way to ameliorate their own condition. Re-conceptualizing hunting as an
activity that benefited the slave community, these hunters created their own
meaning for the labor they performed at the behest of their owners.”
Here you have human beings removed from their homes on
foreign shores to come to a place where they are enslaved to do the manual
labor of European settlers. While enslaved their routine is dictated for the
general benefit of making a profit and making the European settler’s lives easier.
Life as a hunter in the motherland was no more but the male slave was put to
the task of agriculture.
I can only imagine the day one of the plantation owners
decided it was time to hunt. That would be the one time the male slave could
act as he had acted at home. He could be a hunter. In most accounts in the
South, weapons were given to these select few slaves for them to be able to
shoot quarry if it were in their reach and the plantation owner would actually
share in the kill so the slaves out hunting could enjoy the fruits of their
labors too. This sharing provided a form of social cohesion amongst the slaves.
There are numerous accounts of previous slave owners holding slaves and
freedmen in high regard for their hunting skills.
Even though that one moment to hunt was a temporary freedom it
was a freedom nonetheless. Hunting truly does provide outlets for opportunity
to be the person you are even if the circumstance is not ideal. It allows that
moment of freedom. That moment of release from bondage and restraint even in today's
world where people are workaholics and trapped inside buildings making a dollar
for the ‘man’ and family. I think everyone has had that moment where you stare
out the window shackled down by responsibility or life worry and think, “This
weekend I am going hunting. I will be free.”
As a privileged society we should not take for granted the
rights we have. This country was built on the idea of freedom, by thieves and
murderers cast out by their motherland, the religiously persecuted, death of indigent
tribes, oriental railroad workers, and slaves, black and white. Truly we have
not suffered but we dishonor our ancestors for all the pain and hardship they
have gone through for their children’s children to be able to call themselves ‘free
men’.
Written by W Harley Bloodworth