I’m just trying to distinguish between behavior a “law-abiding” slave might never encounter in her lifetime, as opposed to what she probably deals with on a weekly basis (on average—and that’s not intended to count the standard “get back to work” instruction). A substantial part of the confusion in this conversation was my reading your words as asserting the former behavior (archetypal torture) was more frequent than historically occurred. My understanding was that behavior towards escape attempts and such (most of which would qualify as torture) was very different than “ordinary” treatment of slaves in the American South.
A phrase like emotional abuse or just abuse might be reasonable label, depending on what other connotations it brings to the conversation.
A phrase like emotional abuse or just abuse might be reasonable label, depending on what other connotations it brings to the conversation.
Indeed, in retrospect that should have been an obvious choice. I’ve been conditioned by the French word “abus” (also the verb “abuser”) which carries different connotations and which in common usage would generate a lot more misunderstanding, so I tend to underuse the words “abuse” and its subsets.
That makes sense.
I’m just trying to distinguish between behavior a “law-abiding” slave might never encounter in her lifetime, as opposed to what she probably deals with on a weekly basis (on average—and that’s not intended to count the standard “get back to work” instruction). A substantial part of the confusion in this conversation was my reading your words as asserting the former behavior (archetypal torture) was more frequent than historically occurred. My understanding was that behavior towards escape attempts and such (most of which would qualify as torture) was very different than “ordinary” treatment of slaves in the American South.
A phrase like emotional abuse or just abuse might be reasonable label, depending on what other connotations it brings to the conversation.
Indeed, in retrospect that should have been an obvious choice. I’ve been conditioned by the French word “abus” (also the verb “abuser”) which carries different connotations and which in common usage would generate a lot more misunderstanding, so I tend to underuse the words “abuse” and its subsets.