Continued Denial of Humanity of African Americans

I firmly believe that slave-owners knew that blacks were just as human as whites, but I think that they so basked in the idea of having power that they did everything in their power to not only create a clearly set hierarchy, but also to justify their actions to themselves. 

The supporters claimed that one reason for the existence of slavery was because they were instructed by God to tend for and take care of those who could not take care of themselves. Really, these white people knew that if they loosened the reigns of control on blacks, the blacks would demonstrate their humanity and confirm to everyone that they were, in fact, just as human as the white people.This is the exact reason whites put restrictions on institutions like marriage and education. Both of these institutions differentiate humans from animals, and because slave-owners knew that their slaves were capable of falling in love and learning, they knew they needed to establish control before things got “out of hand” with their slaves. 

Even with all of the domination and control of slaves that existed, I am constantly left wondering how white men and women justified rape of black women and men. If they did not view African Americans as human, then with whom or what did they think they were having sexual relations? Whites knew they were raping humans, not animals. To me, this is a strong indicator that whites knew that blacks were just as human as they were. With this being said, if white people accepted the fact that they were raping other humans, how could that be tolerated in society? That question obviously also refers to the institution of slavery itself as well as my continued inability to understand how such an institution could have ever occurred let alone been tolerated and respected. How and why did it take people so long to act against slavery?

Similarly, some people were not one-hundred percent African American; some had “white blood” in them. This idea helped establish the “one-drop rule” which “held the power to distinguish nearly white people from white people,” according to Soul by Soul. According to this logic, black and white people had different blood, yet I question how someone could have blood of 2 different species. If white people argued that whites and blacks had different blood, I would ask them how offspring with “mixed blood” could properly function. We discussed in class that typically, an illegitimate child of a white male and black slave would get special treatment since he or she was a child of the white man. Clearly, the white man accepts but cannot face the fact that the offspring of a black person and a white person is indeed as much of a human as he is. On the other hand, if whites logically believed that all humans are of one similar blood, then they consequently believed but refused to accept the fact that black people were just as human as white people.