Elizabeth’s Comments (group member since Jul 15, 2016)

Elizabeth’s comments from the Challenging Times Need a Book Club Up to the Challenge group.

Fern said gently to Calvin, “The hitter can never be the judge. Only the receiver of the blow can tell you how hard it was, whether it would kill a man or make a baby just yawn.”

"talking about how he would be a master different from any other, the kind of shepherd master God had intended. He had been vague, talking of good food for his slaves, no whippings, short and happy days in the fields. A master looking down on them all like God on his throne looked down on him." Caldonia remembering Henry.

Yet in the same part they comment on lower socio economic whites as "only thing keeping him from being a slave is the color of his skin"

Alice is the embodiment of the notion that colored people needed slavery because without that structure they could not function. Plus all we know at this time is that she lies about her life, wonders at night, and does unacceptable sometimes sexual acts.

Despite vowing never to own a slave, Skiffington had no trouble doing his job to keep the institution of slavery going, an institution even God himself had sanctioned throughout the Bible.

I found the part about the census interesting. Perhaps many would have known the practice of claiming wives and children as slaves, but I hadn't thought about it. The act of buying it ones freedom is another their notion not talked about a lot as well.
The character of Alice running through the woods and not being right in the head is a common portrayal of the times.

I think the color contrasting throughout was a powerful addition to his he words. The words spoken so nonchalantly, were horrible and a throw in the face of prejudices for all types of people. Such hatred exists and to hear it all consecutively highlights how horrible it all is.