Outlander Series discussion

Airs in US November 11, 2018

I they did a good job in this episode of showing the mob mentality of the time. It is hard for me to watch the brutality and lack of humanity considering the slaves. I think it bothers me more than the demeanor of BJR because he was only one extreme example of humanity. The ideals surrounding the ownership and treatment of slaves was so wide spread it was common for the times.

I think common is a relative term. The statistics I’ve seen show that less than a third of the population owned slaves.

Indentured servitude was another practice of the day - people would be servants for 7+ years to get passage to the Americas. Of course , the difference is that those people did have a choice.

I am appalled at the brutality of the times and it makes me glad to be in the modern age.

I feel the same way Diane does, and Claire. I cringed when I watched those men, so sure of their right to kill a man for defending himself, but then I remember that to them, Rufus wasn’t a man, but a commodity, and one who had become a “problem” to be exterminated. This was a very good episode, and I’m glad they brought Jocasta’s blindness out so early and got it out of the way.

Although slave owners were quite a small percentage of the population, many people wished they they could afford one (rather like modern day people and....name your upscale want).

Indentured servitude was becoming less common by this period. It still occured, but not nearly in the numbers it had.

I've been an interpreter of slavery history for 23 years now; my particular expertise is South Carolina Lowcountry slavery, but I'm pretty conversant with slavery in other areas as well. I'm a Living Historian, and this time period (up to about 1820) is the period I "live" in.

Just catching up on my GIF making -- hope to a sample from Ep2 soon:

Just a gruesome scene !

I am torn here. I liked this episode and I think they did a good job but I think the book is better. Sometimes I just don’t understand why tv has to change things. If I had not read the book I think I would have loved this episode but I just can’t separate the book from the show.