Stockholm or Slave? by Trina Mookerjee https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp en-us 2017-02-28 22:02:04 UTC 2026-03-06 19:41:26 UTC hello@padlet.com Jailed Runaways tmookerj https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp/wish/156885043 The Southern Sentinel had a designated column for runaway enslaved peoples. These peoples were all male with ages ranging 20-40. Physically they were generally around the same size and were not described further than basic race. It is important to note that each ad was also written in Creole, paying homage to the geographical and cultural mix of the location. A cultural mix could also been found in the use of anglo-sized names, only a handful of the captured slaves have "native" names. Examples could be found with the enslaved being referred to as “Daniel” and “William”. Someone had taken the time to rename the enslaved rather than using a crude name. This giving the enslaved a sort of pet like ownership. These runaways had been caught and jailed and needed to be returned to their owners. It is important to note that these runaways wished to return to their masters rather than stay in jail.  
It seemed as though the enslaved were compliant with the jailers as they willingly gave them their owners name and location. Before obtaining the enslaved owners would have to prove their ownership. This would be a grey area and likely there were instances where incorrect slaves were obtained. It should be noted that it felt as though the slaves wanted their owners to find them. But one must ask why? Why would one who made the enslaved suffer such brutality and cruelty wish to be returned to that state? This behavior is similar to Stockholm syndrome in which a hostage has feelings of trust or devotion with their captor. More simply put this would be the equivalent to capture bonding. One can compare this relationship to that of an abusive one. After the relationship had ended in many cases the person being abused would say things such as, "I know it sounds crazy, but I miss her" (PhD, 2017, p. 1). There would also be potential feelings of envy if the abuser had taken a new subject to abuse. Cases of Stockholm syndrome had been found in concentration camp prisoners and cult members. Peoples in those situation would have many parallels to enslaved peoples as their captors have extreme control over their entire world. Slave owners controlled every aspect of the enslaved; when they ate, worked, and were punished for misbehaving. This syndrome was viewed as being a coping mechanism as it gives the abused a better chance of survival. However, it came with a downfall due to abused peoples being uncooperative with rescue of any sort. This would seem fitting that the enslaved would wish to return to their owner, their abuser, as they had developed this relationship. One should also ponder the theory that those jails they were put into were worse than that of a plantation. This may have been the superior option to the enslaved as they were caught breaking the law prior to being jailed. Either being the case the enslaved appeared compliant after being caught, posing the question was being enslaved better than being jailed? 
]]> 2017-02-28 22:30:06 UTC https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp/wish/156885043 The "Slave Syndrome" tmookerj https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp/wish/157198596 This link leads to a webpage in which describes Stockholm Syndrome and compares it to this idea of Slavery Syndrome. It explains how identifying with a powerful figure that is in control of ones life can be seen as Stockholm Syndrome, but also can be Slavery Syndrome. It is important to point out the 4th to 5th paragraph that begin with the lack of attention paid to Stockholm Syndrome and powerful figures, and ends with explaining how Slavery Sydrome is more relevant than Stockholm Syndrome. Connections can be made from our article to this source specifically through the Stockholm Sydrome, but going more in depth into the idea of Slavery Syndrome and how mentally people are slaves to higher powers and higher ideas because they do not know any better. Slaves are forced into a powerplay relationship in which their masters control everything they do and in the long run, the slaves are okay with it. Even once they runaway, they may want to be caught and go back because that is all they know. ]]> 2017-03-01 22:57:50 UTC https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp/wish/157198596 Slave Maps tmookerj https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp/wish/157516679 In the maps that we found the bottom two show where the slaves were captured by their owner and were forced to work until they were labeled as “free”. If you look at the first picture compared to the one right under it you can tell that there is significant decrease in slaves in that area when in the bottom picture the left side of Texas is nearly filled with dots at that time. If you look at the second picture and compare it with the last one you can tell that when the AAs got captured there was a lot of people in Texas but in in bordering starts as well. After they ran away it looks like the slaves in the other states ran into the east side of Texas and stayed there. With such a large number of in the map that has the captured location its surprising that they would stay in that area. At the same time if you look at the location of slave owners there are a lot of red dots outside of Texas so that adds the risk that they will be caught by someone else and will be sent back to work with the chance of worse labor.]]> 2017-03-03 01:32:17 UTC https://padlet.com/tmookerj/1kh3zhkistsp/wish/157516679