Dear Dr. Flint,
When did you decide it was ok to abuse another? When did you decide that it was ok to whisper sweet nothings into the ear of a child? Why did you decide to defile a pure mind? Why didn't you care about the turmoil you were putting Miss Harriet Jacobs through? How did you become so selfish?
Did you not think about the sacred vows you made to your wife? Did you enjoy making her suffer as well? Did you even feel a tinge of guilt or regret or were you too entrenched in your patriarchal, racist society?
How did you become so power-hungry? When did you buy into the lie that another person could be your property? How did you rationalize the sexual abuse of a human being or rationalize the thought that you owned another's sexuality?
It is difficult to even attempt to understand the inner workings of an abusive slave master's mind. It's difficult to comprehend the evil it takes to exploit someone so thoroughly, but you were not unique. There were thousands of slave masters just like you, and it is terrifying that an institutionalized, racist system could convince so many that the dehumanization of another is morally acceptable.
If you were still alive today, what would you think about your past actions?
Taylor Wright
Excellent! Beautifully written! I particularly like the questions that you've posed -- did Dr. Flint think about his wife and the fact that he was committing adultery? Child abuse? Nell Painter's article on soul murder is helpful here in putting Dr. Flint's actions into context. Was he a monster or a man of his times (or both)?
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