【英语语言学习】过去的奴隶私有制

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

 

Let's hear again from the Race Card Project, in which our colleague Michele Norris collects short stories about race and identity; stories that are only six words long yet capture so much depth, especially on the topic we're exploring this week: America's history of slavery, and the way we talk about that history. And people are talking about it since the release of the award-winning movie "12 Years a Slave."

 

Yesterday, we heard from a black man who was surprised by just how much he was burdened by discovering the details of his slave ancestors' lives. Today, we hear from a white woman whose ancestors were on the other side of the story.

 

KATE BYROADE: My name is Kate Byroade. I live in West Hartford, Conn., and my six words are: Slavery's legacy¹ broke my family pride.

 

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

 

Slavery's legacy broke my family pride - those are the six words from Kate Byroade, and our colleague Michele Norris is here to talk about the meaning behind them. Hi, Michele.

 

MICHELE NORRIS, BYLINE²: Hey, Steve.

 

INSKEEP: OK. So, what's the backstory here?

 

NORRIS: Well, just a little bit about Kate Byroade. She's a librarian. She has two daughters. She now lives in New England, but her family history reaches back to the American South. And as we unpack³ her six words - slavery's legacy broke my family pride - we should really focus on that last word: pride.

 

INSKEEP: Why?

 

NORRIS: Well, for two reasons. First, Kate Byroade is proud of the fact that she has surrounded herself with all kinds of diversity. She lives in a diverse neighborhood. She attends a diverse church. Her kids go to diverse Girl Scout⁴ troops; that's really important to her. But there's a different kind of - I guess, more complicated pride that's based on family lore⁵. She's always known that her family has owned slaves, in the South. Where the pride comes in is the fact that the family took some sort of comfort in the idea that the slaves that worked for them were treated better than most; that their slaves were treated well. This is a story that she heard over and over again, especially from her Southern grandmother.

 

BYROADE: She was matter-of-fact that the family had owned slaves in the past but emphasized that we did not come from plantation-type families, that our slaves had been trusted house servants. At first, this seemed OK to me because it was OK to her. But eventually, I understood that the domination of another person's free will was unacceptable. We are very shy in this culture about calling out the great wickedness of slavery, and we should not be. We must not be.

 

INSKEEP: Writing there an explanation of her six words. And this notion of the benevolent⁶ slave owner is a really common one, and you have someone here who is forcing herself to come to terms with the reality that it was, well, it was slavery.

 

NORRIS: Yeah. And it's been harder for her to come to terms with it, as she's gotten older. But even going back to her childhood, this is something that she struggled with - you know, when the things that she saw in textbooks, or the stories that she saw in TV and shows like the miniseries "Roots," didn't necessarily square with the genteel stories that she heard at her family dinner table.

 

NORRIS: And there's one particular incident that really left a psychological mark on her. It happened when she was just 10 years old. She was in school in Bloomfield, Conn. They were doing an assignment on immigrant ancestors, and she shared that story with us. We should listen.

 

BYROADE: And so we're there in class and actually, one of my best friends is a Mayflower descendant, but I am a Jamestown descendant. And I let drop that my family had owned slaves. Now, this school that I attended was probably about, at the time, 60 or 70 percent African-American in its population. And I did not think that I was boasting.

 

INSKEEP: Well, how did her fellow students respond to this disclosure, Michele?

 

NORRIS: Not well. And what really left the strongest impression on her was not necessarily what happened in the classroom, but what happened when she left the classroom. And she was on her way home from school; a group of black students from her school - and their older brothers and sisters from a nearby middle school - went looking for her.

 

BYROADE: And those children decided⁷ that I was - I don't know what they decided. But they decided they had to chase me, and they had to scream at me, and they had to yell at me. And they literally⁸, did that.

 

NORRIS: Now, Steve, remember, she's just 10 years old when this is happening. She found safety in a stranger's house, someone she knew was home. She pounded on the door. And in the end, this left a mark on her. But instead of making slavery this subject that is taboo⁹ - something she never wanted to talk about - it actually deepened her interest in trying to understand this historical chasm¹⁰ in America and, you know, something that became even more difficult and even more complicated for her, the more she learned about her family's history.

 

INSKEEP: Well, what happened when some relations of hers - as we know from her submission¹¹ to the Race Card Project - actually went looking for the details?

 

NORRIS: Well, as she expected, it really shook her up. A distant cousin discovered that when Kate Byroade's five-times great-grandmother arrived in the U.S. in the 1800s from Ireland, a black child - immediately upon her arrival - was purchased to serve as a handmaiden. And after that, when she discovered that this child had been purchased for her five-times great-grandmother, the history was then attached to a person.

 

INSKEEP: I can feel that as you're telling me this. It becomes a different story.

 

NORRIS: And I felt it when I talked to Kate Byroade. It wasn't just an abstraction. It was attached to a person - a child, a child who had a name. That child's name was Harriett.

 

BYROADE: She was a young child in the Indian territory, scooped¹² up by outlaws¹³, and used to cover a bet on a horse race. The outlaws lost, and she covered the bet to the tune¹⁴ of $275, and was eventually sold to an ancestor of mine. She was fortunate to become a member of the family. They set her free. They educated her, and she was able to marry respectably and was a valued member of the community of Fort Smith and Van Buren, Ark.

 

INSKEEP: Interesting use of the word fortunate, though, Michele, because she was kidnapped. She was snatched from her family.

 

NORRIS: And she was enslaved. And I asked Kate about that, and she admitted that that was an odd use of that term, but she was really referring to the fact that she was educated and lived better than most slaves, at the time.

 

INSKEEP: And by the way, this is another confirmation¹⁵ of the plot line of "12 Years a Slave," which is based on a true story of a free black man kidnapped into slavery.

 

NORRIS: As was this child.

 

INSKEEP: Now, I want to go back to the word we began with, Michele. You focused on the word pride. The six words were: Slavery's legacy broke my family pride. What does Kate Byroade do about that now?

 

NORRIS: Well, I'm going to defer¹⁶ to her. Pride is important to all of us, when we think back on our family history, but here's what she has to say about that.

 

BYROADE: I think you can feel pride in the legitimate¹⁷ accomplishments¹⁸ of your ancestors. But I don't think you can feel pride in the fact that they owned slaves. I don't think you can feel pride that the wealth and prestige was accomplished¹⁹ on the backs of people who were not free; who had no say, who were subject to your whim²⁰.

 

INSKEEP: Kate Byroade, sharing her story through the Race Card Project, as we talk this week about slavery and the discussions that flow from the film "12 Years a Slave." And we're going to continue tomorrow with Michele Norris as we talk to the screenwriter of "12 Years a Slave," John Ridley. Michele, looking forward to it.

 

NORRIS: I am, too. Thanks, Steve.

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 unpack   

vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货

参考例句：

• I must unpack before dinner.我得在饭前把行李打开。
• She said she would unpack the items later.她说以后再把箱子里的东西拿出来。

4 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

5 lore   

n.传说；学问，经验，知识

参考例句：

• I will seek and question him of his lore.我倒要找上他，向他讨教他的渊博的学问。
• Early peoples passed on plant and animal lore through legend.早期人类通过传说传递有关植物和动物的知识。

6 benevolent   

adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的

参考例句：

• His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him.他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。
• He was a benevolent old man and he wouldn't hurt a fly.他是一个仁慈的老人，连只苍蝇都不愿伤害。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

10 chasm   

n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突

参考例句：

• There's a chasm between rich and poor in that society.那社会中存在着贫富差距。
• A huge chasm gaped before them.他们面前有个巨大的裂痕。

11 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

12 scooped   

v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 outlaws   

歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯

参考例句：

• During his year in the forest, Robin met many other outlaws. 在森林里的一年，罗宾遇见其他许多绿林大盗。
• I didn't have to leave the country or fight outlaws. 我不必离开自己的国家，也不必与不法分子斗争。

14 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

15 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

16 defer   

vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从

参考例句：

• We wish to defer our decision until next week.我们希望推迟到下星期再作出决定。
• We will defer to whatever the committee decides.我们遵从委员会作出的任何决定。

17 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

18 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

19 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

20 whim   

n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想

参考例句：

• I bought the encyclopedia on a whim.我凭一时的兴致买了这本百科全书。
• He had a sudden whim to go sailing today.今天他突然想要去航海。