Some answers about slavery I had to provide to a five-year-old
- What did they make the slaves do?
- They made them work for free and didn't give them any money for their work. They also did not let them do what they wanted, even though they were grown-ups.
- Why did they do it?
- So they could have money without having to do any work. (Saying this out loud made it seem especially cruel.)
- How did they do it?
- The slave owners hurt people if they didn't do what they told them to do. People went to another continent, Africa, to kidnap people and make them come to America to be slaves.
- Who did it?
- (I had to think for a while before saying it.) White people in America 150 years ago.
- Were they bad guys?
- Yes. But another sad thing is that they told everyone they were good guys, and that everyone either believed them or were afraid to say that they weren't. A lot of bad guys think they're good guys, but the slave owners probably knew they were doing really bad things.
He had some good questions. We agreed that all of this was sad and mean.
It does help to look at slavery from this perspective to realize how incredibly cruel it is.