My Family’s Slave

9,618 Views | 59 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by tbirdspur2010
Swarely
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Quote:

Her name was Eudocia Tomas Pulido. We called her Lola. She was 4 foot 11, with mocha-brown skin and almond eyes that I can still see looking into minemy first memory. She was 18 years old when my grandfather gave her to my mother as a gift, and when my family moved to the United States, we brought her with us. No other word but slave encompassed the life she lived. Her days began before everyone else woke and ended after we went to bed. She prepared three meals a day, cleaned the house, waited on my parents, and took care of my four siblings and me. My parents never paid her, and they scolded her constantly. She wasn't kept in leg irons, but she might as well have been. So many nights, on my way to the bathroom, I'd spot her sleeping in a corner, slumped against a mound of laundry, her fingers clutching a garment she was in the middle of folding.


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/

I would really suggest reading the whole article. It's just so crazy that this happened.
Post removed:
by user
HBCanine08
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
what a puta:

Quote:

One day during the war Lieutenant Tom came home and caught my mother in a liesomething to do with a boy she wasn't supposed to talk to. Tom, furious, ordered her to "stand at the table." Mom cowered with Lola in a corner. Then, in a quivering voice, she told her father that Lola would take her punishment. Lola looked at Mom pleadingly, then without a word walked to the dining table and held on to the edge. Tom raised the belt and delivered 12 lashes, punctuating each one with a word. You. Do. Not. Lie. To. Me. You. Do. Not. Lie. To. Me. Lola made no sound.
Fonzie Scheme
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Yeah. I'm not reading that. I'm already firmly of the opinion that, regardless of race, people are just horrible to others. I don't need that to reinforce it.
AliasMan02
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Slavery in the Americas was weird. The institution is as terrible as it is logical in its place in history, but in ancient cultures the practice served a whole different social purpose. It provided a place in the social order for the vanquished, or those with unpayable debts. If you were REALLY rich in Rome, you sent a slave to medical school so you had an in-house doctor, who you probably also rented out as a professional. At the tail end of the Roman Republic there was an employment crisis because free professionals were run out of their jobs by more-qualified and skilled slaves.

I guess because the Americas were colonized so late in the development of Western society is why it was so different.
Hamburger Dan
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I read every word. I'm mid 50's, I remember well some of the segregation that occurred in my area of Texas. It's still hard to understand that way of life in a modern day society.
Claude!
How long do you want to ignore this user?
That was a really great article. Thanks for sharing it.
Geralt of Rivia
How long do you want to ignore this user?
S
Wow, that was a really interesting read.
Texmid
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I read the entire thing as well. Thank you for posting it.
chipotle
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Swarely said:


I would really suggest reading the whole article.

Vernada
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I read it yesterday - really good stuff.
chiken
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
That was a good article. I wish the ending hadn't been so abrupt.
aglaohfour
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
That was really well-written. But heartbreaking... There are still a lot of people like Lola. When we lived in Dubai, we'd see it all the time and it tore my heart out to be unable to help.
Vernada
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
that author had some awful parents.
cone
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Quote:

that author had some awful parents.
don't export our values
Swarely
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Glad y'all enjoyed the article.
cone
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
meh

lot of ****ed up **** in this world
eeinhouston
How long do you want to ignore this user?
She was always free to leave. And if she ever did leave, there would have been no authority for force her to go back. How is that a slave?
aglaohfour
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
eeinhouston said:

She was always free to leave. And if she ever did leave, there would have been no authority for force her to go back. How is that a slave?

You're not free to leave if you have no money, can't drive, don't speak the language, are in a country illegally, and apparently don't have a passport.
aggiederelict
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Here come the apologists...
Picard
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
chipotle said:

Swarely said:


I would really suggest reading the whole article.




I heartily approve!
CDUB98
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
eeinhouston said:

She was always free to leave. And if she ever did leave, there would have been no authority for force her to go back. How is that a slave?
Either you are trolling, or seriously stupid.
Unemployed
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
eeinhouston said:

She was always free to leave. And if she ever did leave, there would have been no authority for force her to go back. How is that a slave?
So naive.

Obviously, you didn't read the article.
hunterntexas
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I didn't read it.
Does she have big cans?
cone
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
more like realists
Fairview
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I thought that was fascinating and heart breaking. I was trying to put myself in the place of being one of the kids growing up and being in the position of turning on your family or letting it continue.
Dad-O-Lot
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
eeinhouston said:

She was always free to leave. And if she ever did leave, there would have been no authority for force her to go back. How is that a slave?
Quote:

She was 18 years old when my grandfather gave her to my mother as a gift

She was definitely a slave.
aggiederelict
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Realists meaning she wasnt a slave?
Dad-O-Lot
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Quote:

he saw that this girl was penniless, unschooled, and likely to be malleable. Her parents wanted her to marry a pig farmer twice her age, and she was desperately unhappy but had nowhere to go. Tom approached her with an offer: She could have food and shelter if she would commit to taking care of his daughter, who had just turned 12.



Lola agreed, not grasping that the deal was for life.
"She is my gift to you," Lieutenant Tom told my mother.
"I don't want her," my mother said, knowing she had no choice.


ham98
How long do you want to ignore this user?
fake news
Quote:

Slavery has a long history on the islands. Before the Spanish came, islanders enslaved other islanders, usually war captives, criminals, or debtors. Slaves came in different varieties, from warriors who could earn their freedom through valor to household servants who were regarded as property and could be bought and sold or traded. High-status slaves could own low-status slaves, and the low could own the lowliest. Some chose to enter servitude simply to survive: In exchange for their labor, they might be given food, shelter, and protection.
Only white Europeans have slaves. Everyone else has dedicated servants
cone
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
realists meaning lol nothing matters
Jack Cheese
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Great article. Thanks for sharing.

That is definitely a type of slavery, if not the same as legally-sanctioned chattel slavery. Anyone who reads and doesn't understand that is obtuse or stupid.

Though a slave she had dignity that did not depend on being free. I'm glad her final years were fruitful.
85Photon
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Agoodlittleag04 said:



You're not free to leave if you have no money, can't drive, don't speak the language, are in a country illegally, and apparently don't have a passport.
Really? Would that stop you? It wouldn't stop me!

Don't get me wrong, I think slavers should be drug into the street, shot like a dog, and left for the buzzards. I just think you're missing what the real "chains" were.
Jack Cheese
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
JJ85 Reveille said:

It wouldn't stop me!.

Well now, that's easy for you to say, isn't it tough guy?

Remember she was enslaved in the Philippines for a number of years before being deceived into going to the US. Maybe she should have just sued for all the back pay she was owed. That's what you would have done, after all.
Pyewacket
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
For those who don't read The Atlantic regularly... The Author passed away recently.
Page 1 of 2
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.