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Crushing Self-Motivation in the Slaves |
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The only foundation upon which African American slavery could rest was that of unconditional submission of the slaves. This was about breaking their spirit and thereby killing their motivation to resist.
Breaking captured Africans into bondage was no easy task because the bondsmen rarely submitted willingly and rarely submitted completely. The objective was to make “Ideal Slaves” -- those true to the master in all respects, as in being an obedient and trusty servant who never lied, stole, or failed to do anything they were put to do. Ideal slaves were supposed to set a moral and industrious example for fellow slaves to follow.
An effective way of breaking the slave spirit was flogging. Treatment for the most rebellious slaves was crippling, maiming, or killing so as to serve as an example for the rest of the slaves to “stay in their place.” Practically all slaves were “marked by the whip” and their whip cuts were sometimes washed with brine -- called Salting --so as to inflict more pain.
A second step in breaking motivation was to get the bondsmen to falsely believe in their personal inferiority so as to understand that bondage was their natural status. They had to feel that African ancestry cursed them and that dark skin was a badge of degradation.
A third step was to awe the slaves with a sense of their master’s enormous and limitless power so as to establish the principle of fear.
A fourth step used superstition to control the slaves.
Fifth was about getting the slaves to accept the captor’s system of values so as to take an interest in promoting the master’s business.
Sixth, the captors made an all-out effort to lead the slaves into child-like helplessness so as to create in them “a habit of perfect dependence” upon their masters. Thus, the slaves were not allowed to read, write, or count; not allowed to become skilled artisans (because that fashioned self-reliance); and not allowed to take care of themselves in any way. The idea was to get the slaves to direct their non-work energies to the attainment of mere “temporary ease and enjoyment.”
In church, slaves were constantly preached to about their false degraded moral character. Although no slave could escape some effects of these six practices of the captors, those most affected designed enslaved mind patterns. All of these patterns were about preventing Blacks from being motivated (“causing a change of place”). This meant a slave mentality of crawling around on the bottom, as in showing no outward signs of intelligence, success, or ambition to rise above poverty.
So how can this culturally transmitted lack of self-motivation found in some of today’s struggling youth be overcome? The essence of self-motivation designed for improvement is to do something for a purpose but with a great deal of energy attached. This purpose must be within your reach but you may have to “stretch” your capacities and abilities to grasp it.
Motivation is present only when you can stay focused, not be side-tracked by attractive distractions, and not give up. A starting approach is to go to a quiet place in nature (no radios, TVs, talking, eating), get comfortable, and write out all the motives -- all the factors and circumstances -- that would move you to want to strive for your new dream. Examples include an intense desire to do good or to fight evil. Then practice visualization.
Think of how you could use the riches from your dream work product to benefit your mind, body, spirit, loved ones, and your environment. Make this mental image as real as possible so that you can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch it. Constantly keep this pleasurable image in your awareness and fill it with desire. Such visualization pleasure is the means to arousing your “aliveness energy” for achieving goals.
Next, give yourself approval for each progress step you achieve. Finally, develop your curiosity, your inquisitiveness, your aggressive eagerness to learn what and why things are -- especially through reading. Enjoy your discoveries. In summary, to build motivation involves lengthening your attention span, intensifying your desire, and focusing your will-power.
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D
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