“Get Out” Is More Real than You Think - the History of "Seasoning” Slaves
Spoiler Alert, tw: rape, torture
I just watched Get Out last night and it was incredible to say the least. And definitely one of my favorite films that I’ve seen recently.
What I found most interesting, though, was that aspects of the film were so much more fact than fiction. And many parts had a sadly very real basis in black history.
There is historical precedent which shows that aspects of what happened to the black people in the film has also occurred in real life.
The film is a comedic psychological thriller in which black people are kidnapped, brainwashed into losing themselves and their blackness, and made into body puppets for white masters. As you watch as a black person, you can just sit there in shock and awe at just how evil it all is.
But the film is not just a work of fiction. There is also historical precedent showing that many aspects of what happened to the black people in the film has also occurred in real life. And as I watched the movie, I immediately thought of slavery and specifically the “Seasoning” that slaves were put through to prepare them to be “proper” slaves on plantations.
The History of “Seasoning” Slaves
A slave’s journey did not end with the Middle Passage. “Seasoning” was then used to psychologically destroy them and make them submissive, “pliant” slaves
If you survived the slave forts known as “factories” on the African coast where hundreds of thousands died or the horrors of rape, beatings, starvation, sickness, humiliation, murder and more on the Middle Passage which killed millions more, you then were trafficked- bruised, sick, beaten and psychologically traumatized for sale to white plantation owners in the “New World.” But your journey of abuse and trauma was just beginning.
For slaves shipped to the Caribbean or South America (Over 90% of all slaves), you were then put through a process known as “Seasoning” which was intended to psychologically destroy you through torture and back-breaking physical labor in order to prepare you to be a “good” submissive, pliant slave.
(One example of an instrument of torture used on African slaves. Image credit: Atlanta Black Star)
“Seasoning” involved torturing and breaking the person completely so that they would submit totally to your will and no longer resist or fight back. This is comparable to the practice of “breaking horses” so they will follow your commands and orders without question (x).
The “Seasoning” period typically lasted 3 years and also occurred in large torture and forced labor camps, the most notorious ones being in Jamaica. And some reports document ~25% of new slaves dying during the 3 year “seasoning” period (x).
You were tortured, brutalized, progressively stripped of your African name and identity and anything that did not serve your purpose as a beast of burden for your white master. You were tortured for years to make you into (what they saw as) an “empty vessel” that they could pour themselves into and mold as they pleased.
Get Out embodied quite literally for me this very real history of “seasoning” slaves in action. Psychological torture and physical brutalization when you do not comply, and striving to completely break you as a black person and turn you into a submissive, pliant vessel for the wishes and orders of your white master.
The film (intentionally or not) hit the nail on the head in depicting what a modern version of “seasoning” could look like, much like what many of our ancestors endured before.
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