Has anyone read "My Family's Slave" this week?

Yes - see THIS THREAD

Fantastic writing!

It is so hard to believe that this is still going.



Not the same and this was still happening in the '30s, but my great grandparents had indentured servants. My mother said they got their money out of them. One poor gal had been there for 20 years. She said when they could not get indentured servants, they got convicts. She was very glad when her mother moved them away from the farm.

Thank you. I didn't see the other thread, but I really want to read the rest of this story (just started it now).

We must have read different articles. I don't think the children bore any responsibility for their parents' awful choices.

Everything I read pointed to him clashing with his mother for years until he was in a position to actually help Lola.

As for the eulogy, I guess you think he should have told everyone at his mother's funeral that she was a horrible, abusive woman.

What part of the story was whitewashed? He was pretty honest about the way Lola was treated. I sensed a great deal of guilt and sorrow for all that Lola lost. Seems like he spent his adult life trying to make amends for the way HIS PARENTS treated Lola.

Or do you think the author, as a six or seven or even a 21 year old should have called the authorities and possibly had Lola deported?

Yes my great grands got girls from Ireland. My mother said they were treated horribly and they did end up running away.

I have not yet, but it is book marked to read tomorrow.

That's cute, coming from someone who's all judgy about the actions a bunch of children failed to take.

Not doubting that Lola was treated poorly, but the story says she was a slave yet she was given a choice as to whether to come to America? Or am I reading that incorrectly?

I am with you. He could've done more. He really could have. Not as a child but as an adult. AND even when he wrote her obituary he wasn't honest. It's a sad story. She had no freedom or choices and by the time she did- she FELT like she had no choices. Her life was not hers. Tragic.
I posted this on the other thread, too
Why the obituary for Eudocia Tomas Pulido didn’t tell the story of her life in slavery
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I just have to say, I had a servant when I lived in Hong Kong. there were 40,000 filipino maids there at that time.. many were highly educated and they worked 6 days a week and lived in the apartments. in their own rooms. Because it was a British colony, they had labor rights--pay, health care, flights home, etc. I could not afford a full time maid, so I had a local chinese woman who came in 15 hours a week. it was extremely unusual for a european (and americans) not to have a live in maid. in fact, when my friend lived there with three kids, she had two maids.

of course, my relationship with my maid was nothing like the story. I wish I could have brought her and her family to america. She was a lovely person, and I visited her about 6 yrs after I left.. when I went back on vacation . I considered her a friend. I was honored to be invited to her house for tea. (she lived in a house with no running water or plumbing of any kind). I did see a lot of indifferent treatment of maids.. though no meaness.

now the foot is on the other foot. and I work occasionally as a nanny for very well off families. since I am a white older lady, I am treated well. but you do hear terrible stories.
I thought the man was right to expose this truth of his family and their slave.

Whoever said that trying to defend the servant made it harder for the servant , was right.

My mother said there was nothing they could do. My uncle tried to give the convicts some extra food, and they were punished for it( the convicts). I am not sure how. My mother rarely talked about this. Maybe three or four times?

It was heartbreaking. How can anyone treat another human being like that?