"Slaves" deals with an aspect of American history that, I daresay, even the bigoted among us would rather forget. To a modern viewer the presentation of ownership of another human being boggles the mind. It takes on an aura of a fantasy symbolic of the lust for power.
There is the paternal type owner, who sees himself as having a great responsibility to prepare and educate his blacks for eventual freedom. Then there is the economically oriented type, who sees only the monetary possibilities and advantages of slave labor. There are the convoluted "moralists", who view the blacks as inferior beings, and therefore conclude that it is morally acceptable to own slaves, just as it is acceptable to own cattle and horses. These types are finding arguments to rationalize their power.
But there is another, named McKay (Stephen Boyd) who does not deceive himself or those around him. He is the consummate slave owner, for he understands that he is dealing with a morally indefensible institution. It is raw, corrupt power that entices him, and he is an artist in the practice of such power. He derives his strength from this view, as does the criminal who has no compunction. He does not entertain the notion that blacks are inferior beings. On the contrary, he. loves his black mistress passionately; he surrounds himself with African art and sculpture, and is versed in tribal African history. At a gathering of local slave owners, he quotes a "Wise old African chief, who told him that in the heart of a free man, a little slavery weighs just as much as a lot." McKay's point was that treating slaves decently would not alleviate the humiliation of being a slave, but could only serve to undermine their power. To a critic from the North, McKay shatters the "holier than thou" stance, exposing the hypocrisy of their demanding abstract freedom, without the willingness to include the blacks concretely in their world.
McKay is a polarized character, personifying a Machiavelian view of subjugation of groups of people. This is at once his strength and also the source of his destruction, for the spirit in man refuses to forever remain enslaved. The opposite pole is Luke (Ossie Davis), a dignified and religious slave, as highly principled as Thomas More (A Man For All Seasons). Like Thomas More, he gives his life in defense of a belief, and triumphs in martyrdom.
Although parts are uneven, "Slaves" has a disquieting power that transcends the institution that was only formally abolished in 1863.
There is the paternal type owner, who sees himself as having a great responsibility to prepare and educate his blacks for eventual freedom. Then there is the economically oriented type, who sees only the monetary possibilities and advantages of slave labor. There are the convoluted "moralists", who view the blacks as inferior beings, and therefore conclude that it is morally acceptable to own slaves, just as it is acceptable to own cattle and horses. These types are finding arguments to rationalize their power.
But there is another, named McKay (Stephen Boyd) who does not deceive himself or those around him. He is the consummate slave owner, for he understands that he is dealing with a morally indefensible institution. It is raw, corrupt power that entices him, and he is an artist in the practice of such power. He derives his strength from this view, as does the criminal who has no compunction. He does not entertain the notion that blacks are inferior beings. On the contrary, he. loves his black mistress passionately; he surrounds himself with African art and sculpture, and is versed in tribal African history. At a gathering of local slave owners, he quotes a "Wise old African chief, who told him that in the heart of a free man, a little slavery weighs just as much as a lot." McKay's point was that treating slaves decently would not alleviate the humiliation of being a slave, but could only serve to undermine their power. To a critic from the North, McKay shatters the "holier than thou" stance, exposing the hypocrisy of their demanding abstract freedom, without the willingness to include the blacks concretely in their world.
McKay is a polarized character, personifying a Machiavelian view of subjugation of groups of people. This is at once his strength and also the source of his destruction, for the spirit in man refuses to forever remain enslaved. The opposite pole is Luke (Ossie Davis), a dignified and religious slave, as highly principled as Thomas More (A Man For All Seasons). Like Thomas More, he gives his life in defense of a belief, and triumphs in martyrdom.
Although parts are uneven, "Slaves" has a disquieting power that transcends the institution that was only formally abolished in 1863.