Current Events > A Story of Slavery in Modern America - Slave lived with family for 56 years

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https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/?utm_source=twb

The ashes filled a black plastic box about the size of a toaster. It weighed three and a half pounds. I put it in a canvas tote bag and packed it in my suitcase this past July for the transpacific flight to Manila. From there I would travel by car to a rural village. When I arrived, I would hand over all that was left of the woman who had spent 56 years as a slave in my family’s household.

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 mine—my 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.

To our American neighbors, we were model immigrants, a poster family. They told us so. My father had a law degree, my mother was on her way to becoming a doctor, and my siblings and I got good grades and always said “please” and “thank you.” We never talked about Lola. Our secret went to the core of who we were and, at least for us kids, who we wanted to be.

After my mother died of leukemia, in 1999, Lola came to live with me in a small town north of Seattle. I had a family, a career, a house in the suburbs—the American dream. And then I had a slave.

This is a long story that is worth reading. It's sad as hell. There's also an audio version.
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wtf
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thats heartbreaking
at least family were informed of what happened to her

that's a privilege not every family gets
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NonDairyMiltank posted...

thats heartbreaking
at least family were informed of what happened to her

that's a privilege not every family gets

It's depressing to think all of the ones out there who'll never had their story told and just died after being used for their entire lives.
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So the writer was complicit in it?
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Tragic

SubtletyRefuge posted...

So the writer was complicit in it?

Yeah. But when you're raised in that way I guess it would be difficult to deal with.
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Great story. This is why the Atlantic is my favorite ocean.
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That is fucked up.

The guy should be in prison.
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that was a good read
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kurdt032 posted...

That is fucked up.

The guy should be in prison.

for what?
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That was an incredible story, I'm still crying five minutes after having finished it
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kurdt032 posted...

That is fucked up.

The guy should be in prison.

Who? The father? Certainly not the author, you're asking for the impossible expecting a kid raised in that world to suddenly rise up to be the hero.
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That was really sad, at least he learnt what their parents and grandparents did was wrong and he did everything he could to make this woman's life better, even if it was in the end, really heartwarming...
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Cookie Bag posted...

it was in the end, really heartwarming...

Lol. Here's $200 a month. Hope it makes up for the years of mindless work, lack of education, and entire life without sex or intimacy. How heartwarming.

The whole thing is a fucking disgrace.
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My relatives in the Philippines owns servants. I've never seen them mistreat or abuse them but maybe that's by design. It's pretty commonplace for people to have servants, most are sold from their families who are too poor to give them anything
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kurdt032 posted...

Cookie Bag posted...

it was in the end, really heartwarming...

Lol. Here's $200 a month. Hope it makes up for the years of mindless work, lack of education, and entire life without sex or intimacy. How heartwarming.

The whole thing is a fucking disgrace.

Shut the fuck up you clown
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Cookie Bag posted...

Shut the fuck up you clown

Heartwarming.
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kurdt032 posted...

Cookie Bag posted...

Shut the fuck up you clown

Heartwarming.

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but cultural differences

kurdt032 posted...

Cookie Bag posted...

it was in the end, really heartwarming...

Lol. Here's $200 a month. Hope it makes up for the years of mindless work, lack of education, and entire life without sex or intimacy. How heartwarming.

The whole thing is a fucking disgrace.

It was $200 a week.
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Wow, family sounds like a piece of shit all around. It's a shame his reprehensible parents never received the punishment they so very deserved.
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sondast posted...

It was $200 a week.

My mistake. Doesn't change my thoughts though.
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Darmik posted...

NonDairyMiltank posted...

thats heartbreaking
at least family were informed of what happened to her

that's a privilege not every family gets

It's depressing to think all of the ones out there who'll never had their story told and just died after being used for their entire lives.

i cant imagine that being the extent of my life.

and sick fucks want to keep confederate statues up.
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The issue I have with the writer was that he still waited for his parents to die before ever trying to make amends. It's not like he was a kid the entire time. But I understand it too as awful as it is. It's hard to betray family even if others suffer.
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Twinmold posted...

Wow, family sounds like a piece of shit all around. It's a shame his reprehensible parents never received the punishment they so very deserved.

His mom got lots of diseases, Liet. Tom died shortly after, and I'd be surprised if the father wasn't dead in some ditch from the lifestyle he lived. For me, that's punishment, not some manmade prison.
The kid was great and he did try to stand up for Lola, it just didn't work. This isn't a movie.

kurdt032 posted...

Lol. Here's $200 a month. Hope it makes up for the years of mindless work, lack of education, and entire life without sex or intimacy. How heartwarming.

The whole thing is a f***ing disgrace.

Did you even read the story? He was honoring Lola's wishes, Lola didn't want to drive, she didn't want independence, what do you do with a person like that? Put her out of the house and she'll be living in the streets in less than a week, I think she was living the life she knew and had grown to enjoy, stop being narrowminded.
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Darmik posted...

The issue I have with the writer was that he still waited for his parents to die before ever trying to make amends. It's not like he was a kid the entire time. But I understand it too as awful as it is. It's hard to betray family even if others suffer.

The kid did an amazing job as an adult, he learned to forgive his mother and appreciate her for who she was, with all her flaws, and actually took Lola to see her family, Lola was like his grandmother and you can see he loved her. I think he is a spectacular human being, I don't know how you people can't see that. What would you guys even have done?
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Mister_Spyker posted...

Darmik posted...

The issue I have with the writer was that he still waited for his parents to die before ever trying to make amends. It's not like he was a kid the entire time. But I understand it too as awful as it is. It's hard to betray family even if others suffer.

The kid did an amazing job as an adult, he learned to forgive his mother and appreciate her for who she was, with all her flaws, and actually took Lola to see her family, Lola was like his grandmother and you can see he loved her. I think he is a spectacular human being, I don't know how you people can't see that. What would you guys even have done?

I don't know what I would have done. That's why I said I understand it. Doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it either. It's a sad, bittersweet story at best.
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deanshow posted...

My relatives in the Philippines owns servants. I've never seen them mistreat or abuse them but maybe that's by design. It's pretty commonplace for people to have servants, most are sold from their families who are too poor to give them anything

they don't own servants fool
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kurdt032 posted...

That is fucked up.

The guy should be in prison.

well he's dead now
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Wow, what a fantastic story. That really moved me.
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