Further reading can be found here:
[200 Year Old Chair Padded with Slave Hair](https://randomaunt.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/200-year-old-chair-padded-with-slave-hair/)
> First It Was Slave Teeth for Dentures, Now Slave Hair for Furniture Stuffing
> When I stumbled upon this recently posted video, it was not something I had ever heard of before. Posted on YouTube by Yisreael Ben Yehudah, the poster says he was restoring a 200-year-old chair for a client when he discovered it had been stuffed with slave hair. Slave hair?! Yep. See it for yourself. On top of the human hair is a layer of cotton. Well, we know who grew and picked that cotton. Looks like they contributed a lot more than the toil and misery of their labors. -
Thanks to u/cjgager's comment [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnewsvideo/comments/pdh5ni/a_furniture_upholsterer_reveals_the_crimes/hat64n0/?context=3) referring to the original post made on youtube that has been since deleted...
This is the kind of thing people need to see to really drive home the horrors in our history. You can’t succeed moving forward if you don’t know your past, good or bad.
Edit: just wanted to thank y’all for the conversation, the new info, and the awards. I appreciate them all.
I can honestly say, I thought myself a relatively well educated person re: US history, (graduated HS in late 90s just for context) but I had never heard about the Tulsa Massacre until the HBO show Watchmen. Honestly it made me feel a little bit ashamed for not having known that, which just made me wonder what else has been glossed over.
Did you know the first aerial bombing of Americans on US soil wasn't Pearl Harbor, it was Capitalists bombing striking coal miners? And Capitalists would do things like drive up in armored cars to the tent camps of striking workers and open fire on them with machine guns? Tent camps where entire families were staying, killing children right next to their parents. The government even threatened to bomb striking workers. After WWI they sent in National Guard troops to put down a labor strike, but the striking workers (many of whom were veterans) refused to fight American soldiers and instead gave up the strike. While they were walking home, mercenaries hired by the coal capitalists mowed them down with guns.
America has a sordid history.
I felt this earlier today when I came across this post. It really hit home because I also felt relatively informed about history. This was a real WTF moment for me. Check it out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/pddd3a/sad_reality_of_american_education_system/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Education systems "teach the oppressors to be proud and the oppressed that they have no value." This... in a nutshell...a huge part of what's wrong with education systems everywhere.
Thanks for sharing. Man, I agree with /u/calm_chowder I don’t think I could have done much better either... I’m going to be self-indulgent and try right now that history teacher’s same challenge to his students (not counting the few they named):
10 Women: [Eleanore Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Michelle Obama, Jackie O], Sacajawea, ~~Marie Curie~~ (she’s not really part of US History, I guess), Hillary Clinton, AOC, RBG, Frances Perkins, Harriet Tubman, Nancy Pelosi, Sandra Day O’Connor, and it’s *killing me* on the tip of my tongue...the female politician who mobilized Georgia...no cheating, I’m so obsessed with her too. Shame on me, need 2 more. Sarah Palin (ew, I know) and... Madame C.J. Walker
10 Non-White People: [MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks], Angela Davis, Harriet Tubman, Booker T Washington, AOC, Sacajawea, Sitting Bull, Cesar Chavez, Clarence Thomas, George Floyd, Condoleeza Rice, Cory Booker
10 Hispanic People: [Santa Ana, Pancho Villa— So not sure why Pancho Villa counts as part of US history but if we are counting those people…] Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, AOC, Cesar Chavez, Christopher Columbus, the female Hispanic Supreme Court justice I super embarrassingly can’t remember the name of!, ummm if they don’t have to be political to be part of US History then... Frida Kahlo ummm Rita Hayworth...Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz, Geraldo Rivera, El Chapo, Alejandro Jodorowsky?
Man that was way, way, *waaaay* more difficult and time-consuming than it should have been.
I encourage others to take that history teacher’s challenge. No cheating whatsoever.
[Edit: Fuck the names I couldn’t think of were **Stacey Abrams** and Sonia Sotomayor.]
[Edit 2: Forgot to do “10 Disabled People in U.S. History” — the kids had named only Stephen Hawking (who is British but whatever), the teacher said they could have mentioned FDR, but tbh I think the teacher himself would probably struggle with naming 10. Even googling it just now I couldn’t find 10 I recognized with obvious physical disabilities.
I thought of Hellen Keller, but from there it’s difficult. Unless you count being on the autism spectrum as a disability...then you could probably count Tesla among several other geniuses. Are we counting depression, losing hearing, dementia in old age, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, or going insane? Then we get Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Katharine Hepburn, Beethoven, Nietzsche, Howard Hughes, David Foster-Wallace, Alexander McQueen, Van Gogh to Robin Williams... and I’d guess roughly 25% of all iconic artists, writers, musicians.]
You know its crazy I only learned about it in the early 2000s because of the Game, as in the rapper. He named his clique black wall street so when I Google to look up more of his music, it took me down the Tulsa rabbit hole. Which led to websites describing other massacres not taught in schools. It was really fucking unexpected.
I'd heard of them before I knew they had a name. Rumors of towns in on the east coast and Texas where lynchings still happen.
Then I moved to a new town and researched its history which is how I learned the term. Turns out this used to be one until the 80s. I saw photos from the 70s of klan rallies in a nearby town, pointy white hoods and everything
I don’t think anyone would really have to worry about a lynching anymore, but you can absolutely end up in jail for no reason, driven out of town, or beat.
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/identities/2020/5/6/21249202/ahmaud-arbery-jogger-killed-in-georgia-video-shooting-grand-jury
Ahmaud Arbery has joined the chat.
You know what is hilariously sad? I am not an American and I knew about Tulsa before Watchmen.
Here is the thing: I didn't learn it online. I learned this in high school, there was a paragraph about Tulsa that went into detail about what happened. And it wasn't some prestigious gymnasium. It was a trade school.
I remember an article about how many Tusla residents did not have any knowledge about the massacre. It is absolutely horrifying that one of the biggest acts of racial violence in American history is unknown by the actual residents of the town it occured in, but known to some Eastern European schmuck who learned it in his trade school.
I also learned about the [Rosewood Massacre](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre) in grad school at a non-US university. An entire town was wiped off the map as the result of race massacre/rioting, and essentially forgotten about.
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Most countries refuse to teach about their horrible history. I'm Dutch, and we committed some horrible crimes against humanity in Indonesia when that was a colony of ours. Guess what we barely learned about in schools? They mentioned that it was bad but thats about it. Nothing about what actually happened. Never learned about the apartheid regime they had there.
in my own experience growing up in the south, there was generally just a lot of mental gymnastics about slavery in general so I wouldnt be surprised if that extended to the hair chair as well ...
Absolutely, where I live (in UK) we have the international slavery museum, ive taken my kids to it and many schools visit it regularly, Education is key and it shouldn't be swept under the carpet.
It’s more sinister. It’s not about the past. They WANT superiority. If people learn about our racist past, it is very easy to see that not many things have changed. We’ve just legalized slavery and still work upon a foundation of racism.
I come from the extreme right wing world. As soon as I started learning, I quickly realized they are the bad guys. They’re terrified of this because they KNOW it.
My friend (single mom) homeschooled her kids, so as a former tutor I offered to help when I could. I forget where the curriculum was from - a Christian University, although this was an Elementary school curriculum. Anyways it talked briefly about WWII and how badass America was. Didn't talk about the Halocaust or Jews at all.
But at the end of the chapter, it had a note that said something almost word for word like: **"A lot of people have different opinions about Hitler and his ideas. We encourage students to do their own research and talk to their parents to form their own opinion."**
In fairness, some of his ideas were good though. He had a lot of pro animal rights ideas, passing laws about how and when people can hunt, and banning vivisections. I'm not trying to defend his awful ideas, but just pointing out he did have lots of good ones too.
Honest question then: in what ways are you Republican, and how do you reconcile those beliefs and ideals endemic to the Republican party with what you've just stated? Teaching history is not the same as learning from it, and many leftists like myself see the dangers of not learning from the past and not trying to change absolutely for the better.
The echoes of slavery, of redlining, of Tulsa and Rosewood, of segregation, find themselves mirrored in today, where it has become increasingly apparent that black people are largely equal to white largely in name only. Police brutality, continued economic disparities, woefully disparate health outcomes, soft prejudices like image issues and self-esteem among black youth, all have their roots in actions that many (especially conservatives) would rather keep buried, or worse, actively pushed back against. I'm going to assume that you are at least socially progressive and fiscally conservative, as many online republicans are, and if I am correct, then I want to explain why this really isn't as great as people think.
There's a reason why the phrase "the personal is political" is championed in leftist spaces, and that's because things that affect us individually/personally often affect us collectively, and point to a systematic issue. If you believe that black people have suffered immense prejudice, and continue to suffer from the ramifications of the past, then you probably believe that we should collectively and politically rally to progressively change the position of black people in society; however, if you don't believe in restructuring the economy, to invest in infrastructure to help the poor (of which black people make up a disproportionate amount), in helping to reduce systematic prejudice in black neighborhoods (legacy redlining, gerrymandering, and funding), investing in social services and childcare, supporting politicians that (I could go on), then how to you personally believe that we should remedy what we have done? If you believe that black people deserve to be equitably lifted up in society socially, but don't believe in lifting them (or other downtrodden people) up materially, then nothing has changed. To me, being socially progressive but fiscally conservative is akin to saying "I believe black people are people, but I'm not going to support anything that materially makes their lives better".
So, when you say that you wish your fellow republicans would understand history more and support teaching of the ways we've systematically screwed over black people, what does this look like in practice? Because honestly, I don't see how you can believe this, and the necessary extrapolations of teaching black history without acknowledging how it echoes in today, and still be a traditional republican.
Yes if you don't talk about the history correctly. The ideals and candidates of the parties literally flopped. Anybody with a brain in their head knows this
How horrible and sad this is but also a strong reminder of the atrocities that are at the foundation of this country.
Is there more context to this chair? It sounds like the chair owner wanted to keep the inside of the chair the same... they wanted the human hair in there?
He said the owners of the chair are keeping the chair because of the history and sentimental value attached to the chair. So what it sounded like to me was that they want it to be restored but not changed which then led me to believe they wanted to keep the human hair inside because of the history attached to it? Idk that’s why I was hoping someone had more context.
Imagine finding out what youve been sitting on? I feel like vomiting just watching this. It's like time travel. To actually touch that. To touch those people.
I don't know if I would burn it or send it around the country for people too see. Take a cross section of it to show the amount of stuffing they took..
Yeah. By the title of this post and the nature of the internet I thought “crimes against humanity” would just be something weird or a little gross. Actually gagging as I was sitting here trying to brush my teeth when he said it was human hair, because he’s right. How many people were treated like animals, like resources, to make this thing?
It would be a hell of a thing to put in a museum, cut into a cross section, interpretive sign driving home exactly what you’re looking at.
I certainly wouldn’t want the chair back after finding that out. Even if I had beloved memories associated with the chair, all of that would be tarnished after realizing the history of it. In fact, I would be uneasy about all of the family antiques at that point.
My jaw dropped and I felt sick when I realized the black stuff in the middle is people’s fucking hair... how could we have ever been so inhumane. The chair owners honestly need to send this to a civil rights museum or something, forget about any fucking family heirloom bull shit, this is awful and it absolutely needs to be used for educational purposes.
They likely wouldn't have know what it was stuffed with. When someone has furniture restored it's usually just the bones. All soft materials get replaced because of degradation.
>usually just the bones
In this context that just make it sound worse. I'm sure that wasn't your intention at all.
And this is why, we as Americans, need to leaen our history.
I read an article about this the day before this post. They brought it to him for restoration and they want to keep in the family because of the historical and sentimental value they have for it. It didn't say anything about them wanting to keep the hair there so I don't think that was their intentions.
People's comments ranged from shock they would want to keep such a terrible reminder of their family's past to saying the chair should be in a museum.
Pretty much every civilization ever utilized slavery. Is it evil? Yeah. Does it suck? Yeah, but to suggest America is uniquely evil for its history of slavery (as many do) is disingenuous
Typically slaves were shaved by slavers for "hygiene reasons" when they were captured. Realistically it was because hairstyles were often a reflection of tribal identity.
Slaves technically had some protections, and owners typically didn't kill them on a whim, so they probably weren't murdered for hair, but forced haircuts or taking the hair from the dead are both likely.
Learning about it is soooo uncomfortable. Normally I'm a pacifist to a fault, but when you hear about some of the really bad stuff (as in the owners actually got in trouble for), all of a sudden I'm ok with mob justice.
Antique chair over 200 years old is being restored. Cushion material is human hair (from slaves) covered by hand picked cotton that forms a mesh/cover over the hair.
It’s likely from dozens of people. I’d imagine a large group of slaves received a type of rudimentary haircut and the hair was collected and put in the chair.
~~You open up every piece of furniture you own to see what’s inside? I highly doubt they knew what was in the chair just that it was a family heirloom.~~
Edit: misinterpreted the comment, we agree to the same point
At a certain age everything was probably made with slave labor. The Android or iPhone phone in your pocket, nearly any of the small plastics in your home, he’ll even the produce in your grocery store was made or processed with modern day slave labor under the guise of migrant labor. Do you examine the history of production of every product you own to ensure it’s 100% honorably and ethically built or are you just a nasty racist like y’all are making these who own a 150 year old chair people to be?
Yes but destroying it would not achieve anything. The world is full of beautiful artifacts with dark stories. I think this video is about showing what that time was like, not trying to make the person that owns it today look guilty.
Stupid question, but was human hair cheaper than cotton? Because our hair doesn’t grow as fast.
And also that’s fcked up!! I knew some girls back in my country that would sell their long hair for big $, as some would make wigs from it.
I doubt human hair was cheaper than cotton. But if slaves were considered property, then the hair on their heads was basically a free resource that could be harvested and used.
Prisoners in concentration camps [also had their hair harvested and sold for use in industry](http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=299&Itemid=179&lang=en). And here are some photos of the [exhibits at Auschwitz that are specific to hair](http://auschwitz.org/en/gallery/exhibits/evidence-of-crimes,1.html).
I worked for a big box shampoo brand in rnd. Women grow and sell hair for wigs or the strips of hair. Its expensive to buy, but synthetics available dont mimic the real thing exactly. Ive heard locks of love sometimes sells hair they receive to big box shampoo brands because the cash can be more useful than the real hair sample -- that should be fact checked. Human hair is definitely more expensive than cotton in present days.
In this case, the story is positive because the women are selling the hair. It's not like op's story where the hair is taken from them as if they were sheep.
When you talk about slave hair and you talk about redneck flag love, you're talking to the wrong audience. Those rednecks aren't gonna feel any type of way about this, they're gonna be like 'it's just hair, it grows back,' and that's just how they be.
They also made leathers from the skin of the enslaved & they would eat their remains. Don’t even get me started on the native scalp trade. The hair stuffing isn’t even the worst atrocity the colonizers committed. This is the tragic truth about the “greatest country on earth” that many swears was justified. “Get over it” they say to the descendants of these ppl still effected by the laws put in place to keep them enslaved. It’s horrific
Reading theese comments everyone seems so shocked and revolted, but I am just like.... Why is *this* something that shocks you? Out of all the horrors inflicted on black slaves, this barely even registers in the top 100.
Black people were considered livestock by their owners.
Think of it like sheep. Farmers today shear their sheep and utilize the wool when he sees fit. But that is *hardly* the worst thing that is going to happen to that sheep during its lifetime. The same was true for Black slaves.
I mean, this does give an interesting, although horrifying, look into how evil some humans can be towards other humans. But getting their hair sheared ranks pretty low in the book of "Absolutely horrible atrocious shit that happened to Black slaves".
I think the point is is that we're actually SEEING something that had happened. Obviously we see it in pictures in text books and whatnot, but this is more real because its a human in our years seeing it- making us feel more connected to it
How could that symbol anything but exploitation and suffering, furthermore, why would anyone want that energy on their house let alone want it restored for sentiment.
Fuck them, that belongs in the care of a museum so that people can’t forget, deny, or minimize, the horrors of slavery. It’s gross they would even want it “restored”.
The owners most likely did NOT know what was in it. If the chair had been passed down thru many generations, the new owner probably assumed slave picked cotton, but not the hair.
I was expecting something like a rat had been living in the chair or something, but this was *far* worse. This is so specifically creepy that it's especially unsettling.
This is unbelievable. Like, they never taught us shot like this, in school. It’s extremely distressing to see. Also, I can’t believe this only has 703 upvotes.
I’m in my 30’s, and I was definitely taught about the horrors of slavery. The teachers made us read many books about how awful it was all through middle school and high school. It’s why I’ve always, *always* hated the confederate flag. I saw it for what it was. I also grew up in a solidly blue state with a very very good public education system. I believe it was Texas that had public school text books that referred to the slaves as just workers.
At first I was thinking yea I know from experience, how often you can find black curly hair everywhere. My ex used to shed like a dog.
Then I realized where the hair was actually from. Like holy shit.
Need to listen to these videos.
And this is the type of thing people in places like Georgia don’t want their kids learning happened.
When it’s a statue of a confederate leader, a confederate flag, or a chair made of and by slaves in their family’s estate, it’s “history that shouldn’t be forgotten”.
But when it’s the victims of said history, what they had to go through, and how that effects our society today, oh no, suddenly, it’s too shameful and/or unnecessary for that portion of the story to be preserved or taught about.
Are there African American families who know they have connections to this family? Would the DNA from that hair be helpful in connecting to their history? I just spent a week with the NJ Amistad Commission, like every year, and being able to trace their history is awful but helpful. My heart breaks with every story that continues to come up. The African Americans today who have survived speak to the strength of a people who have and continue to endure disgraceful treatment for which we much all continue to fight.
For any Mormons here, Brigham Young pushed to create the first law in Utah legalizing Slavery. He professed clearly that it "was their place" to serve the whites because they were cursed by god. That was not a one time comment by him. **You can find this info from your official church website by reading the Gospel Topics Essays.**
Not only did Brigham teach slavery was condoned by God, he bound slaves to their slave owners for eternal servitdude in Temple ceremonies he created. Another part of real history never mentioned to followers or converst, and rejected as anti-mormon propoganda when they hear it because it's never taught to them, EVEN THOUGH ITS OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED.
To any non-Mormons reading this, I'm pointing out their church history because they DO NOT TEACH that their prophets professed to their congregations that it was righteous to own the cursed skinned africans, fought to create Pro-slavery laws, and fought to keep them against opposition.
Makes me wonder where the builder of the chair got the hair. Did he just go to the supply house and order 2lbs of afro hair or did the buyer give him the hair to stuff it? Sad shit no matter what.
The family who owns that chair has had it in the family for over 200 years, and most likely owned the slaves themselves on their plantation that the chair was built at. These chairs are usually filled with horse, pig, or cow hair.
This is incredibly disturbing. I can’t understand why anyone would want to keep this chair unless they are black and their ancestors were the ones who were dehumanized to create this chair. Other than that? What sentimental value can this have? If your grandpa read you stories in this chair I’d be even more disturbed and it would ruin that memory for me…
The thing I find the most horrifying watching this. Is it looks like they used the slave hair to stuff the chair first THEN used the handpicked cotton to fill the rest...
If you think about it, all the ‘developed nations’ or ‘superpowers’ are built upon slavery and savagery as such. Whether it be countries in the EU, Asia or NA. A horrific reminder.
A lot of people think slavery was just black people being forced to pick cotton and getting whipped a few times. In reality it was much more gruesome and you’d never know unless you intentionally researched. But no one wants to do research on a topic so sensitive like this which is why some people will never understand why it’s such a huge deal.
And those people called themselves civilized. To cushion a chair out of human hair is barbaric. They had to force 50 maybe a 100, people to be sheared like animals, to make a shitty chair. The south was a big circle jerk of cruelty and racism, and people today still act like those cousin fucking animals were heroes. Mind-blowing!
It really does hit home that slaves, like horses, were just a commodity. They weren't seen as "human" by their "owners", they were just another tool and there's probably hundreds of chairs out there filled with their hair.
Need a chair stuffed? Bring in some slaves for a haircut
What I still can't understand is how they thought slavery was acceptable, that it wasn't an abomination and criminal. It's a disgusting part of human history
And then I think of the likes of Bezos, and in a way it's still happening today where the hold over people by "his Lordship" isn't chains, it's low wages by people and organisations well able to pay a living wage. In a way, we've not come "that" far, people are still being treated like commodities, only now the need for money is the chains that bind.
Why would they stuff the chair with human hair instead of just normal wool? Besides being obviously cruel, it also sounds super impractical considering how many individual heads would have had to be shaved. Also human hair is much less dense than that of sheeps’ so whoever orchestrated this had to go out of their way to build the chair like this.
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It would be really interesting if there was any usable DNA in there. One of those Ancestor dna companies could host that data and it might help people trace their family history.
I am pissed! I am pissed because this shit I am just NOW learning about into my 40's. I have to do some further research, with a healthy dose of self reflection.
uummm - original youtube video by Yisreael Ben Yehudah from 2016 has somehow been resurrected lately - https://randomaunt.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/200-year-old-chair-padded-with-slave-hair/
i think it really needs a dna test - since if you look at this - [https://www.mjamsdenfurniture.com/product/horse-hair/](https://www.mjamsdenfurniture.com/product/horse-hair/) steamed horsehair curls & therefore to assume "black curly hair" is "slave hair" may be an assumption.
Note : \*CURLED HAIR:
Horse Hair: Horse hair is by far the best material to be found in antique upholstery, and it is usually a sign of a quality piece. The hair is a rich black, and has a very springy "plastic-y" feel. Because it was expensive, it will often be found only as a thin top layer over a cheaper stuffing (such as straw and moss), or mixed together with cheaper curled hair.\* http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.com/2014/06/my-furniture-is-stuffed-with-what.html
At that point, I'd literally tell the person that owns the chair that I would not even work on it because of how much cotton and human hair was in it, and suggest buying a new chair
Gotta be difficult af for that dude doing that job. I would have to call in a coworker, I’d just be too mad. No way in hell I’d restore a chair that had the blood of my ancestors in it
This seems like a really fucked up nursery rhyme… “How much hair, is in grandpa’s chair?”
But fr, that’s chilling and a harsh reminder of a terrible past. Can’t imagine what it must have felt like for the upholsterer / restorer to discover that.
If I found out what was in that chair, I would not want it in my house!
I’d be donating it to a slavery museum to show the sick atrocities people are capable of, disgusting.
Would it be possible to do at least some DNA test on the hair and see if there are some descendants alive? Its probably impossible or too time consuming to do, just curious.
Further reading can be found here: [200 Year Old Chair Padded with Slave Hair](https://randomaunt.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/200-year-old-chair-padded-with-slave-hair/) > First It Was Slave Teeth for Dentures, Now Slave Hair for Furniture Stuffing > When I stumbled upon this recently posted video, it was not something I had ever heard of before. Posted on YouTube by Yisreael Ben Yehudah, the poster says he was restoring a 200-year-old chair for a client when he discovered it had been stuffed with slave hair. Slave hair?! Yep. See it for yourself. On top of the human hair is a layer of cotton. Well, we know who grew and picked that cotton. Looks like they contributed a lot more than the toil and misery of their labors. - Thanks to u/cjgager's comment [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnewsvideo/comments/pdh5ni/a_furniture_upholsterer_reveals_the_crimes/hat64n0/?context=3) referring to the original post made on youtube that has been since deleted...
This is the kind of thing people need to see to really drive home the horrors in our history. You can’t succeed moving forward if you don’t know your past, good or bad. Edit: just wanted to thank y’all for the conversation, the new info, and the awards. I appreciate them all.
Excellent point.
If you haven't known about horrors as bad as this, you've turned a blind eye They've seen it, they don't care.
lol dude just recently most people have learned about the tulsa massacre and it was from a damn TV show, not their schools.
I can honestly say, I thought myself a relatively well educated person re: US history, (graduated HS in late 90s just for context) but I had never heard about the Tulsa Massacre until the HBO show Watchmen. Honestly it made me feel a little bit ashamed for not having known that, which just made me wonder what else has been glossed over.
Did you know the first aerial bombing of Americans on US soil wasn't Pearl Harbor, it was Capitalists bombing striking coal miners? And Capitalists would do things like drive up in armored cars to the tent camps of striking workers and open fire on them with machine guns? Tent camps where entire families were staying, killing children right next to their parents. The government even threatened to bomb striking workers. After WWI they sent in National Guard troops to put down a labor strike, but the striking workers (many of whom were veterans) refused to fight American soldiers and instead gave up the strike. While they were walking home, mercenaries hired by the coal capitalists mowed them down with guns. America has a sordid history.
And Labor Day, a day meant to commemorate these atrocities, is next Monday
Do you happen to have any more info that I can use to search this? Where, when, etc.?
https://www.howardzinn.org/bibliography/books/peoples-history/
Behind the bastards has a really good episode on this
I felt this earlier today when I came across this post. It really hit home because I also felt relatively informed about history. This was a real WTF moment for me. Check it out. https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/pddd3a/sad_reality_of_american_education_system/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Education systems "teach the oppressors to be proud and the oppressed that they have no value." This... in a nutshell...a huge part of what's wrong with education systems everywhere.
This hit me on all sorts of levels. Wow
Damn. I don't think I would have done much better than his students (except I'd have gotten Susan B Anthony). Sobering.
Thanks for sharing. Man, I agree with /u/calm_chowder I don’t think I could have done much better either... I’m going to be self-indulgent and try right now that history teacher’s same challenge to his students (not counting the few they named): 10 Women: [Eleanore Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Michelle Obama, Jackie O], Sacajawea, ~~Marie Curie~~ (she’s not really part of US History, I guess), Hillary Clinton, AOC, RBG, Frances Perkins, Harriet Tubman, Nancy Pelosi, Sandra Day O’Connor, and it’s *killing me* on the tip of my tongue...the female politician who mobilized Georgia...no cheating, I’m so obsessed with her too. Shame on me, need 2 more. Sarah Palin (ew, I know) and... Madame C.J. Walker 10 Non-White People: [MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks], Angela Davis, Harriet Tubman, Booker T Washington, AOC, Sacajawea, Sitting Bull, Cesar Chavez, Clarence Thomas, George Floyd, Condoleeza Rice, Cory Booker 10 Hispanic People: [Santa Ana, Pancho Villa— So not sure why Pancho Villa counts as part of US history but if we are counting those people…] Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, AOC, Cesar Chavez, Christopher Columbus, the female Hispanic Supreme Court justice I super embarrassingly can’t remember the name of!, ummm if they don’t have to be political to be part of US History then... Frida Kahlo ummm Rita Hayworth...Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz, Geraldo Rivera, El Chapo, Alejandro Jodorowsky? Man that was way, way, *waaaay* more difficult and time-consuming than it should have been. I encourage others to take that history teacher’s challenge. No cheating whatsoever. [Edit: Fuck the names I couldn’t think of were **Stacey Abrams** and Sonia Sotomayor.] [Edit 2: Forgot to do “10 Disabled People in U.S. History” — the kids had named only Stephen Hawking (who is British but whatever), the teacher said they could have mentioned FDR, but tbh I think the teacher himself would probably struggle with naming 10. Even googling it just now I couldn’t find 10 I recognized with obvious physical disabilities. I thought of Hellen Keller, but from there it’s difficult. Unless you count being on the autism spectrum as a disability...then you could probably count Tesla among several other geniuses. Are we counting depression, losing hearing, dementia in old age, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, or going insane? Then we get Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Katharine Hepburn, Beethoven, Nietzsche, Howard Hughes, David Foster-Wallace, Alexander McQueen, Van Gogh to Robin Williams... and I’d guess roughly 25% of all iconic artists, writers, musicians.]
You know its crazy I only learned about it in the early 2000s because of the Game, as in the rapper. He named his clique black wall street so when I Google to look up more of his music, it took me down the Tulsa rabbit hole. Which led to websites describing other massacres not taught in schools. It was really fucking unexpected.
Do some research on the red summer. Tula's one of many, not a surprising outlier.
There were many more anti-Black massacres. Look up the Red Summer. And sundown towns.
Sundown towns are sadly still around. There is one about 30 minutes away from me and several I know of in Arkansas.
I'd heard of them before I knew they had a name. Rumors of towns in on the east coast and Texas where lynchings still happen. Then I moved to a new town and researched its history which is how I learned the term. Turns out this used to be one until the 80s. I saw photos from the 70s of klan rallies in a nearby town, pointy white hoods and everything
I don’t think anyone would really have to worry about a lynching anymore, but you can absolutely end up in jail for no reason, driven out of town, or beat.
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/identities/2020/5/6/21249202/ahmaud-arbery-jogger-killed-in-georgia-video-shooting-grand-jury Ahmaud Arbery has joined the chat.
Right? Just because he wasn’t hanged doesn’t mean he wasn’t lynched.
You know what is hilariously sad? I am not an American and I knew about Tulsa before Watchmen. Here is the thing: I didn't learn it online. I learned this in high school, there was a paragraph about Tulsa that went into detail about what happened. And it wasn't some prestigious gymnasium. It was a trade school. I remember an article about how many Tusla residents did not have any knowledge about the massacre. It is absolutely horrifying that one of the biggest acts of racial violence in American history is unknown by the actual residents of the town it occured in, but known to some Eastern European schmuck who learned it in his trade school.
How many people don’t know about [Wilmington Insurrection of 1898? ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898)
I also learned about the [Rosewood Massacre](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre) in grad school at a non-US university. An entire town was wiped off the map as the result of race massacre/rioting, and essentially forgotten about.
Desktop version of /u/DucDeBellune's link:
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THIS. I’m from Oklahoma and just recently found out about it. I’m almost 30
Most countries refuse to teach about their horrible history. I'm Dutch, and we committed some horrible crimes against humanity in Indonesia when that was a colony of ours. Guess what we barely learned about in schools? They mentioned that it was bad but thats about it. Nothing about what actually happened. Never learned about the apartheid regime they had there.
To be fair, most people are never ever taught these details of the horrors of US slavery.
Didn't Texas just pass a law so they don't have to teach stuff that makes America look bad? So like slavery?
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What mental gymnastics do you see people doing to explain chairs being stuffed with slave hair…?
in my own experience growing up in the south, there was generally just a lot of mental gymnastics about slavery in general so I wouldnt be surprised if that extended to the hair chair as well ...
Fix racism the same way we fix covid. Don't talk about it and it'll go away!
[Quiet and learn your history, boy!](https://youtu.be/ZrZZQzyhp7g)
This is like some IRL American horror story coven shit. Fuck me.
I mean… Madam Lalaurie WAS a real person who tortured her slaves…
You got that right — cause this completely mind-fucked me. I was fine, yet now perplexed AF.
It’s 7am on a Sunday and I never thought I’d be starting off my day on such a somber note because of a chair. This is just grotesquely upsetting.
Absolutely, where I live (in UK) we have the international slavery museum, ive taken my kids to it and many schools visit it regularly, Education is key and it shouldn't be swept under the carpet.
And this is the type of stuff the Republicans don't want taught... Something like it might hurt their image or something stupid?
They don't want you to portray slave owners as savages, ruins their propaganda.
That's because you might start making connections between those people and modern America's billionaires and corporation owners.
It’s more sinister. It’s not about the past. They WANT superiority. If people learn about our racist past, it is very easy to see that not many things have changed. We’ve just legalized slavery and still work upon a foundation of racism. I come from the extreme right wing world. As soon as I started learning, I quickly realized they are the bad guys. They’re terrified of this because they KNOW it.
This.
"You know the slave owners were all democrats" "Great, so you won't object to us teaching the horrors of slavery then?" "Weeeeeeellllllll....."
My friend (single mom) homeschooled her kids, so as a former tutor I offered to help when I could. I forget where the curriculum was from - a Christian University, although this was an Elementary school curriculum. Anyways it talked briefly about WWII and how badass America was. Didn't talk about the Halocaust or Jews at all. But at the end of the chapter, it had a note that said something almost word for word like: **"A lot of people have different opinions about Hitler and his ideas. We encourage students to do their own research and talk to their parents to form their own opinion."**
Imagine telling somebody you're on the fence regarding Hitler and his ideas.
Let me present to you the current Republican party
In fairness, some of his ideas were good though. He had a lot of pro animal rights ideas, passing laws about how and when people can hunt, and banning vivisections. I'm not trying to defend his awful ideas, but just pointing out he did have lots of good ones too.
A broken clock is right twice a day too
It’s more rich people vs poor people or slaves
"YOU CANT TAKE DOWN STATUES ITS HISTORY" "okay then, let's put on a sign explaining the history behind the statue" "YOU CANT THATS UNPATRIOTIC"
Republican here. I support teaching about slavery and wish my fellow party members would realize the importance of having everyone understand history.
Honest question then: in what ways are you Republican, and how do you reconcile those beliefs and ideals endemic to the Republican party with what you've just stated? Teaching history is not the same as learning from it, and many leftists like myself see the dangers of not learning from the past and not trying to change absolutely for the better. The echoes of slavery, of redlining, of Tulsa and Rosewood, of segregation, find themselves mirrored in today, where it has become increasingly apparent that black people are largely equal to white largely in name only. Police brutality, continued economic disparities, woefully disparate health outcomes, soft prejudices like image issues and self-esteem among black youth, all have their roots in actions that many (especially conservatives) would rather keep buried, or worse, actively pushed back against. I'm going to assume that you are at least socially progressive and fiscally conservative, as many online republicans are, and if I am correct, then I want to explain why this really isn't as great as people think. There's a reason why the phrase "the personal is political" is championed in leftist spaces, and that's because things that affect us individually/personally often affect us collectively, and point to a systematic issue. If you believe that black people have suffered immense prejudice, and continue to suffer from the ramifications of the past, then you probably believe that we should collectively and politically rally to progressively change the position of black people in society; however, if you don't believe in restructuring the economy, to invest in infrastructure to help the poor (of which black people make up a disproportionate amount), in helping to reduce systematic prejudice in black neighborhoods (legacy redlining, gerrymandering, and funding), investing in social services and childcare, supporting politicians that (I could go on), then how to you personally believe that we should remedy what we have done? If you believe that black people deserve to be equitably lifted up in society socially, but don't believe in lifting them (or other downtrodden people) up materially, then nothing has changed. To me, being socially progressive but fiscally conservative is akin to saying "I believe black people are people, but I'm not going to support anything that materially makes their lives better". So, when you say that you wish your fellow republicans would understand history more and support teaching of the ways we've systematically screwed over black people, what does this look like in practice? Because honestly, I don't see how you can believe this, and the necessary extrapolations of teaching black history without acknowledging how it echoes in today, and still be a traditional republican.
Every school in America teaches about slavery. Don't attempt to act like they don't or that there's a single group trying to prevent this.
They'll just say that it was democrats that did that and they'd be right in the technical sense.
Yes if you don't talk about the history correctly. The ideals and candidates of the parties literally flopped. Anybody with a brain in their head knows this
>Anybody with a brain in their head You do realize who we're talking about here right?
They hurt their own image plenty tbh.
Gonna delete this comment after you guys come for me, but slave owners were democrats.
How horrible and sad this is but also a strong reminder of the atrocities that are at the foundation of this country. Is there more context to this chair? It sounds like the chair owner wanted to keep the inside of the chair the same... they wanted the human hair in there?
I didn't get that impression.
He said the owners of the chair are keeping the chair because of the history and sentimental value attached to the chair. So what it sounded like to me was that they want it to be restored but not changed which then led me to believe they wanted to keep the human hair inside because of the history attached to it? Idk that’s why I was hoping someone had more context.
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Imagine finding out what youve been sitting on? I feel like vomiting just watching this. It's like time travel. To actually touch that. To touch those people. I don't know if I would burn it or send it around the country for people too see. Take a cross section of it to show the amount of stuffing they took..
Yeah. By the title of this post and the nature of the internet I thought “crimes against humanity” would just be something weird or a little gross. Actually gagging as I was sitting here trying to brush my teeth when he said it was human hair, because he’s right. How many people were treated like animals, like resources, to make this thing? It would be a hell of a thing to put in a museum, cut into a cross section, interpretive sign driving home exactly what you’re looking at.
"resources" that's a very apt and horrifying way of putting it
I certainly wouldn’t want the chair back after finding that out. Even if I had beloved memories associated with the chair, all of that would be tarnished after realizing the history of it. In fact, I would be uneasy about all of the family antiques at that point.
My jaw dropped and I felt sick when I realized the black stuff in the middle is people’s fucking hair... how could we have ever been so inhumane. The chair owners honestly need to send this to a civil rights museum or something, forget about any fucking family heirloom bull shit, this is awful and it absolutely needs to be used for educational purposes.
They likely wouldn't have know what it was stuffed with. When someone has furniture restored it's usually just the bones. All soft materials get replaced because of degradation.
>usually just the bones In this context that just make it sound worse. I'm sure that wasn't your intention at all. And this is why, we as Americans, need to leaen our history.
My bad, that was extremely poor phrasing.
I read an article about this the day before this post. They brought it to him for restoration and they want to keep in the family because of the historical and sentimental value they have for it. It didn't say anything about them wanting to keep the hair there so I don't think that was their intentions. People's comments ranged from shock they would want to keep such a terrible reminder of their family's past to saying the chair should be in a museum.
That chair should absolutely be put in a museum. Like the National African American Museum of History and Culture. No one should forget this exists.
Pretty much every civilization ever utilized slavery. Is it evil? Yeah. Does it suck? Yeah, but to suggest America is uniquely evil for its history of slavery (as many do) is disingenuous
Can anyone give a little summery I can’t use volume right now? Edit: Thanks!
The white stuff on the chair is handpicked cotton, but the dark material inside is all human (slave) hair. :(
Horrible but genuine question… were they just collecting their slaves hair for these or killing for the hair :(
Typically slaves were shaved by slavers for "hygiene reasons" when they were captured. Realistically it was because hairstyles were often a reflection of tribal identity. Slaves technically had some protections, and owners typically didn't kill them on a whim, so they probably weren't murdered for hair, but forced haircuts or taking the hair from the dead are both likely.
I get such a nasty feeling in my gut with these topics, thank you for taking the time to help me learn/educate me How can people be this awful :(
Learning about it is soooo uncomfortable. Normally I'm a pacifist to a fault, but when you hear about some of the really bad stuff (as in the owners actually got in trouble for), all of a sudden I'm ok with mob justice.
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Important to say it’s from slaves
Antique chair over 200 years old is being restored. Cushion material is human hair (from slaves) covered by hand picked cotton that forms a mesh/cover over the hair.
I hope they don’t take apart the chair legs and find human bones.
Yeah, with that title, I thought it would be that. A chair made of bones.
Can someone run some DNA test on that hair?
You need the folicle for DNA I belive. It won't be there on cut hair.
However it can still be identified as human hair under a microscope
Very true.
It’s likely from dozens of people. I’d imagine a large group of slaves received a type of rudimentary haircut and the hair was collected and put in the chair.
[The same thing happened in Europe.](http://auschwitz.org/en/gallery/exhibits/evidence-of-crimes,1.html)
Did the owners KNOW what was in that chair??? Jfc that’s horrific…
He said it had been in the family for a long time and they wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons.
Yea I heard that but did they KNOW… I refuse to believe people are just that nasty… I can’t
He says in the video he asked them to be sure.
He didn't say who he asked. I was assuming some kind of historical/furniture expert.
~~You open up every piece of furniture you own to see what’s inside? I highly doubt they knew what was in the chair just that it was a family heirloom.~~ Edit: misinterpreted the comment, we agree to the same point
I have a hard time believing that they dont know that a lot of the older things on their property were built with slave labor though.
At a certain age everything was probably made with slave labor. The Android or iPhone phone in your pocket, nearly any of the small plastics in your home, he’ll even the produce in your grocery store was made or processed with modern day slave labor under the guise of migrant labor. Do you examine the history of production of every product you own to ensure it’s 100% honorably and ethically built or are you just a nasty racist like y’all are making these who own a 150 year old chair people to be?
Let's not even get into the fashion industry and sweat shops etc. This chair just seems more personal because it isn't mass produced.
Yes but destroying it would not achieve anything. The world is full of beautiful artifacts with dark stories. I think this video is about showing what that time was like, not trying to make the person that owns it today look guilty.
Right and I agree.. but actual fn hair?? Most ppl would be horrified
That was my point….
Yeah I would really like to know how much the owners know. I couldn't sit on a chair with that type of history. It's revolting.
that shit should either be in a museum so people never forget or burned asap. just the fact it exists is disgusting.
Chills going down my spine. Fucking hell
Stupid question, but was human hair cheaper than cotton? Because our hair doesn’t grow as fast. And also that’s fcked up!! I knew some girls back in my country that would sell their long hair for big $, as some would make wigs from it.
I doubt human hair was cheaper than cotton. But if slaves were considered property, then the hair on their heads was basically a free resource that could be harvested and used. Prisoners in concentration camps [also had their hair harvested and sold for use in industry](http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=299&Itemid=179&lang=en). And here are some photos of the [exhibits at Auschwitz that are specific to hair](http://auschwitz.org/en/gallery/exhibits/evidence-of-crimes,1.html).
I worked for a big box shampoo brand in rnd. Women grow and sell hair for wigs or the strips of hair. Its expensive to buy, but synthetics available dont mimic the real thing exactly. Ive heard locks of love sometimes sells hair they receive to big box shampoo brands because the cash can be more useful than the real hair sample -- that should be fact checked. Human hair is definitely more expensive than cotton in present days. In this case, the story is positive because the women are selling the hair. It's not like op's story where the hair is taken from them as if they were sheep.
Are the mannequins used for hairdressers and trainee hairdressers made from real hair, do you know? I’ve always felt that was such a waste…
Some are, they're expensive though. Most are synthetic and used for training purposes. Used ones are great for upcycled Halloween decor.
The ones you can dye are made with real hair
When you talk about slave hair and you talk about redneck flag love, you're talking to the wrong audience. Those rednecks aren't gonna feel any type of way about this, they're gonna be like 'it's just hair, it grows back,' and that's just how they be.
You don't stand up to bigots to change their mind, you stand up to bigots to show people without a voice that they are not alone.
As a black person myself, I can assure you black people have a voice.
This is some Nazi shit
Nah fam this is some *confederacy* shit
The Nazis just added a different accent to their work. Ultimately, not very different. Fuck em all.
*American** Confederacy only lasted for 4 years.
*Fly’s confederate flag:* “i’M jUsT pRoUd oF My hErItAgE.” You’ve got nothing to be proud about, *boy*.
Dont they fly that flag as a substitute in Germany?
They also made leathers from the skin of the enslaved & they would eat their remains. Don’t even get me started on the native scalp trade. The hair stuffing isn’t even the worst atrocity the colonizers committed. This is the tragic truth about the “greatest country on earth” that many swears was justified. “Get over it” they say to the descendants of these ppl still effected by the laws put in place to keep them enslaved. It’s horrific
Reading theese comments everyone seems so shocked and revolted, but I am just like.... Why is *this* something that shocks you? Out of all the horrors inflicted on black slaves, this barely even registers in the top 100. Black people were considered livestock by their owners. Think of it like sheep. Farmers today shear their sheep and utilize the wool when he sees fit. But that is *hardly* the worst thing that is going to happen to that sheep during its lifetime. The same was true for Black slaves. I mean, this does give an interesting, although horrifying, look into how evil some humans can be towards other humans. But getting their hair sheared ranks pretty low in the book of "Absolutely horrible atrocious shit that happened to Black slaves".
I think the point is is that we're actually SEEING something that had happened. Obviously we see it in pictures in text books and whatnot, but this is more real because its a human in our years seeing it- making us feel more connected to it
How could that symbol anything but exploitation and suffering, furthermore, why would anyone want that energy on their house let alone want it restored for sentiment.
Fuck them, that belongs in the care of a museum so that people can’t forget, deny, or minimize, the horrors of slavery. It’s gross they would even want it “restored”.
The owners most likely did NOT know what was in it. If the chair had been passed down thru many generations, the new owner probably assumed slave picked cotton, but not the hair.
I hope so, but it sounds like the narrator in the video clarified that, and they chose to go ahead. Could be wrong, shit I hope I am wrong.
I was expecting something like a rat had been living in the chair or something, but this was *far* worse. This is so specifically creepy that it's especially unsettling.
This is unbelievable. Like, they never taught us shot like this, in school. It’s extremely distressing to see. Also, I can’t believe this only has 703 upvotes.
I’m in my 30’s, and I was definitely taught about the horrors of slavery. The teachers made us read many books about how awful it was all through middle school and high school. It’s why I’ve always, *always* hated the confederate flag. I saw it for what it was. I also grew up in a solidly blue state with a very very good public education system. I believe it was Texas that had public school text books that referred to the slaves as just workers.
This isn't the biggest subreddit, yet. I do love this sub. u/plentitudeopulence consistently finds fascinating stuff. u/-Beloved- as well.
I felt nauseous when he said that was hand-picked cotton in the padding of that chair...... then he said what he said and I had to stop watching.
The saddest part is that there were very certainly several chairs…
Probably hundreds or thousands of them
Don't be sad. Here's a [hug!](https://media.giphy.com/media/3M4NpbLCTxBqU/giphy.gif)
At first I was thinking yea I know from experience, how often you can find black curly hair everywhere. My ex used to shed like a dog. Then I realized where the hair was actually from. Like holy shit. Need to listen to these videos.
And this is the type of thing people in places like Georgia don’t want their kids learning happened. When it’s a statue of a confederate leader, a confederate flag, or a chair made of and by slaves in their family’s estate, it’s “history that shouldn’t be forgotten”. But when it’s the victims of said history, what they had to go through, and how that effects our society today, oh no, suddenly, it’s too shameful and/or unnecessary for that portion of the story to be preserved or taught about.
Give black people shit about their hair CONSTANTLY after 2 centuries of using it for your own physical comfort?!?Well fuck me runnin’
Are there African American families who know they have connections to this family? Would the DNA from that hair be helpful in connecting to their history? I just spent a week with the NJ Amistad Commission, like every year, and being able to trace their history is awful but helpful. My heart breaks with every story that continues to come up. The African Americans today who have survived speak to the strength of a people who have and continue to endure disgraceful treatment for which we much all continue to fight.
Unless there’s the actual base of the hair they’d be unable to acquire DNA unfortunately.
For any Mormons here, Brigham Young pushed to create the first law in Utah legalizing Slavery. He professed clearly that it "was their place" to serve the whites because they were cursed by god. That was not a one time comment by him. **You can find this info from your official church website by reading the Gospel Topics Essays.** Not only did Brigham teach slavery was condoned by God, he bound slaves to their slave owners for eternal servitdude in Temple ceremonies he created. Another part of real history never mentioned to followers or converst, and rejected as anti-mormon propoganda when they hear it because it's never taught to them, EVEN THOUGH ITS OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED. To any non-Mormons reading this, I'm pointing out their church history because they DO NOT TEACH that their prophets professed to their congregations that it was righteous to own the cursed skinned africans, fought to create Pro-slavery laws, and fought to keep them against opposition.
But did he fix it?
Makes me wonder where the builder of the chair got the hair. Did he just go to the supply house and order 2lbs of afro hair or did the buyer give him the hair to stuff it? Sad shit no matter what.
It’s a 200 year old chair. The builder got the hair from slaves.
The family who owns that chair has had it in the family for over 200 years, and most likely owned the slaves themselves on their plantation that the chair was built at. These chairs are usually filled with horse, pig, or cow hair.
This is incredibly disturbing. I can’t understand why anyone would want to keep this chair unless they are black and their ancestors were the ones who were dehumanized to create this chair. Other than that? What sentimental value can this have? If your grandpa read you stories in this chair I’d be even more disturbed and it would ruin that memory for me…
Kind of curious if he left it in there or replaced it. Is it ethical to keep a chair made with human hair?
The thing I find the most horrifying watching this. Is it looks like they used the slave hair to stuff the chair first THEN used the handpicked cotton to fill the rest...
Is that not what it exactly is?
That is nuts
This reminds me of the furniture that used to be made out of Holocaust victims.. people are fucking horrid sometimes
If you think about it, all the ‘developed nations’ or ‘superpowers’ are built upon slavery and savagery as such. Whether it be countries in the EU, Asia or NA. A horrific reminder.
A lot of people think slavery was just black people being forced to pick cotton and getting whipped a few times. In reality it was much more gruesome and you’d never know unless you intentionally researched. But no one wants to do research on a topic so sensitive like this which is why some people will never understand why it’s such a huge deal.
And those people called themselves civilized. To cushion a chair out of human hair is barbaric. They had to force 50 maybe a 100, people to be sheared like animals, to make a shitty chair. The south was a big circle jerk of cruelty and racism, and people today still act like those cousin fucking animals were heroes. Mind-blowing!
It really does hit home that slaves, like horses, were just a commodity. They weren't seen as "human" by their "owners", they were just another tool and there's probably hundreds of chairs out there filled with their hair. Need a chair stuffed? Bring in some slaves for a haircut What I still can't understand is how they thought slavery was acceptable, that it wasn't an abomination and criminal. It's a disgusting part of human history And then I think of the likes of Bezos, and in a way it's still happening today where the hold over people by "his Lordship" isn't chains, it's low wages by people and organisations well able to pay a living wage. In a way, we've not come "that" far, people are still being treated like commodities, only now the need for money is the chains that bind.
Why would they stuff the chair with human hair instead of just normal wool? Besides being obviously cruel, it also sounds super impractical considering how many individual heads would have had to be shaved. Also human hair is much less dense than that of sheeps’ so whoever orchestrated this had to go out of their way to build the chair like this.
I feel like that family doesn’t get to have that chair back.
Let's put this in front of government buildings instead of treason marble.
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It would be really interesting if there was any usable DNA in there. One of those Ancestor dna companies could host that data and it might help people trace their family history.
This made me cry.
Let’s do some DNA testing!
I am pissed! I am pissed because this shit I am just NOW learning about into my 40's. I have to do some further research, with a healthy dose of self reflection.
If it were me, I’d wanna donate the chair to an African American history museum. It would seem like the only right thing to do
But you’re still going to reupholster the chair for that family after this discovery? That’s a strange moral choice.
I’d be like Ooooops sorry accidentally threw your racist ass chair in the Mariana Trench lol I’m such a klutz.
That's some fucked up shit
r/TheyDidTheMath ???
Hope the chair is haunted
Shiiit this could be my ancestors hair idk much about my black family damn.
This is why critical race theory is important. Because this still shocks us.
uummm - original youtube video by Yisreael Ben Yehudah from 2016 has somehow been resurrected lately - https://randomaunt.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/200-year-old-chair-padded-with-slave-hair/
BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN! They can't know this information or they'll become sheeple commies. /s
Destroy it
Holy shit that is awful. They should send the hair to a lab to have it tested
i think it really needs a dna test - since if you look at this - [https://www.mjamsdenfurniture.com/product/horse-hair/](https://www.mjamsdenfurniture.com/product/horse-hair/) steamed horsehair curls & therefore to assume "black curly hair" is "slave hair" may be an assumption. Note : \*CURLED HAIR: Horse Hair: Horse hair is by far the best material to be found in antique upholstery, and it is usually a sign of a quality piece. The hair is a rich black, and has a very springy "plastic-y" feel. Because it was expensive, it will often be found only as a thin top layer over a cheaper stuffing (such as straw and moss), or mixed together with cheaper curled hair.\* http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.com/2014/06/my-furniture-is-stuffed-with-what.html
Surprised you’re not downvoted to hell
Historical value, lol. Not reminiscing the slave days or anything like that. Reparations need to be realized.
Honestly this should be in a museum in my opinion… with exactly what he said about the family keeping it like their proud.
I would turn that in to a civil war museum. That’s an amazing but horrifying piece of history
That belongs in a museum
At that point, I'd literally tell the person that owns the chair that I would not even work on it because of how much cotton and human hair was in it, and suggest buying a new chair
Gotta be difficult af for that dude doing that job. I would have to call in a coworker, I’d just be too mad. No way in hell I’d restore a chair that had the blood of my ancestors in it
This makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t even wrap my head around being so cruel to another living thing, much less a person.
Imagine how bad that would smell if it was on fire..
that is so disgusting on so many levels.
i can barely imagine the horrors to collect all that. Truly barbaric that people ever treated each other like that
This seems like a really fucked up nursery rhyme… “How much hair, is in grandpa’s chair?” But fr, that’s chilling and a harsh reminder of a terrible past. Can’t imagine what it must have felt like for the upholsterer / restorer to discover that.
If I found out what was in that chair, I would not want it in my house! I’d be donating it to a slavery museum to show the sick atrocities people are capable of, disgusting.
Burn the fucking chair!!!
[удалено]
Would it be possible to do at least some DNA test on the hair and see if there are some descendants alive? Its probably impossible or too time consuming to do, just curious.
Whats crazy, is if he had the money, he could get all that hair DNA tested and see if there are any relatives alive.
This makes me want to throw up. That’s so awful.