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SweetFreedom Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Retribution against their white masters out of the language?

1) Does "they created powerful stories of redemption, freedom, and retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release" mean "they created powerful stories of redemption, powerful stories of freedom, and powerful stories of retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release"?

2)Does "out of the language" mean "using the depiction of the stories"?
3) Does "retribution against their white masters" mean "revenge against their whiter masters"?

Background info:

Ironically, this very conviction led Southern educators to talk seriously for the first time about educating the black people among them. Baptist ministers, especially, sought to pass resolutions encouraging their congregations to work politically toward repealing laws banning slave literacy. It was only logical that if the South was commissioned by God to create a Christian nation, its success in the war would depend on God’s favor. For some, this suggested that God’s favor could be lost through ill treatment of the slaves or, conversely, won through greater humanitarianism.
Within the privacy of the southern slave quarters, the Bible told a different tale. The slaves had their preachers too, as well as their own secret religious gatherings. Black preachers were often among the few literate slaves, and they created powerful stories of redemption, freedom, and retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release. In the presence of white observers, black preachers echoed the message heard in white pulpits of obedience and subservience to “God-ordained” masters. In fact, there was strong practical incentive to do so, because often it was only through obedience and subservience that slaves avoided the lash and other penalties. Yet at the end of the day, slave religion emphasized that God would change their earthly situation and punish the cruelty of the slave holders.
  

Top answer

SweetFreedom 1) Does "they created powerful stories of redemption, freedom, and retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release" mean "they created powerful stories of redemption, powerful stories of freedom, and powerful stories of retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release"? Yes. SweetFreedom 2)Does "out of the language" mean "using the depiction of the stories"?

  • SweetFreedom 1) Does "they created powerful stories of redemption, freedom, and retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release" mean "they created powerful stories of redemption, powerful stories of freedom, and powerful stories of retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release"?
  • Yes.
  • SweetFreedom 2)Does "out of the language" mean "using the depiction of the stories"?
  • In part, yes; also in the language style and content itself.
  • SweetFreedom 3) Does "retribution against their white masters" mean "revenge against their whiter masters"?
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3 Answers
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SweetFreedom1) Does "they created powerful stories of redemption, freedom, and retribution against their white masters out of the language and ethos of the Old Testament tales of Israel’s captivity and release" mean "they created powerful stories of redemption, powerful stories of freedom, and powerful stories of retribution against their white masters out of the language
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(1) So "retribution against their white masters" means "repayment to their white masters"?
(2) "and ethos of the Old Testament tales" means "and they created powerful stories about the ethos of the Old Testament tales"?
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SweetFreedom(1) So "retribution against their white masters" means "repayment to their white masters"?
Yes.
SweetFreedom(2) "and ethos of the Old Testament tales" means "and they created powerful stories about the ethos of the Old Testament tales"?
No.

"and they created powerful stories about their own travail

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