Definitions of Freedom, Servitude and Slavery Change in Colonial Essay

Definitions of Freedom, Servitude and Slavery Change in Colonial America - Essay Example Over the years, however, the definitions of freedom and servitude changed, not for the better, but they grew to be a part of the daily life of the people of colonial America and the language and idiom that they use to convey their beliefs regarding the freedom of the marginalized and the subaltern make this very clear. The practice of assigning superiority to the white man was an intrinsic feature of the colonizer’s rhetoric. One may take the example of John Winthrop’s speech to the general court of 1645. Winthrop was a rich lawyer who settled in America and was one of the major settlers of the new colony. His speech talks of the hierarchies that were divinely ordained whereby even the wife of a white man was supposed to find â€Å"honor and freedom† in â€Å"her subjection to her husband’s authority† (Winthrop). Such convoluted notions of freedom were extended to other subaltern groups in the society which would then occupy various positions on the social ladder, thus justifying subjection in general and offering a justification for slavery and colonialism based on theories that were based on Christian ideologies that were not a part of the societies of the slaves or the indigenous residents of America. This fervor to foist one’s own ideologies and beliefs onto the cultural ‘other’ also finds expression in the cartography of the period. Captain John Smith’s map of Virginia is an excellent example of this tendency where a map of an Indian settlement is replete with symbols of British monarchy; thus seeking to subjugate the native tribes of the area even in one’s own mind, on the part of the colonizer (Captain). The situation of the people who arrived in America as indentured laborers was only slightly better than that of the black slaves. They were welcomed with diseases the like of which they had not seen before in their land. The lack of immunity to these diseases led to a great number of de aths, to which the authorities turned a blind eye. This reveals the shocking insensitivity to servants in the minds of those who held positions of power in colonial America. This can be understood from a letter written by an indentured laborer named Richard Frethorne, to his parents, in which he complains, I am not halfe a quarter so strong as I was in England, and all is for want of victualls, for I doe protest unto you, that I have eaten more in a day at home than I have allowed m here for a Weeke. (Richard) This makes clear the sheer inhumanity of the treatment that was meted out to indentured laborers and gives us an idea of how worse the treatment that the black slaves faced was. The treatment that the blacks faced however did undergo a change for the better. Attitudes that the colonizers held slowly started to change and the magnitude of the atrocities began to dawn upon some members of the colonizing nations. Alexander Falconbridge’s relatively sympathetic treatment of the narrative of the journey of the blacks to the slave markets is an instance that communicates to us the changing attitudes towards the inhuman treatment of slaves. There are several concessions that Falconbridge makes to the slave communities such as the occasion when they are forced to sing. Falconbridge accedes to the fact that â€Å"as may naturally be expected, melancholy lamentations of their exile from their native country†

Probation Officers and Parole Officers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Probation Officers and Parole Officers - Essay Example They work towards making sure that they have made the law offenders to live productive and useful lives. Depending on the legal status, the law offender may be on parole or probation. Law offenders who are given probationary sentence might or might not have served jail term in the county jail. Once the offender is released, they are put on parole or probation depending on the record of their offence. Those that have served time in federal or state correctional facility are placed on parole when they are released. Conditions are given to both types of offenders when they are released and a parole or probation officer supervises them for a specified period of time (California Occupational Guide, 1). Probation officers are also known as community supervisors in some states as they supervise people on probation. Practically a probation officer supervises those convicted of violent crimes because probation is granted to those with substantial drug abuse history and criminal background (Ba nks, 165). Probation officers also offer training that includes rational behavior training – it focuses on the officers using rationality principles to persuade a probationer to change his/her attitudes and beliefs. The training influences hostile offenders to develop new behavior and beliefs, which probation officers reinforce. Parole officers usually perform the same duties as probation officers, the only difference being that while parole officers supervise the offenders who have been released from prison, probation officers wok with the offenders in the prison (Labor Dept (U S) Bureau of Labor Statistics, 238). Parole officers are usually in the unit of the youth authority, corrections and the federal department of justice accounts directly to their particular parole boards and their main task is supervising their clients. Before the discharge of an offender, parole officers prepare arrangement and recommendation for their client. Parole officers approve such services as housing, counseling, social activities, employment and education (California Occupational Guide, 3). On the other hand, probation officers are usually at the courts and they execute pre-sentence investigations and organize reports on their clients. They also aid their clients to go back to the free society. They also implement courts order, which may incorporate them to seize evidence, organize for drug testing, make arrests and carry out searches. Parole officers focus their effort on surveillance rather than rehabilitation though their systems are scarce. In urban areas, parole agents are commonly occupied in verifying curfews, drug testing and electric monitoring. Most parolees do not complete their parole supervision and they therefore end up going back to prisons, making the prisons full. The role of parole officers is to have all the legal authority carried out and to use firearms to search without constraint of the forth amendment, order arrest without probable cause and conf ine without bail (Banks, 165). According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), when the probation and the parole officers are running in jail and prisons, they supervise the improvement of the inmates. They may assess the inmates by means of psychological and questionnaires tests. They work directly with other agencies or officers to develop release and parole plans. Their report discusses the record of the inmate and the probability of the inmate committing another crime. This