ABSTRACT
Two times in modern history some men have degraded others to the condition of living only to survive. The first was the slave trade. The second was the concentration camp. Between capture and enslavement or encampment, protest took almost entirely the form of individual or collective suicide or resignation to death. This chapter presents a selection from Stanley Elkins’ study shows what political behavior is like when relentless pressure from the environment forces men to concentrate individually on life itself. Between capture and enslavement or encampment, protest took almost entirely the form of individual or collective suicide or resignation to death. Elkins’ study deals with personality types and stereotypes as well as theories of personality. Every African who became a slave underwent an experience whose crude psychic impact must have been staggering. The study also pictures the series of shocks which must have accompanied the principal events of that enslavement.
