Absence is seen as more of a myth, something that never happened or occurred. Loss is when something was once there, but was taken away and no longer present. It is a problem to conflate the two terms, because people that had suffered loss then will be put into a box that will be generalized into absence, “particular losses in distinct ways, and those losses cannot be adequately addressed when they are enveloped in overly generalized discourse of absence”, said by Dominick LaCapra . Trauma then will be overlooked for the individual that has a specific case of loss, but is overshadowed by the perception of a mass absence from a tragedy that numbs the actuality of a situation. In examples of Kate Drumgoold, Elizabeth, and advertisement for a young girl named Mary, within the book Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery, by Heather Andrea Williams, the correlation of LaCapra’s absence and loss can be found through mourning and recovery, through seeing that slaves are people that went through emotions and just not an object. Williams takes notes of LaCapra in her introduction as she researched about the trauma, loss, and absence that African American people faced as they lost children, parents, spouses, and siblings who were taken away from the result.
Elizabeth former slave from Maryland is an example of the consequences of confusing absence with loss when she is separated from her mother and family due to slavery. Through this time period, she approached her mourning as in a sense of absence. According to LaCapra, to conflate the mourning process with absence instead of loss the process will take unreasonable time to recover or the individual may not recover. LaCapra states, “When mourning turns to absence and absence is conflated with loss then mourning becomes impossible, endless, quasitranscendental grieving, scarcely distinguishable (if at all) from interminable melancholy”. This is what Elizabeth did as she fell into depression for six months and became severely ill. She believed that she would never get to see her family again which refers to absence rather than a loss, and she has a possibility to be reunited with her family. “I continued in this state, she recalled, ‘for about six months, feeling as though my head were waters, and I could do nothing but weep. She lost her appetite and became so weak that she could hardly work", stated in Williams book. Though she continues to tell her story, she transitions her absence into loss. Elizabeth will recall that her mother taught her about Christ and how only he will save her, and they will be reunited in the afterlife.
By conflating absence and loss, people may overlook the trauma that has happened to an individual. The mourning and recovery process of how each person handles their loss will be handled differently because of the misconception that some think they are experiencing absence rather than loss. “To blur the distinction between, or to conflate, absence and loss may itself bear striking witness to the impact of trauma …of disorientation, agitation, or even confusion…can be compelling”, states LaCapra . As people enter into trauma of loss that has been mistaken for absence, something that is a historical loss is not taken as seriously as everyone that was affected. The generalization of the idea of every person that went through the same situation will feel the same, but just simply is not putting a distinct face to a tragedy.
The advertisements to sale children and children with their parents adds to the disassociation of tragedy to each person. In ads, the slave trader or slaveholder would make these in order to make money as a young girl or boy is being sold. “For $600, James Schiller sold and warranted ‘a Negro Girl named Mary aged about nine years” to be ‘sound and sensible’ and ‘slave for life”. Numerous ads like this one were plastered over many states and children were sold and separated from their families. As the advertisement only gives the person information of how she can easily be controlled, in good health, and at a young age will stick around for a long time. It does not tell what favorite food she likes or what games she likes to play, just of what the seller puts on the ad defines Mary.
It is taught in school that Africans were taken as slaves for labor in the Americas, which is what all that was taught about black history. That only part was also taken out bit by bit as we were desensitized and viewed slaves as objects like talking about any flower as we walk by in the streets. As this article is for the reader to realize that this slave was a person not an object that had emotions and feelings that should not be discounted.
