Day 6: Artifacts of Bygone Misery (by Joseph)

One of today's stops was at the National Gallery West, a museum in Montego Bay that houses exhibits on Jamaican history, Rastafarianism, and Jamaican art. The piece that most struck me, housed in the Jamaican history exhibit, was the "human cage", a man-shaped monstrosity of steel bars and sharp edges used as a punishment device. The idea of a cage so small as to be literally form-fitting is an inherently horrific concept. A cell is the restriction of freedom. Here, exactly where your physical form ends, so too does that freedom. Not even the paltry right to fidget is allowed, and the pain of spikes impaling your feet even rob the ability of the mind to move unrestricted. In many ways this object is the logical end point of the ideology that permits slavery. This thing was accepted as normal, not only just as a punishment for the perceived subhuman slaves, but also for British citizens accused of robbery.  It's a testament to how far our society's sensibilities have come that I can stand in front of this relic that is meaningful to me only in the abstract sense and feel a sense of disgust. The human cage, to me, served as a brutal reminder of a hopeful idea: that as history moves cruelty becomes less and less acceptable to us.