In the 19
th
century, a male slave could be “sold
down the river”, as a punishment. He was
sold at auction to go and work in a cotton
plantation along the southern part of the Mississippi River. Not
only was he uprooted from his family, but he
also risked his life working in harsh conditions
with often cruel overseers. Today, it would
rather mean “be betrayed” or “punished”.
Slavery, still from
the film Queimada,
1969.