Analyzing Slave Narratives

-

Analyzing Slave Narratives


While reading slave narratives, I learned a lot about the nature of relationships between masters and slaves. Frederick Douglass discusses morality and religion in his narrative. "Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters?". Douglass poses these questions in his writing because he was always told that God knew what was best and right. It was hard for him to hear this because if this was so, then was it right for masters to so terribly abuse their slaves? He states that he watched his master cut the flesh off of Esther (who was his aunt) and he had to watch her cry so. Douglass believes that if God knows best, then how could he allow such awful things to happen? He also wonders why black people are the ones that were enslaved. Did God decide that they were inferior? He also discusses the fact that he knows blacks who are not slaves, so the decision of who becomes enslaved cannot entirely rest upon color and race. He states "Color, therefore, was a very unsatisfactory basis for slavery.". Another previously enslaved man, James Curry, writes about his lifetime being a slave. He explains that when he was a child, he would play with the masters children and they "loved another like brothers". The white children were eventually sent off to school, where they realized that slaves could no longer be their companions. At this point they were only viewed as slaves, and were whipped and abused by those who were once their friends. Harriet Jacobs shares a horrific story about what happened to a slave's body after death. It is said that he was treated with less respect than an old house dog and was buried in an old box with no thought. She also discusses the fact that women were thought to be of no value unless they had children who could also be enslaved. According to Jacobs, if a slave had resisted whipping, bloodhounds would be released on them to tear their flesh off the bone. She speaks of her master and says "He boasts the name and standing of a Christian, though Satan never had a truer follower". All of these excerpts from stories of the lives of slaves has allowed me to empathize with them in a way that I never had before. These stories paint an accurate story that has resonated with me because of how hard these experiences must have been for them. 

After this reading I have many questions. How did the slaves manage to do work while these conditions were so horrible? How did they keep their spirits up while terrible things were happening to them? What happened if slaves refused to work? Would they just be beat to death? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Semester II Final

-
Image
1. Before doing any research, I would except to see names such as John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln at the top of a list of presidents sorted by popularity. I could expect to see someone like Donald Trump at the bottom of said list.  PART A (1-8) Without researching this topic, I predict the three most highly ranked presidents in US history will be John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln and the worst might be Donald Trump. 2. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt have consistently been identified as the top four presidents of the US. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman are in fifth and sixth place, meaning that they could have switched from fourth to fifth, as Theodore has consistently placed fourth in each survey. 3. I have observed that this survey is only accurate until 2017. This also made me notice that because of this time frame, Donald Trump would be excluded from this list. I noticed that Abr
Read more

Immigration Stereotypes

-
Image
How Political Cartoons Influence Immigrant Stereotypes While researching the stereotypes that immigrants deal with on a daily basis, I learned that many of these stereotypes stem from political cartoons from the 19th and 20th centuries. These political cartoons from the past were used as a form of entertainment and most often portrayed immigrants from other countries in a very negative light. According to The Atlantic , the Irish were often portrayed as apes, Italians as street filth, and Chinese as parasitic locusts. At this time, these different races, cultures, and identities were not welcome to become a part of the United States' melting pot and/or mosaic. These political cartoons were originally published in humor magazines, with their sole purpose being to entertain the reader or viewer. They were originally intended to be political satire and commentary on the events at the time, but when viewed now, they seem very much like racist propaganda. Political cartoons abou
Read more

Racial Differences in Drug Usage and Incarceration

-
Image
Through my research on racial disparity in drug related crimes, I have learned so much about how this affects both black and white people with a history of drug abuse. Many different websites and sources taught me different things. The problems I have learned about in my research span widely from racism, to unfair sentences, to overcrowded prisons and outdated criminal justice policies. This was very enlightening to me because I did not realize that these issues are as prevalent as they are in today’s society. I now believe that we must make changes in our community in order to have a more safe and fair nation. The first site I visited for my research on this topic was NCBI. I visited and viewed two different articles, both regarding and focusing on a different case study. The first was comparing the status of both black and white drug-related offenders. The creators of this study interviewed 243 participants, 146 of which being black, and 97 being white. They were interviewed and as
Read more