Narrative Post #2
I decided to take a look at several of the narratives.
From Isaac Mason:
After reading excerpts from Isaac Mason’s story, a few things struck me about him. He came off as genuinely kind and caring, even towards his masters. This one anecdote really stayed with me:
One Friday morning, after being there about four weeks, I well remember the day, I was busy at work on my hand-irons. My mistress came out and wanted to know what I had been doing all the morning. I turned round and looked at her, and saw that her face was awfully red; there was something wrong but I could not divine it. She hurriedly went out of the room where I was, into the back room, and got her cowhide; without the least ceremony she lit on me - the same as a hungry hawk on an innocent chicken. Her descent upon me was so sudden that I did not know what to do. I begged, I entreated her to stop; but she grew worse and worse. The blows came faster and faster, and every one brought the blood streaming from my head and back till I was covered from head to foot. Being a large, fleshy woman, she at last became fatigued and exhausted, and had to quit her inhuman chastisement. I was so unmercifully beaten that I was unfit for work that day.
I figured that the slaves, after merciless beating and horrific treatment, would not care enough to even consider addressing an observation such as the one above. It’s sick and plain cruel that he was beaten as terribly as he was.
My father, as I said before, was a free man and had the privilege of purchasing my mother and my sister, who was then about a year old, for $600. My mother at this time was in very ill health, and it was thought by many she could not live very long. My father not being able to pay the amount asked, had to find a sufficient security before he could obtain a bill of sale.
This quote especially surprised me. I knew that at this time, there were Africans who were free, but I did not think they could buy back their own friends and family so easily. I was under the impression that the selling of slaves was restricted to the “slave trade” between plantations.
Accordingly, when between five and six years of age, I was assigned to the duties of housework, to wait on my mistress and to run errands. When she went out driving I had to accompany her in the capacity of a page, to open the gates and to take down guard fences for her to drive through.
Knowledge wise, this was the last thing that I learned. I thought that until the age of eight, children had no obligations towards their masters. I would have a very hard time justifying running around and making a five year old do my errands, but that’s just me.
Overall, Isaac Mason’s story is a fascinating one, which ends with his freedom.
I thought Jon’s ‘reality’ check and connection with Huck Finn was a good one:
Louis was terribly lonely and had no one to confide in. Personally, I never would have been able to grow up into the person that I am today, without the care given to me by my parents and friends. Louis had neither. These first hand accounts show the feelings associated with slavery and give us some possible reasoning for the extreme actions that they sometimes took. I now have a better understanding of why Jim ran away, having been separated from his family and treated poorly. Also, reading this slave narrative helps me to appreciate Huck’s actions more and more because of how daring he was to actually help a slave escape and put his own life in danger.
We often take for granted things that most slaves were deprived of, such as family and friends. After reading Isaac’s narrative, I also realized how bad it really was to form an alliance with a slave over escaping.
Hoffsauce also had a solid observation:
But in a way, when the slaves sing, its there way of pushing through it all, a way to get their mind off of everything. Singing is the slaves escape from there lives. This article related minorly to Huck Finn, because it does talk about runaway slaves being captured and then sold to other plantations. This, unfortunatly, could be the fate of poor Jim if he were to be caught.
On the one hand, the slave songs can be viewed from Hoffsauce’s POV, but on the other hand, it can also be viewed from the point of the article we read a few weeks ago in class, which stated that instead of tears, the slaves used songs to express their remorse.
That’s all for now, folks.
<will add more quotes from other narratives>
January 4th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
[…] Ryan (whose post you definitely should read, as it not only analyzes several quotes from different narratives, but also responds directly to what Ryan and Jon wrote about them as well–a great example of student blogging): We often take for granted things that most slaves were deprived of, such as family and friends. After reading Isaac’s narrative, I also realized how bad it really was to form an alliance with a slave over escaping. […]