Nutella is Yum

Slave Narratives Post Reading Blog

When reading the biographies of the featured slaves, i was surprised to find the number of the slaves who were helped by their masters. I expected to find the survival stories of these slaves through harsh and oppressive situations. Although parts of the slave narratives focused on the brutal treatment of the imprisoned slaves, i focused on the way some white owners helped their slaves.

“After this Mis’ Mary kept on with my studies, and taught me to write. As I grew older, she taught me to cook and how to do housework.” (Annie L. Burton)

Although this kind of treatment toward slves was uncommon, it occasionally occurred. However it strikes me as odd that although the white people grew up alongside their black slaves children, they still see them in the same condescending light present at that time. A quote that struck me as thought provoking was,

“I had to remain a poor sufferer - the victim of a woman’s spite and hatred for a poor despised race. What I had done to deserve all this treatment I knew not.” (Isaac Mason)

It made me think that although there are no justifications for slavery, what made this race prone to the treatment inflicted upon them by the white American nation? It was just accepted by this race for a period of time that there was no freedom from the white oppression, that the black population would continue to be the property of the white man. Those brave slaves who challenged the status quo to fight slavery, changed the future for the black man everywhere. It was interesting to read the accounts referring to the freedom of slaves and the effect it had on not only the black but white population.

“But as weeks went by, I began to understand. I saw all the slaves one by one disappearing from the plantation (for night and day they kept going) until there was not one to be seen.” (Annie L. Burton)

When reading ‘Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain, i found myself wondering why was slavery not seen as a sin? Why was cursing unacceptable when slavery was not? How could the act of owning and punishing another human like a wild animal not be seen as a crime against the lord and all the religious beliefs? It seems strange to me that at the time slavery was abolished, it was finally recognized as a sin.

“But it was a sad, sad change on the old plantation, and the beautiful, proud Sunny South, with its masters and mistresses, was bowed beneath the sin brought about by slavery. It was a terrible blow to the owners of plantations and slaves, and their children would feel it more than they, for they had been reared to be waited upon by willing or unwilling slaves.” (Annie L. Burton)

Reading these slave narratives really opened my eyes as to the treatment bestowed upon the black slave. Although there were few acts of generosity, the majority of slaves recieved whippings and lashings from their masters. To understand the quality of lifestyle present in American society today, we have to understand what happened in the past.