Samantha Hunt 523008675 Even though each African American who gave his or her account experienced slavery differently they all shared a common thread in their longing for independence and freedom from captivity Although some masters were kind to their slaves a majority of the masters treated slaves inhumanely and unfairly Some slaves came to the realization that education was the path to freedom and used knowledge to pave their road to independence However most African Americans were in a position that did not allow for room to escape so they made the best of their situation Many slaves looked towards God to ease their hardships and give them hope while others took matters in to their own hands and were able to outsmart their masters Masters treated their slaves inhumanely and unfairly Many slaveholders were unfair and cruel 9 10 12 16 17 20 21 Families were separated 12 20 Many slave women were raped 21 o In Excerpts from the Autobiography of Linda Brent Brent tells the story of how her master would whisper sexually explicit things into her ear from the young age of fifteen o In her story Linda Brent explains If God has bestowed beauty upon her it will prove her greatest curse That which commands admiration in the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave 254 Beauty for black women was a curse because it increased the chances of sexual abuse Slaves were not given fair reward for the amount of work they contributed o One song written by a slave gives insight into how the slaves felt they were treated poorly He states we bake de bread dey gib us de crust 247 The author uses other analogies similar to this to explain how little slaves got in return for how productive they were for their masters Linda Brent put the feelings of slaves towards slaveholders very clearly when she said Hot weather brings out snakes and slaveholders and I like one class of the venomous creatures as little as I do the other 256 Some masters were cruel without any reason to be o One slave told a story about his father who had never disobeyed his master in his life o The master told the slave he needed a beating to which the slave replied I never had a whopping and you can t whop me In response to this the master killed the slave o There was no justice for slaves and masters could do anything they wanted without repercussion o In The Life of John Thompson a Fugitive Slave Thompson explains how Mr W his master was so cruel that he would force one slave to beat the others even forcing mothers to beat their daughters and fathers to beat their sons for the amusement of himself and his children o John Thompson gives another account the white children of slaveholders were allowed to whip slave children for fun and were even praised for doing so The master Wagar s son John would call the black children from their homes to clear weeds and whip them for amusement until their backs were streaming with blood Slaves were treated inhumanely 20 21 22 I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger 249 Linda Brent gave an account of the son of a slave woman she knew and respected named James James was sold to a master who was well known for his cruelty Brent explained how James grew up receiving the treatment of a dog 254 o James ran away to the woods after a severe whipping in a terrible condition Cut half naked and starving he resided there for a few weeks until he was discovered and captured o James was treated so badly he died He was put in the confined area in a cotton gin in which he only had space to turn on his side He died and his rotting body was found around four days after the cruel punishment began In the Life of John Thompson a Fugitive Slave Thompson says MR W was a very cruel slave driver He would whip unreasonably and without cause 257 Many masters took pleasure in treating African Americans as inferiors to them Slaves would rather be free and poor than enslaved and fed 3 17 20 In The Coon and the Dog this slave uses a metaphor about a raccoon and a dog and their conditions of freedom and slavery in relation to his condition This slave would rather be poor and hungry but free instead of well fed and taken care of but abused There is a tie between the The Coon and the Dog and James the slave that ran away from being whipped to the woods where he did not have any food or shelter in Excerpts from the Autobiography of Linda Brent Harriet Jacobs In both stories the slave wanted a life of freedom rather than a life of oppression so badly that they would give up everything for a chance at independence Frederick Douglass gave an account of how he was better fed than many of the poor white children in his neighborhood but the knowledge they possessed was far more valuable than the food that he had o I used also to carry bread with me for I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood This bread I used to bestow upon hungry little urchins who in return would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge 250 o Their privilege of knowledge and reading that came with being free much outweighed the privilege of food that came with slavery to Douglass Slaves made the best out of their situation Slaves outsmarted their masters 1 2 4 5 20 o In multiple accounts in this chapter the slaves tell stories about how one character the slave outsmarts the other the master o In Hog Killing Time these clever slaves fooled their master into thinking the hogs had a dangerous disease called Militis The master gave the meat to the slaves because he did not want to eat it himself to ensure he would not catch this fictional disease o The story of The Old Parrot shows how slaves were able to sneak around their masters This story is about a slave who stole some cookies from his master and the master s parrot sold him out to the master getting him in trouble The slave killed the parrot and the master had no idea how the bird was killed o In the Partridge and the Fox the partridge pretends that the beef that the fox wanted to keep for himself was poisoned The Partridge who is a metaphor for the slave ends up getting to keep all of the meat for himself because he outsmarted the fox who represents the master o In many accounts throughout the text slaves were able to ease their hardship by outsmarting their masters The clever nature of many slaves in the stories they told defies the common misconception that