Mary Prince Character Analysis

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Thomas Pringle wrote "The idea of Mary Prince's history was first suggested by herself. She wished it to be done, she said, that good people in England might hear from a slave what a slave had felt and suffered.” Mary Prince, was the first black woman to have her story published in Britain. Due to Mary Prince’s graphic detail, her anecdotes were sadistic to the extent that very few believed her . Mary Prince conveys that both slave owners and their slaves suffer physical and emotional effects of slavery, confirming Pringle’s write that "slavery is a curse to the oppressors scarcely less than the oppressed; it's natural tendency is to brutalize both.”

Mary Prince describes her childhood as "the happiest” period of her life, considering she was "too young to understand rightly[her]condition as a slave and too thoughtless and full of spirits to look forward to the days of toil and …show more content…

Mary Prince first discloses thus to readers when introducing Mrs.Williams. She described her mistress as “ a kind-hearted woman, and she treated all her slaves well.”(231) On the other hand, Mary Prince described her master as "A very harsh, selfish man. His wife was herself much afraid of him and during his stay at home, seldom there tissue her usual kindness to the slaves.”(232) Despite not being directly stated, readers can infer that Mrs.Williams’s fear of her husband, derived from physical abuse as well. More evident brutality of slave owners is displayed within Mary Prince’s master Dickey, after going ashore at the grand Quay. Mary Prince remembers, “I found my master beating Miss D----dreadfully. I strove with all my strength to get her away from him; for she was all black and blue with bruises. He had beat her with his fist, and almost killed her.”(249) Master Dickey being very drunk, had beat his wife as if he would beat any other slave. With Miss Dickey being beaten, she too, suffered physical

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