Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen: An Analysis

“Those to work in the field are always tired. Always caved in with work.” This quote comes from the novel Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen. Many sources can corroborate this novel on facts such as slaves being prevented from learning, being treated harshly, and being withheld of information about their parents.
To start, there is proof that slaves were not allowed to learn. Fredrick Douglass states “I have no accurate knowledge of my age…I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.” In Nightjohn, Sarny also doesn’t know her age. The only way she had an idea of her age was because of a stick that gets marked every summer. “I never knew a slave escaping with his life from Bayou Bouef. One reason is, they are not allowed

to learn the art of swimming, and are incapable of crossing the most inconsiderable stream…” says Solomon Northup. This shows that slaves weren’t allowed to learn simple things. Sarny wasn’t allowed to do simple things like learn to read and write.
In succession, multiple sources show slaves were treated harshly. Mingo White tells when being sold “We had to tell [slave buyers] all sorts of lies for our Master or else take a beating.” Northup expresses “[I was] followed by a troop of dogs. There were as many as eight or ten… [They were] a kind of blood hound, but a far more savage breed than is found in the Northern States. They will attack a Negro, at their master’s bidding, and cling to him as the common bull-dog will cling to a four footed animal.” These both show that “masters” treated slaves very harshly, just like Sarny’s “master”.
Finally, many sources agree that slaves did not get to be with their birthparents. White tells an interviewer “When I was about four or five years old, I was loaded in a wagon with a lot more people in it. Where I was bound, I didn’t know. Whatever became of my mother and father I didn’t know for a long time.” Mingo White and Sarny both didn’t know what their parents were like and were both separated from them while a young child. Douglass went through the same experience. He explains “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant-before I knew here as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age…and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor.” Sarny and Douglass went through a very similar experience. Both were not only separated from their mothers, but both were placed under an elderly woman to be raised.
In conclusion, Gary Paulsen’s novel Nightjohn is accurate according to primary sources.