Stolen Childhood Chapter Summary

In the book entitled Stolen Childhood, Second Edition: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America, the author’s thesis is clearly stated in the concluding sentence of the fourth paragraph in the introduction. It points out that slaves were necessitated to work like adults, even though some were still young, they also had to face the same work conditions as adults. “Far from being ‘childlike’ throughout their lives, slaves were forced to confront adult situations of work, terror, injustice, and arbitrary power at an early age.” Since slave owners would contrive youngsters to start working at four to five years of age, they almost had no childhood. Furthermore, young slaves experienced, and also witness the cruel and hostile whippings which other slaves received from the owners and overseers. The whip left their body, leaving bloody marks and scars all over. This made fear and terror become a frequent concern in their everyday lives.

Once finishing the book, the author had properly defended her thesis by showing many more situations in which young

There was no guarantee that the treatment of slaves would be gentle or fair. The amount of injustice was truly extensive, and the ones suffering from it were slaves. A plantation owner by the name of McClain, called over two of his slaves, one being a boy and the other a girl at about thirteen years of age. Then he made them undress and while he stood and “fixed his gaze upon them” and they “had to engage in sexual intercourse.” The actions of the master show an immense amount of injustice toward his slaves. These three reasons properly defend the thesis because in the thesis it says that young slaves had to face adult situations of work, terror, and injustice. And throughout the book, the author openly shows examples and cases in which slaves indeed faced these three