The History of Mary Prince is the story of the first female British slave to escape slavery. The book is told by Mary herself, and was used to help the anti-slavery movement. This book is the main source of information on Mary’s life, but there is no way to ensure that all of it is authentic. One should be aware of who truly had the control over this book, and how it may have affected whether or not all of the stories Mary had to tell got in. Without following the standard expected of her, she may not have ever been able to share her experiences like this. Mary Prince was able to convey her story of slavery to others by following the expectations set by the Antislavery Society, such as emphasizing Christianity, only including likable character …show more content…
It was important for her to be seen as an innocent victim. Because of that, any negative personality traits were most likely ignored. Ferguson elaborated on this in her introduction. “Mary Prince took full advantage of their trust to stake out a path to freedom.” (17). While Mary’s owners were certainly in the wrong for every action, the fact that Mary took advantage of their trust would not be seen as a desirable trait. This is just one example of where the actions Mary took may have been glossed over to put her in the most flattering light. The main way this story caught attention was through Mary’s descriptions of the brutality of slavery. It was there to make the reader sympathize with Mary, and by doing that learn to sympathize with all slaves. If Mary acted out in a way that was unflattering, readers may not sympathize with her as well. The fact that Mary became a Christian is still an important note to keep in mind. Going behind anyone’s back would be seen as wrong, and this would not be acceptable in a book about a Christian woman. This role was so important for Mary to maintain that people were willing to risk losing valuable content in the story in order to avoid making Mary look like a bad …show more content…
It is horrifying to think of how censored this book seems to have been, that there were worse abuses not even brought up. It is important to understand that this book was not Mary’s complete story. It was paraphrased to ensure a better understanding for the readers, but through that some content may have been lost. Mary’s status as a Christian also majorly affected which stories were included and which were not. It seems that the goal set by the makers of this book was to show the harshness and brutality of slavery while keeping Mary Prince poised as an innocent victim. The audience had to know that she suffered, but they could not let them know absolutely every way she suffered. This book was made to help convince the public to abolish slavery, rather than to detail the entire life of Mary Prince. Because Mary Prince chose to play by the rules set for her, she was able to get her story, or at least part of it, known to the
Most Americans know John Wilkes Booth as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln- shot at a play at Ford’s Theater on April 14th, 1865. However, the names of the conspirators that surrounded Wilkes Booth are relatively unknown, especially that of Mary Surratt. Mary Surratt, a mother and boardinghouse proprietor, was arrested and tried for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln along with her son, John Surratt. Pleas from her family, lawyer, and fellow conspirators did not allow her to escape her fate, and she was hanged for her crimes on July 7th, 1865. Even from the scaffold, Lewis Powell, another conspirator condemned to die, cried, “Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us.” So who was this woman, and most importantly, what role did she really play in the assassination of the President of the United States? Was she simply blindly aiding her son and thus innocent, as claimed by Lewis Powell, or did she have a more involved role in the plot? Mary Surratt opened up her home to conspirators and ended up paying the price for her decision.
Slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries consisted of brutal and completely unjust treatment of African-Americans. Africans were pulled from their families and forced to work for cruel masters under horrendous conditions, oceans away from their homes. While it cannot be denied that slavery everywhere was horrible, the conditions varied greatly and some slaves lived a much more tolerable life than others. Examples of these life styles are vividly depicted in the personal narratives of Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince. The diversity of slave treatment and conditions was dependent on many different factors that affected a slave’s future. Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano both faced similar challenges, but their conditions and life styles
Because of these factors I can make the assumption that Mary is actually bi-racial and the child of Mrs.Bellmont and a past black slave. It is shown in the book’s glossary that such things, as expected, were taboo and looked down upon. Many mothers would never tell just who the father of their bi-racial child was. “Wilson underscores the politics of skin color under which enslaved and legitimate children in the same family resembled each other, while white women would rather not have the family resemblance spoken of.”
Women slaves were subject to unusually cruel treatment such as rape and mental abuse from their master’s, their unique experience must have been different from the experience men slaves had. While it is no secret that the horrors of the institution of slavery were terrible and unimaginable; those same horrors were no big deal for southern plantation owners. Many engaged in cruelty towards their slaves. Some slave owners took particular interest in their young female slaves. Once caught in the grips of a master’s desire it would have been next to impossible to escape. In terms of actual escape from a plantation most women slaves had no reason to travel and consequentially had no knowledge of the land. Women slaves had the most unfortunate of situations; there were no laws that would protect them against rape or any injustices. Often the slave that became the object of the master’s desires would also become a victim of the mistress of the household. Jealousy played a detrimental role in the dynamic the enslaved women were placed within. Regardless of how the slave felt she could have done little to nothing to ease her suffering.
Mary Prince’s repressed voiced is illustrated within her narrative. Although narrative is a powerful force that allows one to augment their voice, Mary Prince does not have that same advantage. Mary Prince’s voice is that through Thomas Pringle, so he has the privilege and power that comes with authorship. Authorship gives one the power to add, omit, or change anything written, altering the story in any which way possible. Though this could actually be due to Mary Prince’s role in society (being a slave puts her in an outlined, structural social position that puts her below white people) or it could be that is not considered to be a reliable source because of her position in society. She becomes credible through the clout that Thomas Pringle’s status as a white man holds. Even though Pringle states that her narrative is relayed in the text as accurate as possible, he still has final say in what is published. He gets the opportunity to include any information that he thinks is significant and omit anything that he think is insignificant, and this does not reflect Mary Prince’s sentiment in the slightest. This is probably the greatest indication of Mary Prince’s repressed voice because even though one might think that she has the platform to share her story in this way, the power of her narrative is complicated because of this. Her story is presented with Thomas Pringle’s intentions more than her own, and that takes away from her story in some way. It takes away the authenticity of her story and her freedom of expression, something that Celie is able tot develop through her own writing. However, it does allow her story (no matter how inauthentic it is) to be shared and respected because of Pringle. Pringle’s hegemonic privilege affords him the opportunity for his voice to be heard and respected over
I am really scared, I knew I should've never been friends with Abigail. She convinced me and some other girls to go into the woods at night. I went to the woods at night to find Abigail, Betty, Mercy, Susanna, Ruth, and Tituba all by the frontside. All of the girls started to dance around a fire. While Tituba sang barbados rituals. I did not fully understand why the girls were dancin and singin, but whatever it meant it scared me. All of the sudden Reverend Parris saw all of us. We all scattered quickly; we knew our names would be blackened in the town if he saw us. I’m glad I got home safe, maybe some rest will me calm me down.
The History of Mary Prince sheds light upon the horrors of slavery in the West Indies, from the cruel beatings to the inhumane dehumanization. It is written by an abolitionist from the words of a former slave to give us a first hand account. In the novel, the author uses Mary's position as a female slave to humanize her and express her experience as a slave to the English public to help push for the abolishment of slavery in the West Indies.
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave For example, Mary Prince lived her life born into slavery. Living on a farm from a British colony she experienced a good childhood being treated with kindness. You could come to believe as a slave growing up Prince’s experience was very good
...en she goes home to her family and friends, her attitude toward Indians in general changes greatly. At first, living with Indians is the most appalling thought that she could ever have. Over time, she realizes that she must somewhat befriend them in order to survive adequately. In the end, she even appreciates the Indians, and the experiences she has had with them. Her captivity also brings her closer to God, because during every hardship, she turns to her faith to help her through it. Her time with the Indians also gave her the affliction that she had always hoped for. Mary lived in prosperity before, and had too many comforts of the world around her. The journeys with the Indians give her a kind of reality check, because she sees that not everyone lives in prosperity as she did. The biggest lesson that she learns is to “look beyond present and smaller troubles, and be quieted under them, as Moses said, Exodus.xiv.13, Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”
The psychological impact on the slaves in this book was awful, mainly because of the abuse, discrimination, humiliation, sexual assault, rape, and embarrassment that they were served by their owners. The abuse, assault, humiliation, and rape were the worst, forty-six people of the chain gang were offered to eat semen from the guards for breakfast (Parker). The slaves in Beloved were treated as animals, the white people of the towns dehumanized blacks and from then on they look at blacks as animals, they had no value, no purpose (Heffernan). Schoolteacher, the slave owner looked at blacks as something way less than human, he look at them with talks of mating them with one another or whoever wanted to “mate” with them, he didn’t care, none of them cared (Heffernan).
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
“If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” This quote was from one of Mary Astell’s pieces of literature and it was a question she wanted all women to ask themselves. Mary Astell is known as “the first English feminist” and I chose her as my topic for this paper, because I believe in a lot of her beliefs about how women should be treated equally to men and be allowed to pursue whatever they wish- whether that be a career or a degree. I though she’d be an interesting topic and her views on feminism have made an impact on they way women think today, which means that I think she should be included in the canon of major English writers.
It is true, perhaps, that women are the subset of humanity whose rights had been the longest stripped of them, and who had been abused the worst and for the longest time. Even today, many people believe that women still do not have the equality that ought to be afforded them. Since women first started making steps to approach that ideal equality, they have used various means, including literature, to further their cause. Both Mary Prince’s The History of Mary Prince, as well as Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen, use language of Christian rhetoric to simultaneously cast their characters and themselves as sinners and the redeemed and righteous as well as portraying the journey of redemption between one and the other. This subconscious wording engenders fellowship in their readers, who can relate to the story of the redeemed, and who exist in an overwhelmingly moral and Christian society.
Despite the numerous ways of oppression, one brave woman writer wrote fearlessly about how she felt women should be viewed. This writer’s name was Mary Wollstonecraft. Her newfound ideals about what women should represent shocked the upper class of Britain. She was both famous and infamous during her time period. The book that best ...