Henry Bibb
Shaniqua Jones
HSTAA 225 Sec. AD
November 21, 2007
Biographical Essay Assignment
It was a hot blistering summer day not a leaf in sight or a hint of shade to be found. Mouth is dry as cotton from thirst and hands bleeding and blistering from a hard days work, exhausted from fatigue and hunger, because Master had me out here since the crack of dawn. Tending to the crops in the field and told me not come until every last crop has been tended which is about three football fields long. This is some of the Vigorous work that slaves had to endure. Slavery is a big part of American history. Many of the African Americans you see today are descendants of the 500,000 plus Africans who were sent to North America as slaves. To work the degrading lower class works of the Europeans with no wages or dignity to have. Slavery had existed in America for almost 250 years. In the United States, slaves had no rights. According to the Constitution, a slave was considered three-fifths of a person. A slave could be bought and sold just like a cow or horse. Slaves had no say in where they lived or who they worked for. They had no representation in government. Slaves could not own property and were not allowed to learn or be taught how to read and write. Slavery came to an end in 1865 when the 13th Amendment came into play after the end of the Civil War. One of those 500,000 slaves was Henry Bibb an American slave. Henry Bibb’s story the Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, illustrates a slave’s enduring struggle for freedom. The greatest obstacles he confronted was white society’s story that slavery fit into the natural order of the world. Every sign of resistance was a threat to this story, and whites felt that this needed to be eliminated with whatever violence was necessary. Masters, Slaved Holders, and White Southerners wanted to believe there slaves were content in what they set a side as the natural order of life,
HSTAA 225 Sec. AD
November 21, 2007
Biographical Essay Assignment
It was a hot blistering summer day not a leaf in sight or a hint of shade to be found. Mouth is dry as cotton from thirst and hands bleeding and blistering from a hard days work, exhausted from fatigue and hunger, because Master had me out here since the crack of dawn. Tending to the crops in the field and told me not come until every last crop has been tended which is about three football fields long. This is some of the Vigorous work that slaves had to endure. Slavery is a big part of American history. Many of the African Americans you see today are descendants of the 500,000 plus Africans who were sent to North America as slaves. To work the degrading lower class works of the Europeans with no wages or dignity to have. Slavery had existed in America for almost 250 years. In the United States, slaves had no rights. According to the Constitution, a slave was considered three-fifths of a person. A slave could be bought and sold just like a cow or horse. Slaves had no say in where they lived or who they worked for. They had no representation in government. Slaves could not own property and were not allowed to learn or be taught how to read and write. Slavery came to an end in 1865 when the 13th Amendment came into play after the end of the Civil War. One of those 500,000 slaves was Henry Bibb an American slave. Henry Bibb’s story the Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, illustrates a slave’s enduring struggle for freedom. The greatest obstacles he confronted was white society’s story that slavery fit into the natural order of the world. Every sign of resistance was a threat to this story, and whites felt that this needed to be eliminated with whatever violence was necessary. Masters, Slaved Holders, and White Southerners wanted to believe there slaves were content in what they set a side as the natural order of life,
Cited: Page Bibb, Henry. The Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb with an Introduction by Lucius C. Matlack. New York, 1849. Newton, John.Thoughts upon the American Slave Trade. “A reformed Slave Trader Regrets” (pp. 98-107).London, 1788.