Preview

Summary: Cultural Norm

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
454 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary: Cultural Norm
I agree with Mitch, I was surprised by the idea that a slave could make their own money, to the point that they could buy their own freedom. At first I was confused as to why a slave master would agree to letting their slave buy their freedom, but after some thought it seems logical. If the slave gives them enough money then the slave owner can buy another slave with that profit. Their next slave will likely be stronger because they won't have been worked so hard.
I agree with everyone that I was appalled by the way that the slaves were treated by their owners. As I said in class, they were treated worse than animals. You would never violently whip a cow to the point where its limbs are swollen, and then expect it to plow a field the next day. Yet, this is what the slave owners expected from their slaves. In saying this, there has been debate about it being the cultural norm, and it is true that this is what many of the slave owners would have been raised to do all of their life. This was definitely the norm for the time era, but Mary Prince talks about how different slave owners treated her differently. I'm curious if people would discuss how they treated their slaves, and if people that were meaner to their slaves were glorified, or looked down upon.
…show more content…
I recently read a quote that said "Your body can do almost anything. It's just your mind that you have to convince." I admire Mary Prince and her desire to continue living even though she was brutally beaten countless times. She must have been a very strong woman to continue living and not giving

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Amistad Scenario #3

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In consideration of the slaves, being a slave trader can be a tough job. If I was a slave trader, I would feel emotionless towards my slaves. The slaves are put through dreadful conditions. Thus, separating them from loved ones and making their lives miserable. Despite the fact that they are innocent and desperate for freedom, as a slave trader, I could heedless about their point of view. Even though I ponder about it, a part of me is filled with guiltiness and emptiness because as I try to picture myself in the slaves' position, I too would feel hopeless. However, a sacrifice has to be made so that I can provide all of my necessities.…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The institution of slavery not only brutalized its victims but also dehumanized the practitioners of it. The Classic slave Narratives provides numerous examples of this many of which being within the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, and The History of Mary Prince.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Blacks, at the time of slavery, were seen as second class citizens and below the level of upper class lighter skinned people. Since this was one of the reasons they were put into slavery, one would think it safe to assume they would not bestow these prejudices onto each other. However, after reading Douglass’s accounts of slavery, it is shocking to see that the slaves treated each other almost the same way the whites treated them. The prejudices may not have been as blatant as the whites, but they were there. It is especially evident when Douglass talks about the slaves arguing over their masters.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Often, people view slavery as cruel, inhumane, unjustifiable, and brutal. However, slavery was not as atrocious as believed. Many slaves respected their owners and enjoyed serving them, while others loathed them. As time proceeded, many slaves were freed, unfortunately, many of them were treated as if they weren’t. In the excerpts from Twelve Years of a Slave and Betty Cofer, there is an opposition between how the slaves were treated along with the genesis of slavery, however, the dialect between the two pieces is similar.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Now that the picture has been painted of what times were like many would assume well life seems to be great for the elite whites and dreadful for the slaves but little did anyone ever think to consider how slavery could possibly be bad for the South? In the book Incidents in a Life of a Slave Girl the main character Linda talks about her life from the very young age of 6 till she is a grown women. The book gives us a clear view of what it would be like to be a young girl growing up as a slave. One of the biggest things I was able to better understand from the book was truly how cruel slaves were treated numerous times the author Harriet Jacobs used details…

    • 1527 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another example of where the slaves would be treated with more respect was with the military. If the slaves were either their to be punished for a crime or because they simply volunteered to get freedom from their masters and if they were good at being soldiers they would be treated with respect. Now the respect was never at the level that it would be if that person was free and most of all white but it was better than working to the bone everyday with little food and water, sleeping with the animals, and getting beaten constantly. In 1807 William Wilberforce finally gained the victory for the abolishment of the Atlantic Slave Trade. It was sadly after he had died but his legacy continued on after his death. Though of course the abolishment of the slave trade did not exactly end all slave trade but through time it made people look down on what once was completely accepted. We may still have slaves in this country today but we are making a conscience effort to end it once and for…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “My White Folks treated us good” by Marriah Hines (p.32). She talked about how her master took care of them by nourishing, the way he dressed them and how he did not hold them back from them developing. The women were right when she said it was exploitation of former slaves. She specified “Some unfortunate individuals practically have nothing to eat. Why, the way their owners treated them was disgraceful treated them like felines and canines” (Hines, p. 32). Hines made remarks about how her master did not permit them to work on Sundays because it was a day for rest. Hines made it clear how nice it was to work for the master that she worked for. She was treated with respect she was not beaten, raped or injured by her master. She told the readers the different between her master and other masters, how others so him as an African American lover. Her master was a religious person went to church and always encourage the slaves to go to church also but did not care if they did not. Even when the slaves were set free the slaves wanted to stay. “Most of us stayed right there and raised our own crops.” (p. 34). She concluded the way she was able to survive was because of her master. When the slaves became free…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Peculiar Institution

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Slavery is a very strange and complex thing when you look at it as a whole. Over the past few yeas, the subject of slavery in the South has really appealed to me. This started when I traveled to Ghana, Africa along with Togo and Benin. While there, I got to tour some of the largest slave trade forts in the Dahomey kingdom. The entire time I was there I continued to ask myself how something like this could have existed for so long of a time in our history. I believe that the author is trying to point out the very strange and interesting point about slavery.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think that perpetual servitude was not good. The people would have to work until they could pay out of it. If they could not pay out of it they would be slaves forever. The people that came there would have to pay to go if they didn’t they would be slaves and he would say I paid for your food shelter clothes …etc.…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Master-Slave relationship was a difficult relationship to say the least. On one hand, there were owners that did everything in their power to remain in charge and then there were some owners who treated their slaves very kindly. Regardless of which approach was taken, slavery still caused a lot of conflict. Mr. Larry E. Rivers discusses what both slave owners and slaves themselves went through during 1821-1865. There were many ways in which slave owners tried to control their slaves, two of the major ones being through religion and corporal punishment.…

    • 809 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today when I was dining with my family in a formal restaurant, I broke two of the similar cultural norms. One being that, I drank my soup using a fork, where the norm is to drink soup with spoon. The second being that I use my knife to eat my cake, where it should’ve been eaten using a fork.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass points out that slaves would often times think of their master as better than other masters, with a sense of dignity, because “to be a poor man’s slave was deemed a disgrace indeed” (35). Slaves would often times give up their natural fellowship with other slaves for a miniscule amount of dignity. Slaves would additionally betray other slaves. In Douglass’ case, one of the slaves in his premature plan of escape betrayed him and he ended up in jail. Douglass was sure who testified against them, saying that he and his other friends “came to a unanimous decision [...] as to who their informant was” (95). This disloyalty among slaves was not due to the harshness of the masters, but simply due to the system of slavery itself. In fact, some slaves would take the side of their slaveholders rather than fellow slaves with the belief that their prospects were better as slaves, but this statement is among the many false mythologies of slavery.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone has heard stories or learned of the horrific treatment of slaves by our ancestors. However, most of the stories we hear about come from male slaves. In “The History of Mary Prince”, Prince uses her vulnerability and life experiences as a female slave to convey to readers the heartbreaking life of being a slave.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mistreatment of Slaves

    • 1957 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Since grade school, students have been taught in their respective history classes about slavery. They were taught about the various aspects of slavery for example, the lack of formal and informal education, their mistreatment, abuse, both verbal and physical, and the everlasting slaughter of innocent slaves. Though there are occasions where one hears that there was a master that didn 't mistreat and abuse his slaves. Those types of master-slave relationships were extremely rare. According to many text and history books slaves were often mistreated and abused on a daily basis. The question, now is, did the mistreatment and abuse of the slaves, in particular the women slaves, in the autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Harriet Jacobs actually occur to that extent. Were slaves really treated in such a way presented by Ms. Jacobs in her autobiography? Slaves were definitely mistreated and abused by their masters and overseers, but what extent did that mistreatment and abuse actually go, is what needs a deeper look.…

    • 1957 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery In Early America

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Practically everyone treated slaves ruthlessly as an outcast or someone they looked down upon as if they were nobody. As mentioned in The Atlantic Slave Trade, slaves were mere “Individuals who were ultimately held against their will by threat or force. [They did not choose to come to the New World but instead, captured from their villages and were forced into migration]” (Pg.1 Klein). Especially in the Southern culture, slaves were also horribly disciplined, if they did something bad in the eyes’ of their masters. Disciplinary was a reaction to the slaves’ insubordination. Sadly but true, they would often torment and overly abuse slaves. Punishments were sometimes redundant if the masters felt the need to prove their…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays