Responses to Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two Story White House, North Essay Example

Our nig which is the name given to a free black slave, even though this name was given to a slave that was free did not mean you were free. This story exposes how the racial dynamics of slavery are replicated in the interracial encounters outside slavery. Our Nig was a story of a slave that fit under this category of not being free when freedom existed. In this passage I will give my critical analysis of my interpretation of Our Nig Frado who was abandoned by her mother and left at the hands of the Belmont family were she was taken as an indentured servant, while being in this house Frado experienced physical and verbal abuse while being in this household. Frado was abandoned by her mother who left to be with her black lover. Frodo’s’ mother experienced harsh treatment because she had relations with a black man, which resulted in her not being able to receive medical attention. This was a primary factor that resulted in Frado mother ultimately abandoning her daughter and leaving her in the care of the Belmont family. Frado received most of her abuse from Mrs. Belmont and her daughter Mary. At times Frado received apparent kindness from the other members of the house hold particularly Mary’s brothers Jack and James, their invalid sister Jane, and their Aunt Abby. The narrative gives a very in-depth and encounter and look into the life of Frado and the timeline of the abuse and the outcome of it all.
I read an article by Lois Leveen who is the assistant professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. She wrote a critical analysis and the dynamics of her personal feeling about Harriet Wilsons Novel Our Nig. Lois Leveen gives her views on how this story is perceived and viewed upon, She believes that Frado cause herself to be captured and enslaved by the Belmont Family. She states that if Frado does not become curious about the house of the Belmont family then she would not have been lead into the house she would not be enslaved. She states that the