Today we are going to think about slavery.Please visit this website of slave narratives.
Pick five narratives to read. Then answer the questions below in Microsoft Word. Then post your answers to our blog:
- How do the narratives make you feel and why?
- What do the narratives teach you about slavery?
- What, if anything, surprised you and why?
- What questions do you have?
When you finish, please read another student's blog post and respond to it.
I feel sad because they had a very terrible life. Also they can’t get their rights. The narratives teach me the slavery has a very long history. Even they were freed, but people continually wanted to take their rights. My surprise is if he or she was a slave, then his or her children would be slave. The children couldn’t change their lifes.Why did they have to be a slave? Who had the right to let them to be in the unfair situation? Why didn’t they organize a group to protest them?
ReplyDeleteI feel sad because their life are still hard and they really be free.I learned slavery truns people to product. My questions is why their children have be slave too.
ReplyDeletefrom the narroative i feel really bad and sad beacuse they were humans too but with no right. and i can't even imagine to live like that. i learned that slavery was brutal and bloody, and truned people into property. i was shocked by the fact that slavery didn't stop with a generation but continued one generation after another. i would ask why they didn't try to resist or fight back?
ReplyDeleteJohn W. Fields, Age 89
ReplyDelete1- It is very amazing to see how even though these people were slaves, they had a great desire to study and learn a lot of new things. This narrative makes me fell bad and good at the same time. I feel bad to see how the owners hated to see the slaves studying. They wanted them to be “dumb” because if they knew a lot of things they would fight against slavery. It makes me feel good because I can see their enthusiasm towards education.
2- It taught me the importance of education that we are blessed to access this and they didn’t have this opportunity at that time.
3- What surprised me were the owners of the slaves who didn’t want them to have an education and they would punish them if they saw them reading or studying. We all have a right to be educated.
4- Why would the owners do such horrible things to them?
These slave narratives make me sad. I could not believe how those white folks being so hard on them. What makes them think that they’re much better than them? The slavery life at that time was horrible; they can’t get proper education, job, and life. Just if I could ask them, how could they survive those years?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThese narratives are so interesting because they teach us about how slaves were treated back then. When I was reading them I felt angry and sad for them. For me it is not fair humans should be treated like animals. Thanks God nowadays we have laws that can protect us such as the human rights. I got surprised by how some of these poor slaves’ people could still alive after a lot of suffering. I wonder if slaves’ properties somehow fear God’s justice.
ReplyDeleteI felt sad and sorry for them. I learned that slaves weren’t allow to know how to read and write. They wanted to be educated but they didn’t have any rights. Even if them owner wanted to educate slaves he will be punish. Also if your parents are slaves and you will be born you are slave also. How they feel about knowing that your child will become a slave ?
ReplyDeleteMaciej
John W. Fields, Age 89
ReplyDeleteThis is unfair between the white and black people that existed at that time. I feel very bad and angry for the injustice and abuse to the human rights of those times. The laws were so bad for the black people.
The narrative teaches us that there were a lot of abuses to the black people, because they were restricted to learn or to be educated.
There is a quote that surprised us. It says: “It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence.” This quote means that the law was very racist and unfair to the black people in those times.
We would like to know the time that there were a sentence to a white person because he/she were educating a black person.
James Cape, Age over 100
This narrative made me feel interesting, because I could understand the grammar that this old man wrote. It was very difficult, but because I am learning English I could speak the words and at that time I could understand the meaning. This old man was learning how to write and spell, but he could not culminate with his studies. I think it was because of the laws that couldn’t let black people to be educated. It teaches us that if you want to learn something you have to work hard. Every body has the rights to be educated and to be free. It surprised me the spelling of the narrative because of its difficult grammar and spelling of the words. For example in the narrative they wrote: “De” instead of “The.” We would like to know who were the good people that taught English to the black man.?
by: Wenyu and Daniel
They make me feel kind of sad and touching, because we can see how hard their lives was, how much they can go through if they break any rules. They had no rights to read or write. The narrator teaches me how to be satisfied with my life. Even though they took over your life now but the spirit always stays intact. What surprises me the most is if they caught any white guard helping the black folks how to read they would have to pay a fine of fifty dollars and be sentenced to jail as well. My question is to J. W. Fields, what was the difference between staying with your guard and running away? When you know if you leave you will have nowhere to go…
ReplyDeletelovely and Wei Wei
@wangJJ i think that their children had to be a slave too, because the white folks won't allow those children to get anything else such as proper education or job.
ReplyDelete1- It’s cool to know that although they were African American slaves, they had this kind of dream in mind to see themselves as educated and are able to know things like the rest of the people .It makes me feel very bad because for me, education is really important and for them not to be able to have this opportunity during their life time.
ReplyDelete2- It taught me how to value education and take it more seriously.
3- What surprised me was the hatred that the owners have towards their same kind. After all I don’t see any difference between each one of us.
4- Will the country be a better place if the situation was different as this?
John W. Fields, Age 89
I feel so angry about it because they had a difficult and unfair life. The narratives teach us no matter our life is difficult or easy, we still need to keep going and try our best to fight for right. There is one thing surprised me, which is they could run away but they didn’t have a place to go. And if they ran away, they would get punishment. My question is If a slave ran away, what kind punishment they would get?
ReplyDeleteAll those slave narrative shows us the horribleness of slavery. That makes me sad and angry because they don’t even let the children to be free. That totally surprises me because I couldn’t imagine a life like that. Isn’t that better to die instead of living slave life?
ReplyDeleteI feel angry and sad because they life are so difficult and sad. There are nobody care them. People treatment them just like animal. They used their while life to word, but get nothing, they had get one thing, it is pain and sad. The narratives teach me respect each other, stand in their situation to think about them. In the Sarah Frances Shaw Grave’s’ life, her mother had by allotted to one man, just like one things. She can’t have any thinking and idea. She doesn’t have rights, Any rights. Why they didn’t try to talk or fight.
ReplyDeleteYuJie, Jonnathan and Fernando.
I really feel bad because I believe everyone should have the rights to have an education because you can’t do anything if you don’t have an education degree. I learned that all slave could not learn how to write or read and if they do so, they will get punished. The most thing that surprise me is that if they find out that a white man or woman teaching a slave how to read or write that person will be in deep trouble…
ReplyDeleteThese narratives are so interesting because its shows how was the lives of the slaves back then. When I was reading them I felt frustrated disappointed for them because they couldn’t take advantage of their rights and they were treated unfairly. I got surprised by how children suffered being slaves and they weren’t allowed to learn how to read and write. I wonder if slaves had hope for freedom.
ReplyDelete@pablo....maybe death penalty.....
ReplyDeleteYanyan, I know how you felt. I have same kind of feeling with you. People should be equal.
ReplyDeletepablo: I think the owner will hit them with some tools and no food no drink for this slave or maybe they will kill him because he was run away and they catch him again. so sad but it was truth.
ReplyDeleteI feel so mad about it because they had a unfair life. The narratives teach us no matter our life is difficult or easy, we still must to try our best to fight for our right. There is one thing surprised me, which is they could run away but they didn’t have a place to go. And if they ran away, they would get punishment. My question is If you were a slave would you want to kill yourself?
ReplyDeleteAnswer to rahat.
ReplyDeleteI think they did try to fight but they were so low then, even though they tried they were always been stepped on. They did not have much power to fight faster than it should’ve been done. Well at least its over now it’s all that counts
I feel sad about the slave narratives because in that time, slaves just tools that make money for white people. Slave’s life is like an unbalance weighing scales; they are hard to fit in the right place. And no one wants to share the life with slaves. Slave narratives teach me that life is hard, but we have to fight better life. “People can’t teach slaves” make me surprised because U.S.A is a freedom country. However, freedom has a lot of hole. I just don't get it. Why some people can’t share life with other?
ReplyDeleteIf I judge the situation from those narratives point of view, I would say their life was terribly hard and sorrowful. They have passed extremely difficult life when they had no freedom but only slavery. They narratives taught me about the way they were treated like an animal, & how many different ways they were persecuted. The fact of selling slaves and using them like property was shocking for me. The question that rose in my mind after reading these narratives saying is that- what internal conflict did they have during the time of slavery? Is that fear of being slave forever or a thought of protesting against it?
ReplyDelete