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Analysis Of The Dark Work By Clark-Pujara

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The pastor Antonio Aquino during one of his sermons once said: “Do not be fooled by its size, a small rock, thrown by a young boy defeated the giant.” In the same fashion, when looking at the history of slavery in America, one should not underestimate how significant was the participation of the smallest state in The United States of America. In the book, the Dark Work written by Christy Clark-Pujara, she addresses the paramount effect and influence of Rhode Island in the economy of America through the means of slavery and trading. In other words, she contextualizes Rhode Island’s slavery by focusing it what was important to the white masters, the profit. Furthermore, she approaches the subject by effectively utilizing primary and secondary …show more content…

For example, in the case of Jane Coggeshall, in chapter one, it is perceived the fear emancipated blacks have to retrocede to an anterior status which was slavery. Ms. Coggeshall is afraid her former master is to enslave her again. As a result, she went to the assembly to ask that her freedom is legally confirmed by them (the Assembly). Not even free blacks felt free indeed. Clark-Pujara extracts this information from Russell Bartlett’s collection of assembly records, which is a reliable primary source because Bartlett extracted the information from a first-hand material. As another example, when addressing gradual emancipation, Clark-Pujara writes about Cato Pearce. He under the law of gradual emancipation was born “free,” yet he had to serve as a slave with his mother until he was 21-years-old. In other words, Clark-Pujara frames how the “noble north” was not ready to radically eliminate slavery, nor were the enslaved patient to wait. Cato’s mother left and fractured her family in search of freedom. Also, Cato Pearce at the age of 18 ran away even though he just had to endure three more years to be free. His escapade shows how unsatisfactory gradual emancipation was for the enslaved blacks. In the same fashion, in chapter 5, Clark-Pujara cites the book To Heal the Scourge of

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