In chapter 4 from the book “Nightjohn” by Gary Paulsen we are introduced to characters that depict the conditions slaves had to endure during the 19th century. The chapter begins with a slave name Alice that is made into a “breeder” against her will by the plantation owner, Waller due to her unsatisfactory work on the plantation. Afterwards, Sarny got a flashback about Jim and Paulwe, the slaves at the plantation where Sarny, the narrator works. Jim was a old man that was tired of his life as a slave--at the plantation. Therefore, he attempted to escape, but he got caught and the dog gnawed Jim’s legs off--leaving him hanging on a trees that he climbed to escape.
In the novel NightJohn by Gary Paulsen, chapter four is mainly about Sarny’s memory of how bad it is to try to run away from the Plantation. Sarny first has a flashback to when Jim a field hand tried to run away from the plantation; In response, Clel Waller the slave master set the dogs at him while Jim tried to hide in a tree. He was unsuccessful and whipped while the dogs ate at his skin. Furthermore, Pawley was a slave on the Plantation when he tried to visit a girl on another nearby plantation.
These families knew that they were being separated and this was the weeping time. Though immediate families were not separated the extended families and the sense of their community was not kept together. Fanny Kemble was under the assumption that the slaves were well taken care of. However when she arrived to the island, she witnessed a different story. She was told and witnesses the deplorable conditions that they lived, the abuse and rape of the women and the high infant mortality rate.
In chapter six and seven of Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, there is a great deal of significant and recently developed information. To start, John still continues to teach Sarny letters, unaffected by the fact that if he is caught the punishment will be even higher; John teaches Sarny “H”. Furthermore, John tells Sarny she is planning to leave the plantation, however he promises to return. Before he leaves, Mammy expresses to John that she wishes she could have met him sooner or at a different location because she enjoyed his company. Adding to John’s absence, Sarny doesn’t believe he will return, but she is wrong.
In chapter four of Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, Sarny experiences a traumatic event. Sarny and the other slaves had to witness Alice, a girl that dreams a lot getting whipped badly by the master. Unfortunately, the cause of her getting whip was that she wandered off near the White House and the slaves weren't allowed to be there. The slaves had to watch Alice dripping blood and numerous cuts while she was being whipped so they would know what to expect if they did something like that. Additionally, an old man named Jim couldn’t take no more and had enough which made him tried to leave.
“She don’t know nothin. It was me that taught the girl letters” NightJohn by Gary Paulsen. A girl name Sarny got taken away from her mother when she was born into slavery. Mammy was the one who raised all the young ones, so mammy raised her for the years. Then a man named John came and was there for teaching her to read and write.
An example Shin’s parents were an range married. One similar and difference between the life of slave in the Antebellum South and a prisoner at camp 14 is in the way of education. Slavery were taught in secretly, white people were afraid that they will write their own pass to become free women and men. One example from Kindred, Dana taught Nigel and Carrie how to read and write,Rufus’s father caught her and whipped her. However, in Camp 14 the prisoner were educated in the open as a means to brainwash politically and rule.
Many major events are covered in chapters 6, 7, and Words in Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen. In chapter 6, John is resting after getting punishment by Waller, for the punishment impacted John so much he plans on leaving the plantation. In order for John to leave, he needs to make shoes out of lard, rawhide, and the use of pepper to throw the dog's sense of smell off, so he gets away clean. During this, Sarny is miserable due to her troubles that same fall, which makes her ready to become a breeder. Now, Sarny is sulking until one night John appears and tells her that he is taking her to school.
Although Nightjohn is a historical fiction novel, the way the enslaved are punished and restricted and also their resistance to these conditions are immensely accurate. The way that the enslaved people are being punished in the novel may seem to be over the top and exaggerated but they are definitely historically accurate depictions of the torment that the enslaved people went through. When Nightjohn was bought by Waller and brought to the plantation, Sarny saw that his whole back and more was, “whipped to rags and raised up and down like ripples”. Also later in the novel a runaway slave gets half eaten by a vicious bloodhound sent by Waller.
Chapter four of Nightjohn—written by Gary Paulsen—is about three people that have attempted to run. Sarney, the narrator, starts off the chapter by talking about Alice. Alice was always daydreaming and not paying attention that often, but what really broke her spirit was when she was forced to be a breeder. One day, she walked to close to the white house and was caught. She was chained up to a wall, with no clothes on and was whipped until her skin was hanging off her body—she was forced to stay chained up all night.
Some of these stories tell of how the slaveholders managed and operated their plantations, how slaveholders separated families one from another, and what types of relationships that fit within the moral parameters of the slaveholder (a moral compass was not a part of the reality of a slaveholder), and what types of relationships were unbeknown to the slave master. Family separation was a fact of life during the enslavement period. Pension files again show many a story of these separations of families one from the other. Heartbreaking stories of family members being moved to another plantation sometimes locally, but then there were the slaves being traded away too far off places.
Slave owners could do whatever they wanted to do to the slaves, for not obeying what they want. Slaves were punished by Whipping, imprisonment, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, and branding. They were often punished for not following their masters rules. In the novel Night John, the new slave that goes by the name of Night John teaches Sarny to read, he gets caught and gets punished. He gets his
Nightjohn, a novel written by Gary Paulsen, takes location throughout one of the finest periods of prejudice and racism in American records. Nightjohn is the story of a young slave lady named Sarny. Within the book, Sarny meets any other slave named Nightjohn, he teaches Sarny a way to study and write. Ultimately, after Nightjohn is punished for coaching Sarny, he runs away, however, later he returns to complete coaching Sarny. Sarny failed to accept the fact that she was a slave or the unfairness in opposition to her prevent her from learning.
Slaves back then were treated very poorly. In the story of Night John, John experienced that. He was whipped in the back and got a finger cut off. Although slaves weren't allowed to do many things, i don't think they should've been hurt for it.
Often slaves gathered together, ran away as a group. “In North America, slaves often banded together and formed utopian-type communities like Wilberforce in Ontario and in the northern United States and other parts of Canada” (Slave Resistance). Running away was risky, but in the context of servitude for the rest of their lives and future generations’, many enslaved believed the consequences of doing nothing and remaining in slavery outweighed the risk. Slaves would group together to run away and established their own communities. In the Slave Narrative Collection of the Federal Writers ' Project of the WPA, Ida Blackshear Hutchinson.
