Examples Of Slavery In Nightjohn

In the United States, history is a very topsy-turvy subject. One moment we’ve won our freedom from the British, the next we’re contradicting our own statements and treating men anything but fair and equal. Slavery isn’t a subject that’s touched upon very well in schools; Likely because it’s deemed too graphic for younger kids. Gary Paulsen, author of Nightjohn, waded into the topic no one dared to cross into, however, and brought to light several horrors of slavery that was lost in the abyss of U.S. history.Although Paulsen’s novel, Nightjohn, is considered historical fiction, the depictions of the brutal punishments, their everlasting desire to learn, and the way the slaves continued to support one another can be corroborated with multiple

Gary Paulsen practically portrays the slaves as caged pack mules; They must work all day with the sun beating on them, submit themselves to their “Master(s)”, and can, under no circumstances, show any interest in learning of the alphabet nor freedom. Addressed in Solomon Northup’s “Twelve Years a Slave” as well as Nightjohn, slave owners had blood-thirsty dogs that would hunt down an escaped slave under their master’s command. An excerpt from “Twelve Years a Slave” states, “..a far more savage breed than is found in the Northern States. They will attack a negro, at their master’s bidding, and cling to him as the common bulldog will cling to a four-footed animal.. I never knew a slave escaping with his life.” It’s clear that escaping from a plantation with your life was an indubitably risky act that could quickly cost you your life. While it’s true they didn’t need to escape in the first place, evidence of the

In Nightjohn, children are raised under a single surrogate mother, who they must depend on to survive. John also stepped up to defend Delia while taking a punishment for a crime she didn’t commit, to confess that he deserved it instead. According to “Narrative of Frederick Douglass”, his mother and he were separated when he was an infant, and stated that it was common practice of plantation owners, to separate the kids and the parents. As such, he had to depend on a woman who was too old for labor or to ‘breed’. Douglass being separated from his mother as an infant is similar to Sarny and the other children being parted from their parents when they were too young to remember them. Sarny and the children are also cared for by an older woman, Delia, who is implied to be much older than the others, and must depend on her. Referring to the pit schools in “African American Education in Slavery” once more, “slaves would slip out of their quarters at night and go to these pits, and someone who had some learning would have a school.” One could say that the slaves there were supporting each other. They were mutually connected by their desire to learn and teach others in their position. They trusted that they were being taught correctly and that nobody would rat someone else out or cause them to get caught otherwise. These examples alone can show that those stuck on a