Indentured Servitude Quotes

Term Paper Although Heathcliff was a slave or “indentured servant”, he rose out of slavery and became one of the rags to riches stories. Indentured servitude starts either as a person is born into it by a slave parent or was captured and sold by the British. In Victorian England, indentured servitude basically means slavery unless you are bought out of it as Heathcliff was. “He was a dark-skinned child.” It is likely he was from a British-colonized area where he was taken from and brought into the slave trade. He was a lucky survivor of the slave trade when Mr. Earnshaw bought him and set him free to live with Mr. Earnshaw’s family. Victorian England used the process of indentured servitude. The indentured servitude process was when either

He was obviously jealous of Mr. Earnshaw’s love for Heathcliff since the beginning. Hindley took out his anger for Heathcliff by punching, beating, and kicking him. Heathcliff took no response to this until later in his life when he decided to enact revenge. “He (Heathcliff) seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley’s blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident.” Obviously Heathcliff had been beaten before and consistently if he can just stand there and do nothing as Hindley tries to use his anger on him. According to Hindley, Heathcliff stole his parent’s affections and privileges constantly throughout their childhood growing up together. As you can see, slave owners beat their “property” until they cannot go any more so when Hindley does it to Heathcliff it means nothing. The only time Heathcliff takes advantage of when Hindley beats him is when Heathcliff’s horse becomes lame and dies so Heathcliff tells Hindley to give him his horse or Heathcliff will tell Mr. Earnshaw that Hindley has been beating him. That is the only time Heathcliff tries to get revenge until he is older and realizes that he has been wronged and he wants to get revenge on Hindley which sets his diabolical revenge plan

There were many people who lived this and grew up to write stories about their experiences. Charles Dickens fits Heathcliff’s story almost identically. He was born into an indebted family and had to work in factories starting at the age of nine. He tried going to school but working in the factories did not let him continue that. His father paid off his debts when he was twelve and this allowed him to go back to school. He started as a journalist but ended up as a writer. He was able to leave but the experience changed him forever. Some scholars even suggest that Bronte modeled Heathcliff after Dickens in all aspects of his life. Heathcliff fits perfectly into this frame at the beginning but soon takes a turn for the worse. Starting as a slave, he caught a bit of luck and was bought and freed, then he became rich, inherited two houses and stomped over as many people as he needed to do it. He becomes the typical Hollywood villain instead of becoming the good hero as it always seems like the stories go. Prohibiting kids to love, manipulating others to get his way, and wronging children just so he can have more all point to where he went wrong in his life. He started in all the right ways to become a humble and loving individual but Hindley, slave owners, and Catherine choosing Edgar over him turned him into a hateful person overall. Probably the biggest blow to him was when the girl of his