Kindred In The 1800's

What do you think it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s? The paper is about what life is like to be a slave.Dana is not a good representation of a slave because she is from the 1970's, she is very educated, and she dresses like a man. Dana is from 1976 and she lives in California. The book Kindred is based on slavery in the 1800's. In the 1800's California was not part of the United States. California in the 1800's was part of Mexico. In the book Kindred there was a quote that said: "Were from California that doesn't exist yet, Rufus California nineteen seventy-six."(Butler 62). When Dana traveled to the 1800's she had to say that she was from New York because New York was a free state and that means blacks could be free. Life in 1976 was

In the 1800's whites didn't want blacks to learn how to read or write. This is because the slave owners or masters didn't want blacks to write their own passes. A pass in the 1800's is like a note or a hall pass in high school you have these so you can go somewhere, an example of this in the 1800's is being able to see family and an example of this in high school is going to the restroom. In the book kindred, Tom Weylin said to Rufus that "A nigger can read better than you."(Butler 102). This was bad for Rufus because whites at the time were the only people who got to learn how to read, speak, and write. Some of the slaves had a hard time having conversations with the other slaves. dana was very good at speaking so when Dana had to take care of Margret Weylin, she forgot that Dana was black. In the book kindred Butler wrote "Hours later in the cookhouse, Nigel asked me to teach him how to read"(Butler 97). Later in the book, Dana also helped Carrie learn how to speak, read, and write. Sarah didn't want Carrie to learn how to speak because Sarah didn't want her last child to be sold. Soon after this Dana gets whipped because Tom Weylin caught Dana teaching Nigel how to read. When she was got whipped and she got sent back to nineteen seventy-six. When Rufus' father dies Rufus wants Dana to write persuasive letters to the people that tom Weylin owed money to.

Women in the 1800's wear dress, not pants. this is because pants are grouped with the boys and dresses are grouped with the girls. There are many more years until girls can wear pants from the 1800's. The only person that is a lady that doesn't wear pants when she is in the 1800's is Dana. So when people ask "Why are you wearing pants?" in the section of "The Fall" Dana replies something like "These are the clothes that Master Kevin gave me.". In the book kindred, Rufus said: "You were wearing pants like a man- the way you are now I thought you were a man."(Butler 22). It's fair for Rufus to think Dana is a man because she is wearing pants. this is because Rufus hasn't seen women in pants at all. this is because pants are grouped with men in the 1800's. So Rufus thought that if you're a girl you would be wearing a dress. Alice made Dana a dress because Alice thought she could use a new item of clothing because her pants and shirt were dirty. In the article "slavery" Altman wrote "Poorly clothed, and sometimes fed in groups from a trough"(Altman 5). The slaves would be poorly clothed because they do most of the work on the plantations and cooking. Then the whites do like no hard work like cooking or doing plantation work. Then some slaves do more work than others so some of the slave's clothes can be more worn out than