ipl-logo

Mary Prince A West Indian Slave Analysis

994 Words4 Pages

Freedom is Sweet
In her narrative “The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave”, Mary Prince presents the appalling details of the lives of slaves to pose an argument against slavery. Prince was born into slavery and never received the sweet freedom she so desired for herself, but wrote her narrative in hopes that it would provide the influence necessary to free the world from the chains of slavery. Limiting and destructive, slavery presented itself in every aspect of Prince’s life, from when she was separated from her family and husband, to when she had to dictate her story since slaves were never taught to write. Nevertheless, Prince persevered to recount the dangers of slavery in a short narrative portraying the unique struggles of women …show more content…

As a slave herself , Prince is reliable when she argues that she has never heard one slave say they were happy in slavery, while slave masters continuously tell such lies to ensure the practice of slavery continues. As Prince concludes her narrative, she asks the audience “How can slaves be happy when they have the halter round their neck and the whip upon their back? And are disgraced and thought of no more than beasts?” (262). Through her explanation of slavery from a slave’s perspective, Prince portrays the impossibility of happiness under such terms. Nobody exhibits happiness with knowledge that their next beating is right around the corner for the sheer entertainment of their master. Prince’s application of rhetorical questions emphasizes the unhappiness of slaves under slavery and ironically portrays them as animals by the same people who argue that they are happy with current living conditions. This further validates Prince’s claim against slavery, but she continues to pine for abolition by giving the audience alternatives to slave …show more content…

Frederick Douglass also symbolizes the corruption of slavery on slaveholders through his characterization of Mrs. Auld. When Douglas first met Mrs. Auld, she was the first kind face he had seen, but after years under the influence of slavery, her heart grew cold and she proceeded to beat him. Similar to Douglass, Prince recalls an experience she had with the son of her owner Master D-. In the beginning of Prince’s life, children had been her one source of compassion that shared a different complexion. Children were undefiled by the evils of slavery, like Prince’s childhood friend, Miss Betsy, who cried when they were separated. However, as children grow under the circumstances of inconceivable cruelty, their character mirrors their surroundings. Prince characterizes her owner's child, Master Dickey as having “no heart-no fear of God; he had been brought up by a bad father in a bad path, and he delighted to follow in the same steps” (246). Master Dickey was raised in an environment that prompted bad behavior: slavery. Prince’s diction is significant with the repetition of “bad” and the ironic use of “delighted”. Prince’s use of repetition ingrains the atrocious conditions into the reader's mind and ensures he or she understood how corruptive it was. Additionally, Prince uses irony to express that although Master Dickey was headed down a terrible path,

Show More
Related
161 Words | 1 Pages

Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

Read More
486 Words | 2 Pages

After having read both Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and Harriet Jacobs’s Incident 1. How were Douglass and Jacobs similar and different in their complaints against slavery? What accounts for these differences? In both the inspiring narratives of Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass’s and in Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs the respective authors demonstrate the horrors and disparity of slavery in there own ways.

Read More
990 Words | 4 Pages

It’s globally known that the relationship between slaves and owners were abusive and unbalanced. Both male and female slaves endured horrible conditions and punishments brought on by their masters, but a woman’s slave-experience proves to be very different than a man’s. While women had to experience the abuse that came with their race, they also had to experience the oppression that came along with their gender. Regardless of viewing and treating them as animals, many male slave owners still had a sexual attraction and sense of protection over the female slave- sometimes even developing feelings for them. This creates a dangerous situation where not only the men have control over how the women work, but they have control over their body and emotions.

Read More
649 Words | 3 Pages

The Golden Rule found in Luke 6:31 says, “Do unto others as you have them do upon you”. During the early 1800’s humans were brutally abused by other humans. In 1844, Frederick Douglass illustrates his brutal time as a slave through his narrative The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass writes his story using rhetorical elements to convey that slavery should be abandoned because it takes a mental and physical toll on the slaves plus, that slaves need to try and escape from slavery. Douglass uses logos and a periodic sentence to apply logical details to show how worthless and what value the slaves were to the slaveholders.

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

Douglass begins uses paradox to show how slavery was inhuman by acknowledging how slave overseers treated the slaves when did wrong or doing what was not told by them. ‘’ He would whip her to make her scream and whip her to make her hush. ’’(page 5). Douglass appeals

Read More
814 Words | 4 Pages

In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.

Read More
1147 Words | 5 Pages

The Impact of Frederick Douglass on American Culture. “Though slavery was abolished, the wrongs of my people were not ended. Though they were not slaves, they were not yet quite free. No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling, and action of others, and who has no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending, and maintaining his liberty”. In Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” Douglass explores his past as being a slave, telling how he overcame being enslaved and escaped to the north.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

An American Slave,” Douglass discusses the horrors of being enslaved and a fugitive slave. Through Douglass’s use of figurative language, diction and repetition he emphasizes the cruelty he experiences thus allowing readers to under-stand his feelings of happiness, fear and isolation upon escaping slavery. Figurative language allocates emotions such as excitement, dread and seclusion. As a slave you have no rights, identity or home. Escaping slavery is the only hope of establishing a sense of self and humanity.

Read More
498 Words | 2 Pages

The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

“One who is a slaveholder at heart never recognizes a human being in a slave” (Angelina Grimke). This quote was created to show the effect that slavery had on not only the slave, but the slaveholder. The slaveholder would dehumanize the slave to the point where the human was no longer recognizable; instead, the slave was property. Throughout this autobiography, Frederick Douglass uses language to portray the similarities and differences between the two sides. He allows the reader to spend a day in the life of a slave to see the effects from it.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

    Douglass uses deep characterization to show the change in behavior of slaveholders who have uncontrolled power. A good example of this is Sophia Auld. Before slavery took effect, she was a kind and caring woman who comprehended moral righteousness. She had never owned a slave before Douglass. Owning Douglass soon changed her into an evil slave owner when she realized the power, “the white man’s power to enslave the black man” that she had (Douglass 41).

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

Slavery is wicked and gory and monstrous and that is well known today but during the time it was well known. In Frederick Douglass’s, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass tries to persuade everyone to stop the madness and recognize how awful slavery is; to do this he uses comparison and realization leading to the reader being blown away by this one slave’s life story. The goal of Douglass’s writing makes the reader see slavery in a different light. This is why Douglass’s writing is such a heavy read. To get his point across he talks about how monstrous his whole life is, starting for the very beginning when “... the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it” (Douglass 1.4) Douglass had to go through

Read More
911 Words | 4 Pages

These songs were far from joyful, they would sing “…the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone…” and these songs would “… [breathe] the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish.” (29). Douglass argues against the positive image of slavery that portrayed slaves to be

Read More
257 Words | 2 Pages

“With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final”; not slavery and oppression.” This relates to the hardships and the fact that the people don’t recognize how terrible it is. And that these meanings of these “free” words mean something else to him and other slaves. He shows that the changes are hard but once they are made everything will be peaceful. Rhetorical features and strategies are Douglass’ forte’ in engaging with the audience.

Read More

More about Mary Prince A West Indian Slave Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document