Mary Prince Sparknotes

Mary Prince was an enslaved woman who was born in Bermuda in 1788. She was forced to work on various plantations in the Caribbean where she endured many forms of abuse, including physical, sexual, and emotional, by her masters. In 1828, Prince was taken to England by her final master, John Wood, where she worked as a domestic servant. During her time in England, she became involved in the anti-slavery movement and began to share her story with abolitionists. In 1831, she published a narrative of her life, entitled "The History of Mary Prince", where she vividly describes the horrors of slavery and the inhumane treatment of enslaved people. Due to her narrative establishing the truth behind the treatment of slaves through real-life accounts, Mary was able to

Mary Prince's narrative is full of references to her body and flesh, as they were constantly subjected to abuse and mistreatment during her life as a slave. She writes about being whipped, beaten, and even branded with a hot iron. In one passage, she describes the brutal treatment and punishment that her and other slaves had to go through at the salt lakes. After working in the salt water for so long many of the slaves “became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the very bone, afflicting the sufferers with great torment” (Page 10). To make things even worse, after being worked to the bone, malnourished, and in excruciating pain, the slaves were still susceptible to getting beaten by their master at any given time. Mary recounts that “Mr. D---- has often stripped me naked, hung me up by the wrists, and beat me with the cowskin, with his own hand, till my body was raw with gashes” (Page 10). Furthermore, in another passage, Mary talks about the severity of her rheumatism, conditions that affect the joints, tendons, muscle,