Response To Slavery

“What difference is there in the color of the soul?” said Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave. Those who were enslaved were owned by masters who were generally very cruel. Slaves were treated as they were only there to work, not to thrive, and barely to survive. Slaves were often put on plantations that normally had farms for them to work on. Their working conditions were poor and the days were long. The slaves were often separated from their families. Slaves were treated poorly because in the owner’s eyes the slaves weren’t equal to them. The slaves were “property,” nothing more. Those involved in this situation responded to the adversity with different emotions. (“Civil War”)
One response to being a slave is despair. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an autobiography, his master sent him to Mr. Covey, a very harsh slave owner, to be broken. “I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few

In Twain’s book he tells about a time when Huckleberry Finn and Jim go to a boat wreck. Jim has a really bad and sick feeling about going and he tries to talk Huck into turning back around. Jim is afraid someone is going to catch him because getting caught would mean him getting lynched. Further down the page it tells us, “Jim whispered and said he was feeling a powerful sick, and just told me to come along” (Twain 74). Solomon Northrup also experiences fear because of his education. Previously being a free man he learned to read and write something that was definitely looked down upon by slaveholders. He kept the fact that he could read and write from everyone because he was afraid of being whipped or lynched. Mr. Epps was told by Armsby that Solomon could read and write and Solomon burned his paper. It was difficult for him to get paper anyways and he feared getting caught so much that he burned the only paper he had. (McQueen) This is a reasonable response because their owners often whipped