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The History Of Mary Prince: Summary

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The History of Mary Prince, related by herself, chronicles the life of Mary Prince and her journey through slavery. Mary was born in 1788 at Brackish-Pond Bermuda, and lived until the early 1830s where she passed in England. This autobiography, first published in 1831 in London, illustrates the brutality, heartbreak, and hardships of not only Mary Prince’s experiences in slavery, but also shines light on the tragic culture of slavery in general. The stomach-turning honesty of this text was not a call for violent revolution, but was meant to reform the opinions of men and women who naïvely believed that “slaves don’t want to get out of slavery” (pg. 38). More specifically, in The History of Mary Prince she does not forcefully demand the instantaneous
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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass delves insightfully within the life of a slave, revealing the natures of power and how it affects those who are incapable of handling it properly. In this record, Douglass demonstrates that the system of slavery not only pulverizes the slave, but also the slaveholders. The power that the slaveholders possess, one which is devoid of responsibility, has a dehumanizing impact on them; annihilating their ethics and sense of self-conviction. It breaks the frailest hearts and finest emotions transforming them into those of a devil.

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Douglass expressed that during the time of his life when he had been sent to live with Mr. Covey he was broken in not only body, but in soul and spirit as well (Douglass 1210.) When Douglass says,”You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man,” (Douglass 1211) the theme of perseverance is most evident. After he had been broken down to almost nothing, Douglass rose from the ashes and fought back; he fought Mr. Covey with all of his might just as if he were fighting slavery itself in human form (Douglass 1214.) This highlights again the key differences of the struggles of a male and a female who are reaching for the same gift of freedom. His main fears were only whether he would win the fight, since to preserve his reputation Mr. Covey could never send him before others.

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