Still’s original name as William Steel but his father changed it to protect his wife. Unfortunately the Steel family was unable to escape slavery together. After his escape from the life of slavery, William moved to Philadelphia where he learned to read. He then started to assist fugitive black slaves when being paid to work as a janitor at Pennsylvania’s Society for the Abolition of Slavery. While helping the escapees he wound up disentangling his long lost brother from slavery.
Illiteracy was high among slaves, mostly due to white owner’s fear of education leading slaves to revolt. Those who were capable of reading and writing made use of newspapers, poetry, pamphlets, and other forms of literature to spread their message. Not only slaves, but abolitionists of all kinds used this method and some of the most famous anti-slavery publications were made available thanks to them. Two famous anti-slave narratives are Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, penned by Douglass himself and Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, like most other slave narratives was written by a former slave himself, however Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by a white abolitionist and a woman.
Every rational mind answers, No" (p43). By reading more about “Middle Passage”, as Equiano described in the book, “the journey across the Atlantic Ocean that brought enslaved Africans to North America”, it has revealed to me more about harsh treatment to slaves at that time. “I have seen a negro beaten till some of his bones were broken, for even letting a pot boil over. ” “Nothing is more common than for the white people on this occasion to take the grass from them without paying for it; and not only so, but too often also, to my knowledge, our clerks, and many others, at the same time have committed acts of violence on the poor, wretched, and helpless females”(p69). Such cruel treatment was happening in every place where slaves were purchased.
The separation of African-American slave families is a thing that was happening for a very long time and I think that it still affects the nowadays African-Americans living in the USA. The trauma has been so profound and influential that it still exists in the minds of the slaves´ descendants. I would like to focus on some of the sociological and psychological issues which are connected with slavery and which are also a part of Uncle Tom´s Cabin plot. The ideal of domesticity has been reversed, forbidden and trodden down for the African-Americans and the impact of slavery is still playing an important role in their lives. They are still considered inferior by some people.
The comparison on Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass's views on slavery and prejudice are quite similar. They both were black slaves who hoped for a better future for blacks that did not include slavery. They both detested slavery and the prejudice of the whites and believed that everyone was equal. Booker T. Washington's book Up From Slavery is an excellent view of what he went through as a slave and how he views slavery and prejudice. Frederick Douglass also wrote a book "The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass" which is also a great example of what slaves had to go through every day, confined to slavery.
Her father had said, “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (364) Her father never allowed her to make her own decisions even when she was almost 30 years old. Many people think that maybe the reason why he was so strict with Miss Emily and why he put so much pressure on her could have traced back to her family. Emily’s family was a very noble family and her father had thought that they were the most prominent in the entire town and that no one else was fit for Miss Emily. Any time a man would come close to being a part of Emily’s life, her father would not allow it and he would chase them all off. Her father had kept her away from any experience with love that she might ever have known.
He can compare to Dr. John W. Fields because they each suffered from a separation due to slavery. John Fields was separated from his mother at a very young age as Big Sam was separated from Scarlet, but they were reunited after the war as John Fields was never reunited with his family. A way John Fields can compare to Mammy is he had a mind of his own, and wanted to learn and be an individual, and not just a slave. Mammy was lost and the only way of life she knew was being a slave, and caring for her white owners. She never really pursued any type of learning and her mind was “too simple, and not evolved enough” for her to pursue an education of any sort.
Growing Up Black Rosa Parks lived in Pine Level, Alabama very early in her life but later moved to Montgomery, Alabama to live with her maternal grandparents. From an early age she knew inequality wasn’t fair and protested against any ill treatment ever since she was young. She says that it was mostly from her grandfather she learned not to, “put up with bad treatment from anybody. It was passed down almost in our genes”. Her grandfather was half white and half black.
By going through all the experiences that Baldwin and his father had earned by their skin color, he himself have learnt about what position he and Negroes in general were placed in by the society in that time and how he has figured a way out. Even though Baldwin’s father’s past was not revealed to us but it is easy to see that he had held the grudge toward the white people till the day he left this world. He was the first generation of freemen and his mother was born during slavery. He himself must have seen all the abusive treatments that the white people had done to his mother, to black slaves. It is understandable that he became such a man who always felt suspicious with white people – “Some of them could
The played together when they were small children. The days went by and Thebedi and Paulus grew up they lost contact with each other. Paulus was the son of Mr. Eysendyck who owned the farm. Thebedi who was the daughter of the man that worked for Mr. Eysendyck. These two knew that they could never be together in public because she was black and he was white.