Slave Narratives -- Post Here

As we discussed in class on Saturday, post here your interpretation of the slave narrative you selected. Follow the outline in the course calendar.

Comments

[rediet haile]

Slave Narrartion
The narration i read was Elizabeth sparks, she was not really open to sharing the past completely. She said she will tell the good parts and there was no need to tell all about the mean "white folks" at that time. She had, to her believe, a good relation with her master. she was comparing her self to all that she knew around her. She did get beaten ones in a while, but compared to the most that got beaten everyday then that is good. she is from virginia so that kind of suppurized me because, i thought all the slaves would hate there masters. But she talks about her in her narrative a lot and there was no hate. There wasnt much information of what her views where about emancipation.

[Martha Lorena Marquez]

I read the narration of an African-American by the name of Mary Jane Wilson.
date: 04/26/1937.
Place: Home for the elderly at Portsmouth Va.

She was a pioneer teacher of Portsmouth Va.
As a child she lived with her parents. Her parents where able to cohabited, although they were slave for different families. She narrated that one critical time her father was put for sale by his master, but great news because her mather's master bought him and brought him back to home.
Miss Wilson was a little girl who help her parents with errends around thier master house.
She did recall watching the troops who fought the civil war marching by their master house. Her parents did explained to her what was happening back then but she did'nt quite understood what was happening.

She does tell that after the civil war and proclamation of the mancipation, Miss Wilson's father was the first slave to own a land and to built a house in Portsmouth Va. He acomplished this by working at the Norfolk Navy Yard as a teamster.
She also went to school to get an education. She attended school held in a church. She also graduated in 1847 from Hampton Institute. She became a teacher.
The person who interviewed her explained that Miss Wilson face became full of pride and happiness when she told that her father built a school in the backyard for her to teach. More over happily she said that she tought 75 students. Most of them graduated and became teachers just as her. No dought that Miss Mary Jane Wilson set up a good example for her pupils to fallow.

[OLIVIER BLE]

I HAD A PROBLEM WITH THE LINK, IT SAYS THAT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEBSITES ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAIBLE.

[kisha Simpson]

I had problems with the link as well. When you click the link from the course calendar I received this message

Library of Congress Websites are currently unavailable
The Library of Congress websites and catalogs are unavailable due to scheduled hardware maintenance. We regret any inconvenience.

[monique ricks]

Sorry to say that i did wait until this morning to do the assignment, but the Library of Congress website is currently unavailable. I even tried to google and still couldn't get what was needed.

[Susan Jelanizada]

I read the story of George Goven who was born on December 17th 1886. His parents were both slaves on the plantation of Mr. Goven near Charleston South Carolina where they got their names from. After his parents got freed they went to live in Arkansas.
He said his parents used tell him about the slavery days. He says the slaves were scared of the patrollers because the patrollers did not let them do anything personal during the work. He says that if the patrollers’ caught the slaves doing anything out side the work, they would tie the slaves on the trees and beat them up so bad. He says that some slaves were promised lands and some were promised nothing when they were freed. His parents did not get anything because they did not have money to buy land. But his father worked hard for 8 years after the war and then moved to Arkansas. He owns a house and works as a janitor in a Baptist church. His parents were Methodist. He likes old good songs like “old ship of zion” and few more. He thinks there are more of opportunities for the young generation now then he was a child because there are no patrollers to beat them up. He always voted since he got into the age of voting. He says he can not read a lot, but has never had trouble voting for republicans.

[kisha Simpson]

I chose to do my narrative on Ben Simpson because him and I have the same last name. Ben Simpson was 90 years old who was from Norcast, Georiga. He was the slave to Earl Stielszen who die in the war and was pass along to his son. The son who name was not mentioned in the narrative but stated that he was a killer who was very mean. The son would chain the slaves Ben, his sister Emma and mother to trees so they would not run away. The men slaves was chained to the wagon when the master's son decided to move to Texas because he was a theif who stole horses. Ben would have to pull the wagon with no clothes and shoes. Ben said when a niggar would fall or act like they wanted to stop the son would wipe them with a whip that was made up as henwide. The master would not feed the slaves. When he did he would feed them raw meat and green corn. Once they arrived in Texas the son change his name and change Ben name to Alex Simpson because he stoled horses for a living and Ben was a farmer. In Texas the son married a spanish women who would give the slaves food when the master was gone and let the slaves free from the chains. Ben said when the master would come home and see the slave lose he would wipe his wife and the slaves. Ben said they master did not provide them with clothes, food, nor living quarters. At night the slaves would have to sleep on the ground. Ben mentioned that the master also branded is slaves. He would brand the women between the breast and the men between the shoulders. Ben mentioned that the master would make the work for sun up to sun down with no clothes. He would not feed them for lunch either. They would have to eat after all work was done. The son was eventually killed someone hung him from the tree. Ben said about three years later the master wife freed him and the other slaves. Once Ben was free he got married and had 15 children. He worked on farm because that was all he knew. As he got up in old age he started to receive a pension from the government and started to wait on the lord to call him. He said in his narrative that he hopes the master was not there so he could not torcher him again.

[Monique Ricks]

I read the narrative of Louisa Davis. Mrs.Davis states that she is 106yrs. of age. She was born in Winnsboro, South Caroline to a black mother and half indian father. She does not say who the first master was, but she states that when he sold her to the second master, he sold the entire family, which consisted of the mother,father, and two siblings. Her second master was Jim Lemon who she states treated them very well. They went to church every Sunday and was read the Bible. She states that they ate and dressed well. From what i am getting, she wasn't that thrilled about the emancipation. She stated that she wish she still lived with the master. She also stated that she didn't like the ways of the younger generation of blacks.

[Alma Ramsey]

I read the narrative of Sarah Graves also known as Aunt Sally. Mrs. Graves was born in March 1850 in Kentucky, she and her mother were allotted to another slave master in Missouri and was separated from her father. While Mrs. Graves endured a lot of adversities her spirits were upbeat. When she and her family were freed her mother only had $.50. Mrs. Graves married Joseph Graves who was owned by the man that she and her mother had been allotted to. She and her husband had one son named Azra. During the time of her interview Azra lived with her on their 120 acre farm.