Disobedience In Night John

Throughout the very conception of the New World up until the late 1800s, Africans had been targeted as servants to the white man solely due to the color of their skin. The institution of slavery, an abominable wrongdoing on America’s behalf tore apart the equality of man and morality. Gary Paulsen, in his historical fiction novel, Nightjohn, candidly delineates the atrocities of slavery such as the utter violence and deprivation of love and liberty placed upon slaves. In doing this, he also mirrors the beauty of resistance and the creation of everlasting bonds. Similar to a bird in a cage, slaves were, in many instances, restricted and disallowed many rights. Through the main character, Sarny’s experiences, Paulsen unravels the many angles

Often times in Nightjohn, the characters referred to Waller, their master as, “maggot white,” or other insulting names. This was also seen in multiple cases in real life, due to the fact that slaves did not have much respect for their abusive masters. For example, freed slave, Lorenza Ezell brings up how slaves would create insulting chants or songs about their masters in a conference with the government. She sang, “Not dat overseer what to give trouble and trot us round a spell, but we lock him up in de smokehouse cellar with de key done throwed in de well!” Because all of the harsh treatment, slaves would almost despise their masters. In Nightjohn, this aspect of slavery was portrayed clearly as the characters would disrespect Waller. Paulsen further displays the defiance by incorporating the method of prayer slaves used. As stated earlier slaves were not allowed to pray for any reason. Regardless, they persisted to do so. Also from the Federal Writers’ Project, Harriet Cheatam’s contribution illustrates prayer during slavery. “We often had prayer meeting out in the quarters, and to keep the folks in the “big house” from hearing us, we would take pots, turn them down, put something under them, that let the sound go in the pots, put them in a row by the door, then our voices would

Within the novel, Sarny, the main character reveals one of the many methods of slave suppression. Early in the text, she mentions how she never knew her birth mother. This unfortunately, was the reality for the majority of slaves. As stated in an excerpt from Narrative of Frederick Douglass, ¨...before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it. And hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor...to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.¨ Frequently, this practice acted as the destruction of rising family powers in slave communities. Slave owners knew affinity would ultimately result in the inability to suppress African-American families. Sarny describes how her mother was taken away from her at the age of four, therefore she was put under care by a woman named Delie, or as the characters refer to her, ¨Mammy.¨ With the inclusion of this aspect of slavery, Nightjohn proves itself a very true-to-life telling of slavery. Despite the lack of affection, many slaves managed to form bonds with the other slaves in their community. When their mother and father figures were taken away from them, the managed to create new ones. Sarny, on one hand, learned to love Delie as though she was her