How Did Harris Escape Slavery

540 Words2 Pages

Yesterday in class we read two historical fiction passages based around slavery that took place in the United States. The first passage, “An Account from the Slave Trade: Love Story of Jeffrey and Dorcas,” is about two slaves that were being sold by their master. These two slaves, Jeffrey and Dorcas, were in love and gave each other their hearts. First, Jeffrey was sold, and he took the risk of persuading his new master to purchase Dorcas, if the master did not have to offer much money. This did not work out as planned due to Dorcas being sold with four other slaves. The second passage, “Wesley Harris: An Account of Escaping Slavery,” is about a slave, Wesley Harris, attempting to escape slavery. With him on his first attempt was C. Matterson and his two brothers. On this adventure, they are betrayed by a farmer that allowed …show more content…

For example, these two passages were based around slavery and the main characters are both slaves. In the first passage, Jeffrey is known as chattel No. 319 which is a label given to a slave that is being sold. In the second passage, it states that Wesley Harris studied a note from the master that informed Mrs. Carroll about selling, and that Harris was going to escape the plantation. Next, they were both determined, brave risk takers. While Harris attempted to escape twice after being caught the first time, Jeffrey persuaded his master to buy Dorcas. As Jeffrey persuaded his master, he was also risking his life because this could have been considered back-talking to the master. Lastly, both of these stories have plot twists. In the love story, many readers could have potentially thought that Jeffrey and Dorcas would work for the same plantation owner, but, in the end, they get sold to different masters. There could also be a possibility that many readers thought that, when they read the story about escaping slavery, Wesley would have stopped striving for

Show More
Related

  • My Bondage and my Freedom

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    At first glance, the book “my bondage and my freedom by Frederick Douglass appeared to be extremely dull and frustrating to read. After rereading the book for a second time and paying closer attention to the little details I have realized this is one of the most impressive autobiographies I have read recently. This book possesses one of the most touching stories that I have ever read, and what astonishes me the most about the whole subject is that it's a true story of Douglass' life. “ Douglass does a masterful job of using his own experience to expose the injustice of slavery to the world. As the protagonist he is able to keep the reader interested in himself, and tell the true story of his life. As a narrator he is able to link those experiences to the wider experiences of the nation and all society, exposing the corrupting nature of slavery to the entire nation.”[1] Although this book contributes a great amount of information on the subject of slavery and it is an extremely valuable book, its strengths are overpowered by its flaws. The book is loaded with unnecessary details, flowery metaphors and intense introductory information but this is what makes “My Bondage and My Freedom” unique.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Captain Canot

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    The writings of Frederick Douglass and Captain Canot both discuss the institution of slavery. However, each piece of writing was written for a different purpose. Frederick Douglass’s writing was written to show how inhumane slavery was, and how wrong it was. Whereas Captain Canot’s writing basically bragged about how “humane” he treated the slaves on his ship. However, both men made some of the same points with similar evidence.

    Read More

  • Slave Life In The Antebellum South Analysis

    1492 Words  | 3 Pages

    1. The insight that each of these sources offers into slave life in the antebellum South is how slaves lived, worked, and were treated by their masters. The narratives talk about their nature of work, culture, and family in their passages. For example, in Solomon Northup 's passage he describes how he worked in the cotton field. Northup said that "An ordinary day 's work is considered two hundred pounds. A slave who is accustomed to picking, is punished, if he or she brings less quantity than that," (214). Northup explains how much cotton slaves had to bring from the cotton field and if a slave brought less or more weight than their previous weight ins then the slave is whipped because they were either slacking or have no been working to their

    Read More

  • New Beginnings in The Grapes of Wrath and Broken Ground

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thus, both novels, full of tragedy and sorrow, began with the promise of new land, new beginnings and a better life, but all three were impossible to find within the pages of these novels. In the end, it was broken relationships, broken families, broken communities, but most importantly, broken dreams and broken hopes that were left on the final pages of both woeful, yet celebrated, stories.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of The Yellow Wallpaper And A Rose For Emily By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both stories were written in different years, but both are written about women in the same era. When women went against the norm during the era the stories were written in they were often looked down on. Especially, Emily, who never married and because she was never married she was constantly judged by the women and men in her city. During that time, it was odd for women not to be married. Emily eventually found someone, but it was known that he was a homosexual.

    Read More

  • William Faulkner's Barn Burning

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    the story which love clearly comes in conflict with morality, kinship, and even other truths of the heart. The first of these, and probably the most dramatic, is in the first few paragraphs of the story. A young boy named Sarty, who is the son of Abner Snopes, the barn burner of the story, is called to the stand to testify about his father's behavior. On his way to the stand the reader is clued into what the boy is thinking and it is very clear he is feircely aligned with his father or his "blood kin." As he approaches the stand Sarty has many thoughts running through his head about how the Judge is the enemy "our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! Mine and hisn both! He's my father!" (Faulkner 161) It is clear that the love of his father is getting in the way of his thoughts of morality because he is almost willing to lie for his father. However Sarty nearly confesses that...

    Read More

  • Antebellum Slave Culture

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    insights into what the narratives can tell about slavery as well as what they omit,

    Read More

  • Jacobs & Douglass: An Insight Into The Experience of The American Slave

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hunter-Willis, Miya. Writing the Wrongs: A Comparison of Two Female Slave Narratives. Diss. Marshall University, 2008. Dissertations & Theses: Full Text, ProQuest. Web. 22 Sep. 2011.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Values In Abuela Invents The Zero?

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning of both of the pieces of literature, the main character(s) have not had the experience that will shape their values yet. Rather, as time moves forward in the stories, the

    Read More

  • The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slave narratives were one of the first forms of African- American literature. The narratives were written with the intent to inform those who weren’t aware of the hardships of slavery about how badly slaves were being treated. The people who wrote these narratives experienced slavery first hand, and wanted to elicit the help of abolitionists to bring an end to it. Most slave narratives were not widely publicized and often got overlooked as the years went by; however, some were highly regarded and paved the way for many writers of African descent today.

    Read More

  • Harriet Jacobs Incidents And A Slave Girl: An Analysis

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later

    Read More

  • Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl And Frederick Douglass

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick

    Read More

  • Slavery’s Dehumanizing Effects on American Slaves and Slaveholders

    1652 Words  | 4 Pages

    Douglass's narrative is, on one surface, intended to show the barbarity and injustice of slavery. However, the underlying argument is that freedom is not simply attained through a physical escape from forced labor, but through a mental liberation from the attitude created by Southern slavery. The slaves of the South were psychologically oppressed by the slaveholders' disrespect for a slave’s family and for their education, as well as by the slaves' acceptance of their own subordination. Additionally, the slaveholders were trapped by a mentality that allowed them to justify behavior towards human beings that would normally not be acceptable. In this manner, both slaveholder and slave are corrupted by slavery.

    Read More

  • The Representation of Family in Slave Narratives

    523 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this essay I intend to delve into the representation of family in the slave narrative, focusing on Frederick Douglas’ ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’ and Harriet Jacobs ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.’ Slave narratives are biographical and autobiographical stories of freedom either written or told by former slaves. The majority of them were ‘told to’ accounts written with the aid of abolitionist editors between 1830 and 1865. An amount of narratives were written entirely by the author and are referred to as authentic autobiographies. The first of more than six thousand extant slave narratives were published in 1703. Primarily written as propaganda, the narratives served as important weapons in the warfare against slavery. Slave narratives can be considered as a literary genre for a number of reasons. They are united by the common purpose of pointing out the evils of slavery and attacking the notion of black inferiority. In the narratives, you can find simple and often dramatic accounts of personal experience, strong revelation of the char...

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Letter: Compare and Contrast

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    At times, the film seems to reenact a modern love story to appease a modern audience. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel showed his readers love and sin can be one of the same. Each author wrote what they thought would suit their own personal or public preference. Joffe’s purpose in taking the chosen route was to give the characters an extended theme based on their original plot line. Neither story is “better”; one may be more entertaining while another is more informative.

    Read More

More about How Did Harris Escape Slavery

Open Document