Mary Prince Punishments

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When reading a slave narrative it helps readers get an idea of the personal torment that slaves went through. No one will ever exactly know to the full extent of the hardships they faced. The authors of the slave narratives were writing them in hopes that word would spread of what they were going through, and their initial aim was for people of their time to know what was going on and to try and find a way to put an end to it. In Mary Prince’s narrative The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave she gives her readers a great look into the punishments she went through and punishments other slaves went through. Mary Prince is able to provide some a great insight into just a part of her life where she was constantly beaten and tormented …show more content…

One example of her punishments that she wrote about was how she was physically exhausted from working all day and through the night and still expected to work the next day. There was a day where she was even woken up to whips at her back because she had “dropped down overcome by sleep and fatigue” and immediately put back to work again (Prince 241). This one look into what Prince was put through is something that shows a small portion of what other masters could even be capable of. Although, not all masters may not be as violent as this, this is an example that will help the readers understand that this is something beyond unacceptable. People of a different race should not be treated differently just because of their different skin color. When bought by another owner she shares the hardships she went through with this owner. She shares the working conditions she was put through and how even though her “master used to beat [her] while raging and foaming with passion”, the new master was “quite calm” in how he treated his slaves (Prince 243). …show more content…

It did not matter who the slaves were, how old they were, whether they were male or female, or even if the slave was pregnant. The importance for mentioning what she saw happen to others shows that there simply was no limitation to the torment the slaves were receiving. Prince makes note of two younger boys that were brought in and constantly beaten. There were days where they had finished their work correctly but their master still beat them regardless. Writing about this shows the audience of the time that masters could be so vicious and have no care for a being seen lower than them just because of their skin color. This is another example of something that could bring awareness to put an end to slavery or even just an end to the unneeded pain and suffering slaves were being put through. While Prince was looking on at the other slaves being beaten and tortured there was nothing that she could really do. In an excerpt by Joy James she mentions, “In alien terrain, isolated captives witness and participate in a conditioning in which their civil or human rights are reduced to the rights of slaves” (James xxiii). Prince had looked on at the many times her fellow slaves were beaten and felt there was no compassion for them as humans. They were not being treated rightfully as humans but as animals that their masters felt they could control at every whim. Writing about

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