Aminata's Freedom In The Slave, By Robinson Appleby

Frederick Douglass was an African American who rose from slavery to become a leading voice in the abolitionist movement; he was also known to be a public speaker and writer who published many works. Frederick Douglass then went on to write an autobiography titled “My Bondage and My Freedom”, discussing in great detail the struggles of being a slave. Throughout his autobiography, Douglass argues very boldly that slavery was in institution that victimized not only slaves, but also slave owners and non-slave owning whites. Frederick’s statement is true in the sense that slavery dehumanized slaves, it destroyed the natural good in slave owners, and slavery robbed non-slave owning whites.

The understanding of the life of a slave woman is far beyond the knowledge of you or I, unless you have actually been an enslaved woman. These literary elements depicting the passage from this story are the only

Slavery is an institution that repetitively separates family members and close friends from each other, without any regard to those people. This aids in disrupting the heteronormative nuclear family relationship greatly. Frederick Douglass said that “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant…” and that “It is a common custom…to part children from their mothers at a very early age.”(pg. 1). This showing that most children that were born into slavery would grow up having no relationship at all with their own mothers. Also, a lot of slaves were born into slavery by the fact that “children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers,” (pg. 2) and the slaveholder now holds the title of father and master. With being torn from their mother at a young age and having your own father be your master, completely takes away the chance of a child that is born into slavery from having the “normal” nuclear family relationship.

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

While being in slaved Aminata does not allow anyone to take advantage of her. Such aspects of being a slave are dehumanizing one’s identity, culture, religion, and language. Aminata is very stubborn and looks to religion as a way to save her, Aminata stays true to herself and fights the slave traders to stick with her true name; Aminata. From her resilience, she is seen as a special slave which helps her survive from the very moment she is captured. Due to her skills of language, she is able to be heard by everyone, so others who are being held captive can tell her their name and talk to her especially for communication purposes. "They wanted me to know them. Who they were. Their names." (Hill 96) Strength obtains from knowledge, She knows she is worthy. To prove she is equal, Aminata negotiates an alliance with the slave traders in Sierra Leone and a works a wage for writing the original book of negroes. Aminata affirms her identity, her genealogy, and her power over the words she writes (Carleton University). Her needs to find herself and get home drives her needs for survival. In addition to this Aminata’s social content and knowledge, helps separates her from the other slaves that surround

Throughout The Book of Negroes, Aminata has a long journey, in various parts of the world. However, this journey begins when she is unwillingly taken from her home in Bayo, Africa. Slave Traders steal Aminata from her home and force her onto the slave ship so that she could be sold to a wealthy plantation owner, somewhere in America. This all starts when “from behind a grove of trees stepped four men with massive arms and powerful legs” (29). Instantly, Hill forms the idea of unfairness and helplessness, the theme that continues throughout the entire book. This is all formed with the image of strong

   In this passage, Frederick Douglass displays that not only slaves are affected by slavery. Mrs. Alud was a sweet and caring white woman before the demoralizing effects of slavery. She became callous, violent, and malicious. Before she became the heartless slave owner, she taught Douglass how to read and write. After, however, the sight of him with a newspaper struck immense rage. Douglass compares his struggle with slavery to hers, stating that his emotional scars are equivalent to hers. This shows that Douglass was absolutely revolted by slavery and what it did to individuals. It hardened hearts and erased any trace of humanity.

Prior to the major journey Aminata had lost both her mother and father before her eyes. At that point who else was going to fight for her because she lost everything she ever had before the sun came up. Although at times she begins to lose hope because she has lost so much but remember that her father told her strength is the most important thing you can have, “beauty comes and goes. Strength, you keep forever” (Hill, 2007). Even though her parents died, their voices never died; instead they lived along side Aminata through her treacherous journey. These are the voices that gave her strength in time of despair when she needed it the most to continue on the journey especially at the times when slaves that didn’t make it through the walk died, their bodies were just left on the side of the path. There was no grave for them, or no empathy shown to the people who passed away before they even worked as slaves. Each day, “each rising sun...more people died” (Hill, 2007), and “the loss of lives before the journey across the Atlantic was great” (Bolt, 2007). One must understand that Hill portrayed this image in the reading because he wanted to show the devastating cruelty against humanity. While they endured the journey on the ship to America the condition on the boat was hellish and not just on the ship but the

Aminata is displaying her resistance towards Appleby by standing strong and proud of who she is. Not a girl slave, but a strong girl, born and raised in the village of Bayo.

Aminata survived that cruel and criminal slave trade which try every way to dehumanize the slaves. The captors put their captives into coffles and robbed all their clothes off. Buckra believe that slaves do not have emotions and dignity. Aminata survives the passage to America because she is able to apply the knowledge and skills passed on to her by her parents, especially the ability to “catch” babies and to understand some African languages. After she escaped from Solomon Lindo, she survived on her baby catching, reading and writing skills.

Douglass illustrates throughout his novel the dehumanizing effects that slavery has on its primary victims through the restriction of their human expression, bestowing upon them animal-like qualities, and creating an aversion to freedom. Additionally, not only were slaves transformed into brutes, their owners were transformed into cruel beasts through the application of double standards and the corruption of their innocence. However, Douglass’s work humanizes the enslaved population by demonstrating his ability to utilize meaningful and artistic prose through his usage of constructive parallel structure, tangible personification, expressive symbolism, and tactful diction.

As Aminata is owned by Solomon Lindo, she deceives him by deciding to disregard her agreement to writing his letter and fleeing from being in his possession. As the story moves forward, Aminata is lied to by being denied passage to Nova Scotia, even though she was guaranteed the travel. Soon after, she battles with self-denial when she loses both her husband and child. She refuses to believe that she will never see them again. Then, the British deceive her as well as many other Africans. They fail to keep their promise of not governing Freetown and keeping the city clear of slaves. Also, throughout most of Aminata’s life, she wishes to reach her hometown of Bayo. She neglects the possible consequences such as being put back into captivity. Overall, deception can significantly influence the way characters’ act and it can even affect their point of view of reality, just as it did in The Book of

In his book, The Ruling Race, James Oakes describes the lives slaveholders in the South. Oakes begins by arguing that most historians study the perspectives of slaves or the slaveholders who had many slaves. He then states that a vast majority of slaveholders in the South had just a few slaves. Oakes stresses that these large slaveowners did not provide an accurate representation of the slave owning South, and that this group was much more diverse than most historians acknowledge. Oakes focuses on the lives, religions, and ideologies of the slaveholding South. In particular, Oakes focuses on the paternalism and the liberalism of southerners. Oakes claims that paternalism slowly faded and gave way to liberalism and commercialism in the South.

In Shaping of the Modern World, we are learning about political and cultural changes around the world. Slavery is a significant topic in Shaping of the Modern World, how our world change throughout slavery and how slavery changes over time. In the narrative writing, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, she talks about how her life changed while serving different and new masters and mistresses. I think that this narrative writing is an important text to help us understand the different perspectives of slavery in America. There are some slave owners that are kind and humane, and some slave owners that are cruel and abusive. Additionally, reading from a female slave’s perspectives teaches us that life on the plantations and life in the house is different. Especially as a female, they would get different treatment from their masters and mistresses. The text has changed my understanding of slavery that not all slave owners are harsh, and not all slaves are not intellectual.

Throughout the entire story, Aminata faces many hardships. It seems as if each time life is finally beginning to look less miserable, Aminata is blindsided by heartbreaking situations. And although Aminata is continuously tasked with facing these situations, she still manages to flourish and never lose hope. In the story, Aminata is kidnapped from her home village of Bayo in West Africa and witnesses the death of both her parents. She is sold into the slave trade along with her husband Cheruka. She is raped and publicly humiliated by her first owner Mr. Appleby. And both of her children ( Her son Mamadu and her daughter May) are taken from her. Her husband Cheruka drowned at sea due to his ship being swept away to