Well it looks like things started to heat in Mary’s cases when “Mr. Phillips of Antigua submitted his inspection of Mr. Wood’s letter and Mary’s narrative”Pg.46. This part in the reading was the first most interesting to me because of the way Mr. Phillips inspection actually defends Mary’s claims about her mistreatment while working for the Wood’s family. This came as a surprise to me because at that time in history (slavery era) I truly did not believed that a slave could have any chance at justice, let alone had a fair chance of winning a case (such as Mary’s) against a white slave owner.

The Last thing that caught my attention was a sentence on Page 55 “slavery is a curse to the oppressor scarcely less than to the oppressed” this irritated me the most. I really could not comprehend how slavery was a curse to the oppressor (slave owners) when they had all the power and could do anything they wanted to their slaves. For example the beating that the Wood’s did to Hetty I pretty sure that pained them a lot (I’m being sarcastic), that sentence made me realize that slave owners didn’t have any care or remorse for their heinous acts against slaves.

In the supplement near the end of the narrative, Mary’s previous master, Mr. Wood denies any wrong doing and refuses to emancipate Mary. Mr. Wood’s true colors are in the limelight and to prevent the case from going to court attempts to stall. Mr. Wood’s letter is scrutinized and many of his claims are falsified which makes Mary’s side of the story much more believable to the people. Mary is also proven in these letters by Mr. Phillip’s to be of good character and an honest person.
Mr. Woods doesn’t want this to go public in fear of being ridiculed by the British population. This is justice, although very miniscule, for Mary. At this point all Mr. Woods wants to do is scurry away with his tail between his legs after realizing everything is coming full circle. Mary Prince endured more than we can imagine and it was so that her voice could be heard and future generations can see what true determination is.

Louis’s experience was somewhat different from Mary’s in the sense that he wasn’t born into slavery; he actually knew what freedom was like before he became a slave, they were similar because they both ended up in England despite having different sentiments about being there. The two main points that stood out to me the most from the reading was when Louis explained the great lengths at which the  “Adinyés”  people went to capture them even though they were all one people which is what I think broke the trust between them, and contributed greatly to the fear Louis felt about going back to his to his homeland.

another moment that stood out to me was, when louis was explaining how happy he was to be in england, as he was able to have a peice of mind and not be worried about people chasing after him and got introduced to god, but he also had hope for his own people to someday experience the same kind of comfort as he has experienced in England; this to me showed that he still had a sense of nationalism and even though he was living in england and had some type of comfort, he still didn’t think of it as his “home”.

A significant moment that really stood up to me was located in page 53 the very first paragraph. It briefly states how the slave owner who goes by the name of Mr. Wood he deliberately refuses to grant Mary’s freedom. Also how much agony and furry he has over her. He wants to brutally beat her but she is in England premises. This significant moment stood up to me for many diverse reasons. One reason on to why this significant moment stood up to me. It is because it gives the reader a sense of how hard was it to gain freedom.  It demonstrated how slaves struggled so much just to gain freedom and to be liberated from the slave owner’s tyranny. Another reason on why this moment is very significant to me because slaves were often denied from their freedom no matter how many trials and approvals they went through. During slavery in the rural South slavery was never to be mentioned and if it was the slave was designated to be killed. Compared to our society we as humans are treated equally due to our Constitution. We all have natural rights in which the government can’t take away.  During slavery there was no such thing as natural rights and the constitution wasn’t created yet. Freedom was forbidden in the South the slaves were to be kept under tyrannical rule.

One excerpt which caught my attention is: “The narrative of Louis ASA-ASA” (don’t have exact paging E-version) is describing how the “adinyes” came into their home, killed, and burned everything. Asa-Asa through his short narrative describes how they invaded his home in explicit detail. They killed Asa-Asa village and then stole the people for trade or killed them, many children were killed because of their “uselessness”. This moment is extremely significant because his father was killed and the people who he knew were being killed for example he had a neighbor who couldn’t hold up his weight so he was killed. This also describes the hardships endure which helps us better understand Mary- Prince to show that she wasn’t the only person brutalized. This also helps understand how cruel the world was to the Slaves, Asa-Asa describes that people he knew were getting killed he describes people he knew getting killed while running away.

The interesting part of the text that I read was when I we heard more about Mary’s character and her moral values from other people’s perspective. I found this on page 46 to 47 in the letter that Mr. Phillips wrote. He explains that she was a hard working person; contrary to what Mr Wood had said about her. She was respectable to them and they trusted her to keep the house in their absence. One would wonder why he sold five slaves and still kept her behind the answer to that I believe is that he found no fault in her that would cause him to want her to leave. He didn’t sell her and when he was leaving for England he could have done that and got her off his hands and he didn’t. Also with the many threats that they gave to her while in England how they would send her away but never followed through on it. I believe that was just to intimidate her because they knew she had the will to stay or leave whilst in England. On page 52 Mrs Forsyth also speaks on Mary’s loyalty and honestly and her hard working characteristics, Mary was the one that kept the house in their absence as well and she never robbed them of anything. All these testimonies was in Mary’s defence that the woman that Mr Wood was portraying her to be was not who she really was.

In this part of the reading Mr. Wood’s letter on why he refuses to allow Mary’s freedom to be bought is the main focus. They bring up in page 43 the 6th point how Mr. Wood talks of Mary being licentious and even depraved in her conduct before marriage and even after marriage being unfaithful to her husband. Mary’s defense brought up a lot of good points saying if he knew of such horrible acts why would he sell five slaves before her and even make her the head of the household when they were gone. Such qualities aren’t fit for such an important job. Joseph Phillips later touches on this subject saying it was very common for slave masters to get with their slaves. Maybe this explains why Mrs. Wood was so hard on Mary all the time, maybe Mr. Wood had a thing for Mary and for this reason never wanted to sell her off, even though he accused her of all these things. This was very interesting to me because throughout the narrative sex isn’t really brought up but yet in these final letters it is. It goes to show that not everything that is said throughout the narrative is all that happend there were alot of background stuff that weren’t mentioned.

In this part of the story, two of the things that most caught my attention are: when she talks about religion and the other is when she says with what purpose is writing her story. She describes how religion allowed her to feel happy. Religion provided her with a place where she could experiment and explorer some of her qualities as a person. And how religion gave her a chance to feel human and not feel like an object that anyone could explode. Other important thing that caught my attention is, when she says that through her ​​story, she hoped to show what was the true situation of a slave during his captivity. And she wanted to erase the image that the other cultures had over slaves.

In this section of readings, the one thing that stood out to me was that Mary is starting to speak up for what she deserves to be treated like. In the other section, when her father returned her to her owner (Capt. I), he told him that he should be kinder to her because he cannot bear seeing her being mistreated. However, in this section, she spoke up for herself. She told the Wood’s that she will no longer accept being “used.” She decided to choose being lost in an unknown place rather than being in home that does not value her. I can relate to Mary in a situation I’ve overcome. The place I’m currently employed at as a cashier, have recently been making me do an abundance of work that I should not be doing. For example, in every aisle there’s a person in charge of it. Whatever they do not finish, I must do. I finally decided to say “NO” for the first time when they asked me to do something I’m not obligated to do and of course I got in trouble. However, I told my manager that I never signed up for all of this and what I did sign up for is to be a cashier. Of course, he did not like it and cut my hours, but I do not care because I do not need to be used to do anyone’s left over work. Therefore both situations proves that in certain situation, you cannot let it be in silence. The only way changes are made is with you and your voice is your freedom.