One part that I find really interesting it’s the part when Mary talks about how people say that slaves are happy being in slavery if they get tortured every time their master feel like doing it. she talks about how its different in England, in England they have liberty, if their master don’t like how the servant work they would simply give a warning and then hire a new person but they would never lick, whip or punish a person. Mary says that slaves dont mind working hard as long as they get treated properly and given enough time to not break the Sabbath. I believe in what Mary says because things would be so much different if the slaves were treated humanely not force them to work when they were really sick or at least not to expect the full potential as if they were well, earning little money but not being physically and emotionally tortured to death.

Jerry Pesantes

Most parts of the text highlights Mary’s strong will and perseverance for obtaining her freedom. Her hardworking characteristics did not diminish after leaving Mr.Wood, instead she worked even harder to obtain her goals. The part that stood out to me however, was the paper given to Marry from Mr.Wood. Although free in England, he still tried his best to oppress her. He stated that she was idle and did not do her work – a blatant lie. The gentleman from the Anti-Slavery Society offered to buy her freedom from Mr. Wood who for some reason had great animosity towards Mary. Obviously Mr. Wood declined. Even though he had no real purpose for Mary anymore and she was not working for him, he unjustly wanted to prevent her from living a decent life. Mary’s happiness was so insignificant to Wood’s that he didn’t mind not having any use for her, he just wanted her to not be content.

The understanding of why the story was told from Mary’s point of view (first person) was very important and clear now reading through these pages I seen that. The moment that was significant for me was when Mary was trying to consistently buy her freedom from her master which was now at this moment Mr. Wood. When she first went to them I thought she was actually finally going to get a break because she talked about how good Mr. & Mrs. Wood treated her. There was a sign of relief for me because I wanted that so bad for her at this point. But, then she started talking about how they flogged, swore, etc. at her. She got married and the master & mistress got really upset about it. They would not let her buy her freedom or let anyone else buy her. During that time period slaves could purchase there freedom even though slaves really had no freedom at all. Their masters still kept them as peasants and continued to treat them horrible because they knew they had no power or land.

after reading this portion of the book, the importance of it being told in the first person point of view became even more clear to me because to be honest as soon as it switched to the editors perspective the whole story became somewhat less interesting for me, but nonetheless he have some very interesting points and was very articulate in how he explained the situation, and i do know that this added greatly to Mary’s cause. Two moments that stood out to me, which i think helped his ,as well as, Mary’s point on how callous and indifferent the masters felt towards their slaves were; when Mr woods wouldn’t grant Mary her freedom and allow her the chance to be with her husband, even after being offered to be paid her full price for her; just because he feared she would “insult” him if he was to to come in encounter with her. another instance of this was when him and his wife came across an “accomplished English lady” ,slave owner, in south Africa who told his wife; to “never be kind or speak kindly” to slaves as only “harshness and hauteur” will work; this is similar to the way how us humans sometime  treat, or think of animals or something we feel is incapable of having emotions.

While reading from pages 21-40 there was a significant moment that intrigued me. It was located on page 27 the very first paragraph. It clearly states that slaves during that time period could purchase there freedom from the bigots. I find that significant moment to be quite fascinating. While slavery was intact slaves had no freedom at all. No matter how hard they worked there masters still kept them as peasants. Sometimes their masters would even increase the price if they wanted to purchase their freedom. They knew that the slaves had no power and land. Which meant that they had no money and they were very poor. Usually slave owners would whip the slaves or kill them if they mentioned freedom. Back in the rural south the caucasions were dominant and wanted to remain dominant. They would lynch African Americans if they committed a crime or injured a white man. If freedom was ever mentioned bad things would occur. They would either get brutally whipped untill they have saggy skin. Or they would get shipped to another buyer.During slavery African Americans would try to escape to the North. The North opposed against slavery and that was where freedom actually existed. This reminds me of a book that has a similar conflict. The book is called  Nught John by Gary Paulsen. Slavery is intact and an educated African-American actually stands up against his master. The fact that he actually fights for justice and equality for his African-American friends. He does this by talking to his master about freedom and how they should be treated. In the end Night John is considered a hero to his people but is brutally whipped and his fingers are cut off. He then is shipped off to another buyer.

During the reading of Mary Prince, I believe that Mrs. Wood hiring Martha Wilcox was very significant. The reason it was important because Wilcox is a mulatto woman and had a similar personality like Mrs. Wood and Mr. Wood. In addition, Martha Wilcox was considered to be superior over Mary Prince. I am disgusted at Martha’s attitude towards Mary Prince because she would always told Mrs. Wood if Mary refuse to perform her task. Also, another thing I feel outrageous is Mary being severely whipped by Mrs. Wood. Furthermore, she was locked in a cage like an animal. After being tortured physical and mental, Mary was very weak and could barely performed her tasks. Moreover, the other slaves worried about her illness. Unfortunately, they cannot tend her because Mrs. Wood ‘s wrath. Both Mr. Wood and Mrs. Wood planned to let Mary find an owner. Since Mary had been saving a lot of money due to working in small-time services, it was futile for her to find another owner.

As I continued reading the narrative I noticed that even though Mary was going through a tough time, what kept her positive was her faith in God. During that time with Mrs. Wood the great wash came around she had to lift many heavy things and she told Mrs. Wood that she was very very ill the slave master showed no remorse or sympathy towards her. Mary was threatened that if she did not complete the chores she would be out of the job and personally kicked out by Mr. Wood. In page 22 she talks about when she went into the service of Mr and Mrs Pringle and how Mary is comfortable their even though she is separated from her husband. Mary also mentions that the mistress teaches the word of god and how it helps her through out the day, taking away from the pain she once went through. In this time period faith in god was pretty had to find because the slaves had no access to any holy places and they sort of lose hope and faith in god. So for Mary to still have faith in god shows that even though going through all the ill treatment she still didn’t give up and thinking that something better was coming her way. Also I liked that the mistress was the one that was reading chapters to her about god because in that time that wasn’t aloud. It made me believe that there are still good people during that time of sorrow and sadness.

I applaud Mary Prince for taking the step towards leaving her enslaved life even after she knew she had nowhere else to go.  Like most humans, being ill-treated is not something often handled well and she put up with being mistreated way too long. As a individual who had the option to get out of the environment that she was in, this is something that most slaves could only imagine being placed into. I understand why she stayed, however, because it is only human nature to stick to what we are used to. Being able to read this from the point of view of someone who had to endure such deplorable and abhorrent things throughout their life, is very eye-opening to the fact that most things today are taken for granted. I express a great veneration for Mary Prince because she had intrepidity and resilience and used that to her advantage.

Adding on to this, I would like to discuss a key quote that was pertinent to this use of fortitude exhibited by Mary Prince.  This is found on page 23 when she mentions, “I still live in the hope that God will find a way to give me my liberty, and give me back my husband…to keep down her fretting, and to leave all to Him.”  This quote genuinely spoke to me because you could not only read and hear Mary’s words, but acutely feel her desolation and hope for amelioration.  It also brought up Mary’s strong belief in religion as her use of sustenance through such afflicting times.  She resorts to church as means to the spiritual energy needed to persevere, and this proves to be effective when she falls ill again with rheumatism and the church takes care of her.  She gained a sense of benefit when she was able to attend church, and this most certainly proved to be an inflection point as it gave her mettle.  Ultimately, she was able to meet and receive kindheartedness from individuals that would lead to her development of self and resolve.

Continuing to read “The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave” (pages 20-41) I was astonished that although Mary was degraded in my eyes, and totally stripped of her humanity from being a slave she still found herself in the midst of it all. Mary has gotten married! This was a turning point for me in the story because I thought just maybe Mary could live a ‘somewhat’ normal life. However, when Mary married Mr. Woods, Mr. D was immensely raged. I disliked the fact that all of this tension was directed to poor old Mary, who only sought like I said, a ‘normality’. Mr. D than began to treat Mary very harshly solely for the reason that she was now a married a women. I felt Mary was still strong threw all of this, because shes amazing, shes Mary Prince. I liked the way that her self worth was always there even when times got tough. I’m interested in continuing my reading, and reading more stories for this class based on similar situations.