Tante Atie reminds me of my grandmother and of Mama Yaya ( the knowlegdge part). I was so sad when Tante Atie was refusing the card that she made for her and insisted that it was for her mother.
Also when my father passed away, and he visited me in my dreams I always slept with my grandmother that always in some type of way knew I was having a ‘bad dream’ and woke me up in time like Tante Atie did.
Tante probably isn’t book smart but she seems like she is going to be real knowlegdable on lots of other things.

The story started on the Christ the King a ship traveling to Barbados, Tituba mom Abena was raped and this is how she was conceived. She came into the world as a result of a violent act to a slave, and was destined for a life of suffering. Raised by a mother who showed no love for her and a stepfather who regained his desire to live, after he was given a pregnant Abena as his wife, Tituba was loved by her stepfather.

Tituba’s mother was hanged and her stepfather committed suicide  when she was still a child, she was ostracized, and threw off the plantation. She was taken in by a witch named Mama Yaya, one day she had a vision, and saw her mother and father and spoke to them, there her mom made amends for the lack of love she showed her in life. With excitement Tituba told Mama Yaya the “dream”. There Mama Yaya and Tituba discovered her ability to talk to the invisible and her training as a witch began.

Reading the first 20 pages of Mary prince and listening to her story of hard labor, the physical and mental punishment she went through as a slave really touched me, and brought back flashbacks of my past. Mary prince in some cases has lived the saying we have heard over the years. That “the grass is not always so greener on the other side”. In the book Mary explains how she was with a wonderful family that took her in to be the companion for they daughter Betsy until Mrs. Williams had pass away and the former husband of Williams had found a new wife, but needed money for the wedding so he decided to sell Mary, her mother, and sisters, Mary was then bought by captain I where she was treated very cruel where as when she was living with her former master and mistress she was treated with love well at less that’s what it sounded like cause we can also make the prediction as the reader that maybe marry was just too young to start getting treated cruel like she was treated further into her story, but moving on, Mary was treated so bad by captain I the pain was unbearable. She was wiped many times and punished until she felt like giving up on everything, unable to bare the pain Mary had ran away from her master and eager to find a new one where she realized that the grass is not always greener on the other side, thereafter Mary was then bought by captain D captain D was a very cold hearted guy and he made marry worked for hours in the salt water pond where she eventually got sick where it affected her joints, but captain D wanted his slaves to do nothing but work and when they failed to do so he would whoop them, hereafter Mary might have realized that the grass is not greener on the other side. This part of Mary life really touched/ influenced me because for almost my entire life I lived with my father back in Jamaica while my mother was living in the U.S. Trying to build a better life for me, but life with my farther did not seem like life at all. My farther would come home drunk on many nights and he would beat on me, punch me. I was fat as a child and he would tease me I was so abuse as a child that I start to forget who “I Am”. I can remember the moment like it was yesterday. I would hear him coming up the steps and I would run into the closet and hide cause of the fear he will beat on me. Unable to take the pain. I reached out to my mother and told her of the situation. But she seem to b in disbelief and told me I’m crazy, so I decided to reach out to other family member. Determined to move away from my farther and came to find out that the grass is truly not greener on the other side when my uncle decided to take me in. I thought it would be a great idea seeing that that we had a nice relationship as a child but surprisingly my uncle was a drunk as well and he would beat on me worst than my farther did

In the beginning of the story Mary was working for Mrs. Williams who was said to be “a kind-hearted good women and she treated all her slaves well”. Mrs. Williams had a daughter named Betsey for which Mary was purchased for. Mary stated that Betsey made a pet out of her and call her (Mary) little nigger, which Mary said “was the happiest period of her life”. Reading that made me notice that Mary was not at the right age to understand the situation she was in (slavery). Later on in the story Mrs. Williams died which not only made Mary grief but all of her Mrs. Williams slaves grief, as all of the slaves cried. I found this part of the story interesting because of all the slave or slavery related book I have read I never heard or readied about slaves crying for their dead mistress or master.

In many moments in the text, Mary Prince and the slaves are often described as cattle or sheep and the owners or masters as the butchers. The floggings would involve a slave tied up from the wrists similar to an animal at a butcher shop where cattle are hung from the ceilings. This gives the reader a very graphic detail of how the slaves were treated and beaten. This also occurred at auctions when the slaves were sold off like cattle. They were naked and forced to rotate all around to be examined and sold off to the highest bidder. Mary Prince states that it wasn’t going from one master to another when she was sold off but going from one butcher to another. These personal experiences and descriptive details show a first person view of how the slaves were treated worse than the cattle and pigs on the farm.

Story started off kind and heart warming especially for that period in time, in which the most horrendous things were going on. The narrator begins speaking about running along with Betsey holding hands and being so innocent and full of life to not understand the true meaning of the words Betsey would say as they ran around. Sadly though she had to be sold off and this is when I figured all the horrible stuff you usually hear about attached to slavery, would become her life. Mary was very fortunate though to be sent to a new home in which the owners were very kind to her as well. She got to care for a baby child there and was very fond of the family and they liked her as well. Unfortunately they couldn’t afford to keep her and she was sold off, again, which pained her even more because she was becoming well attached to this new family and they just got yanked away from her. Most stories and details that come to a person’s mind when they think about slavery is the whippings and the beatings. Mary’s story though starts off in a joyful sort of mood and leaves you gasping every time you hear of her being sold off. Its so heart warming to see a slave story start off in such a good mood but then all those good feelings are pulled right out of you just like Mary was from her homes. Makes you feel the emotional pain she felt after being in basically heaven. This pain and sorrow can be seen even with Betsey surprisingly a white woman who “owned” Mary and is now tearing because of this. It makes me wonder whether Mary’s emotional pain surpassed her physical pain and whether the thoughts of the emotional pain would linger during beatings to sort off, cushion the blow.

                              History of Mary prince (pg.1-19)

In the beginning of the book the author expresses how happy she, was being owned by her master miss Betsey, who treated her almost like a sister, and being able to spend time with her mother and her other siblings. We also see how deeply they all felt for each other when her and her siblings was being sold to new owners; not only them as relatives, but also compassion from the other slaves in the yard. These two instances are important to me because I feel that they have a huge impact on the authors point that; despite the fact that they were viewed as commodities by their owners they didn’t think of themselves in that manner, as they were capable of showing affection towards each other as well as draw strength from the love they had for each other. We see this when the author’s father brought her back to her master after she had ran away, and he told the master that she ran away because she was being ill-treated, while in the same breathe pleading to him not to punish her for running away. She saw how much her dad cared for her which then gave her the strength to stand up and somewhat voice her opinion.

In the reading I found a couple things interesting. During that time period Mary knowing that she was a slave was so normal and to be treated the way she was treated. She loved to be with her first slave owner Mrs. Williams in which her duty was to just take care of the slave owners daughter Miss Betsy. The treatment she received when moving to Mr. I house was harsh, him beating her everyday for 5 years was horrible. Another thing that bothered me was being so young at that age and being separated from her mother and siblings is so heartbreaking. Her father returning her to Mr. I parish after she ran away made me grow a sort of hate towards her father because why would you want to see your daughter endure such pain from someone especially a white man during that time. Also Mary’s experience going to the Caribbean islands and seeing how much worse the environment was really different for her and had me thinking how terrible and satanic white people were to other human beings just because of their skin color.

The History of Mary Prince (Pages 1-19) .  one the things that I like about this story is that Mr. Mary starts her story by telling us how was her childhood as slave. ” The tasks given out to us children were light, and we used to play together with Miss Betsey, with as much freedom almost as if she had been our sister.” page 1, passage 3. In this passage I found that her age was of great importance because as a child, she didn’t understand how difficult would be her life as slave. However, all the happiness that she thought having it begins to fade when she is sold to another person. At this point in her life is when she realizes, which is her true position as slave. Since she sees that she does not have the right to oppose to so much injustice.

Another important that I found really interesting is when she says “.–Dear Miss Fanny! She was a sweet, kind young lady, and so fond of me that she wished me to learn all that she knew herself; and her method of teaching me was as follows:–Directly she had said her lessons to her grandmamma, she used to come running to me, and make me repeat them one by one after her; and in a few months I was able not only to say my letters but to spell many small words.” page 2. which is really important about this is although she was hold as salve, she had the chance to start something really important in her lifer which was her education. something that the slaves didn’t have access at time. which for her should be an important step towards her freedom.

As I read The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (pages 1-19) my mind drifted from anxious of knowing whats next, to disgusted to find out more. The History of Mary Prince is told in first person from the west Indian slave Mary herself. She goes over her long length of being owned by the white man sharing with us her many discomforts. To be honest everything in this text made me uncomfortable. I felt so sadden and overwhelmed that slavery ever existed as I have always, however reading this text just made it much more vivid. According to the text found on page 4, Mary states, “The stones and the timber were the best things in it, they were not so hard as the hearts of the owners”. This is a heartbreaking statement from Mary after she was approaching the home of her new slave owners. Mary approached this home not knowing on whether or not she’ll see her mother again in her future. I know for me I couldn’t go a day without seeing my mother, but my pain is nothing compared to the lost of humanity Mary and every ‘slave’ has ever felt. Mary has been stripped of her pride, stripped of her title, and stripped of her identity. The fact that Mary did indeed come from a women as did everyone in the world, to go through her pain alone without her mother being able to help breaks me the most. A