Taunt Atie and Sophie embarked for the city of Port-a-Prince for the airport, she was leaving Haiti for the United Stated to be re-united with her mother. On the way they encountered a riot in progress between government soldiers and some students, they witnessed the students being beaten. There was a fire that impeded the traffic and as a result they were late catching the flight. At the airport the farewell between Tante Atie and Sophie was rushed and abrupt because of their lateness, this compounded the heartbreak and devastation of their separation.

When Sophie arrives in New York she is greeted by her mother, they hug and kissed. After this brief reunion her mom took her to her new home on Flatbush Avenue. On the way there Sophie noticed her mother was very haggard and unhealthy looking, an appearance far removed from the pics Tante Atie had of her back in Haiti. She also realizes that her mom holds the same ideas about education as Tante Atie. That she needed to get a good education to elevate herself out of poverty and make them proud. Her success was going to be their success.

She is introduce to Mark, her mother’s boyfriend. Them her mom gave her the history of her existence and the fact that she was conceived through the terrible act of a violent rape.

Reading page 20 to 40 was a real eye opener to me of the type of person Mary really was, in some cases she remind me of a early rosa parks, she stands up for what she believes in. As Mary strive to find her to way to freedom. It is clear that she is not just fighting for herself but she is also fighting for race. Mary has genuine love for people. And she just don’t fight for freedom, but she is fighting for freedom for all. Not to just abolish slavery, but freedom for the whites to see there worth, freedom for equality. Freedom for a better life, And she believe it start with her race coming together. Coming together to make a difference and off the record what really open my eye is the fact that as the black culture came together for freedom through the love of each other, but somewhere along the way to modern time we kinda lost where we came from and instead of keep fighting for the better. together, we continue to fight each other, kill each other, and forget how we made it in the first place was through the love of one another that I see in Mary as a person, Mary character as a person really influence me because it shows me that u might be going through rough times, but your not the only one, there are many people around that can be going through the same thing so why talk only for yourself and not of all. Mary prince

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.

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.