Slave narrative - Essay Example

As narrated by Black himself in his book “The life and sufferings of Leonard Black, a fugitive from slavery”, the white masters used to have a cold savage behavior with their slaves. He lead twenty years of slavery as to be at the will of another; to be owned like a pet and liable at any moment to be sold to another master offering higher amount or sale! (Black, 1847, p. 1). There were times when he was sold and transported to a distant part of the country leaving behind all the family members behind, mostly as slaves like himself.

The masters used to deal with him in most inhumane manner, making him realize that he can eat, sleep, work, live, go etc. only at the will of their masters. They gave him no right to speak on his own; think or even feel like a free man. The bars of slavery were doomed in his mind and soul by the masters so deep that he mostly ended up in physical and mental pains and tortures. His sufferings started in his early age. He was whipped and beaten for not completing the tasks till he bled by the deeply cut head.

He was provided no shoes and wore a Lindsey. The masters used to eat meat themselves but for his meals, there were only a pint of liquor, little piece of bread and skin off pork. The masters used to drink in front of him, but he was not allowed to even take a sip of that rum. He was not allowed to sit and eat with them, read books like the children of white men and sleep in cozy warm rooms in winter like they did. If he ever tried to warm himself in house, one of his cruel masters branded his legs with heated tongs resulting in scars on his feeble body.

They treated him savagely ignoring the consequences of their cruelty and beatings. If he ever showed a sign of having urge to learn and read by owning a book, it was either put in fore or given to the master’s child, but not to him and well beaten till he knocks that idea of studying out of his mind (Black, 1847, p. 1). Despite of all these awful happenings, he was not allowed to run away or tell any official of his misfortunes and sufferings otherwise he would be caught up and beaten to death.

Such evil attitudes by the masters made Leonardo, like all slaves, a poor pitiable boy who has no parents to look after and no place to be taken as a refuge. If any one of them ever tried to run away then nobody ever lend a hand to help, rather they were usually followed, fetched and caught ending up behind the bars or back to the cruel master. Answer 2 The only way to resist the enslavement, as done by Black was to run away and flee from that slavery life. Many of the slaves either end up in robbery or killing when they are subjected to endless pain and torture.

But Leonardo Black has fear of God and believed in escaping on his own without indulging in other tactics or troubles. But it was not an easy task. He ran away hiding from the whites. He could not even trust any trespasser for he knew he must be “wanted” and fetched by his master and others. He stopped at several intervals, sometimes asking for food from a home or sleeping in a barn at someone’s place but never stopped at any of them for long, because he had a constant fear of being fetched at every instant.

He whipped and fought with whoever came in his way or tried to catch him up. He kept seeking God’s help in every moment and never losing faith in Him. He was followed by hounds but luckily took