Slave Narratives

Shakeel Gillani

U.S. History Assignment #2

Slave Narratives

02/03/06

1. Josiah Henson says that slave life was horrible. They were required to perform hard labor from dawn to dusk. They were only given between two and three meals every day. Their clothing was old and tattered, and their living conditions were abominable. I think that the slaves were treated very roughly. They were forced to work hard for no pay, and were barely kept alive by their owners.

2. When Josiah Henson learned of his mother's sexual abuse, he was too young to understand what was going on. He was made to witness 50 lashes on his father's back, as well as his father having his right ear cut off. His father was sent to Alabama afterwards and no one knows what happened of him.

3. Fredrick Douglas says that the slave owners are brutal because they want the slaves to always feel that they are not worth as much as their white owners. He says that the slaves might get whipped for anything they do which might be considered a mistake by the owners.

4. Margaret Garner slit her little daughter's throat. She did this because she did not want anyone of her children to go back to slavery. After she was arrested, she was put on trial, and then ordered back to slavery.

5. Elias Hill was whipped, and beaten up by the KKK, when they broke into his house. He was told to renounce republicanism and preaching, otherwise they would come back the following week and kill him. His narrative reveals that blacks were the first ones accused of any wrongdoing in the neighborhood and were forced to admit guilt to crimes.