While reading
Mary Prince’s narration, I was reminded
of Cowper’s poem that we read on Tuesday. The style of these two works are
obviously very different but the idea that people in Britain don’t know what
really goes on and if they did they would be appalled in present in both works.
She writes “I think it is my duty to relate; for few people in England know
what slavery is…and I would have all the good people in England to know it too,
that they may break our chains, and set us free” (594). This work, like Cowper’s
poem, also addresses the idea that slavery hardens people and in a way makes
people lose their own humanity. The inhumane treatment that Mary Prince suffered herself and the descriptions of the suffering of other slaves shows
this hardening of the people directly interacting with slavery. I also think it’s
suggestive that the people who ignore the problem in England and the people who
believe that the slaves are happy and they “do not need better better usage,
and do not want to be free” are just as guilty as the men and women actually
committing the inhumane acts (601). I found Mary Prince’s continual mention of religion
interesting. Prince writes that the people who go to the west indies “forget
God and all feeling of shame” (601). This condemnation and her multiple mentions of her own strong faith and desire to
practice her religion is important. This is important because it shows that she has
a better understanding of Christianity than the white people controlling her. I
think this highlights how ridiculous it is that people who called themselves Christians could participate or allow the inhumane actions and behaviors towards
another human being.
It is imperative to note, I think, that the English probably didn't want to know the extent of the horror of the slave trade. The slaves were treated with higher degrees of cruelty the farther from England they became... Even the most nasty of all of her owners requested that Prince not be treated ill after being sold away from him. It was also something that I mentioned in my post about Prince's owners denying their slaves access to spirituality... I suppose they worried that it might elevate their spirits and make them feel more wholly human - less willing to accept being treated as less than.
ReplyDeleteNot only does religion provide hope for people, but it's almost like possession. The more that Mary Prince gained a religious identity, the more she felt she had - the less she felt owned. Religion can provide a sense of purpose and identity that slave owners wanted to extinguish. They also might have seen it as dangerous because it would unite people, and unity could lead to mutiny. I find the religious aspect of religion in slavery interesting, because some people were so willing to religiously justify slavery, yet some people could vehemently be anti-slavery and use the same religious text to justify that stance. It boggles my mind because at the end of the day, it was about race. White society of the time needed a reason to justify hating black people, and so the hierarchy then became about religion, or environmentalism, or economy, or pretty much anything other than the glaring truth.
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