Brutality Of Slavery

The brutality of slavery affects us even today. Everybody is hurt by slavery including slaves, slaveholders, and the impressionable youth. Education can shed a new light on the brutality of slavery that can almost be unbearable. Slavery was harmful for everybody and still influences our society today. When the issue of slavery is brought to uncorrupted children of our society they cannot provide a reason for it. I served for seven years in the same family in which I learned to read and write. I became friends with the younger, poorer children in my neighborhood. In exchange for food I made them unknowingly teach me the foundations for reading. I already knew the alphabet, but I had not yet learned to read complete words. I would occasionally

That was the case as I started reading more and more. I picked up a book called “The Columbian Orator,” and in this book I found many arguments against slavery which made me wonder how I could have ended up in this horrible predicament. Within the confines of the book I found a comprehensive voice that I had been lacking. It expressed ideas which I had not realized I also shared. A famous conversation took place between a slave master and his slave. The slave disputed every argument his master had for slavery. This conversation ended in the voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part of the master. This showed me that words can be as strong as actions, and that there was hope for me. Later on in the book I met with one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches in behalf of Catholic emancipation. I read it over and over again. It gave purpose to my thoughts. I began to hate slavery. The more I learned of human rights the more I detested my masters and all slave owners for being so cruel to other human

Writing would allow me to document my the evilness of slavery. The idea as to how I might learn to write was suggested to me by being in Durgin and Bailey’s ship yard. In the shipyard carpenters would write on a piece of timber for what part of the ship it was intended. When a piece of timber was intended for the larboard side, it would be marked with an “L.” If it were for the starboard side, it would be marked with an “S.” These pieces also had “F” and “A” marked on them to indicate whether it was for the forward or aft part of the boat. Once I learned the names of these letters and what they meant on a piece of timber, I began to copy them down. In a short time I was able to write four different letters. After that, when I met with any boy who I knew could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. He would quickly take up the challenge, unknowingly teaching me how to write. Once Master Thomas learned how to write at school, and had written over a number of copy-books, I had the opportunity to copy down whatever Master Thomas had written in between his lines. After years of writing I finally was eligible to write by myself in a form very similar to Master