The Experiences of Slaves in America: Freedom and Rights - Research Paper Example

 In America, slavery began in the 16th century with the first incidence of African slaves brought to North America. They were brought to work and provide labor in the plantations, thus, improve production of lucrative crops such as tobacco and cotton. In so doing, they helped in building the economy of USA. During their stay in the American colonies, slaves experienced lots of suffering and challenges ranging from sexual abuse, beatings leading to brutal injuries or even deaths, and most of all psychological and mental torture and torment. Various stories and testimonies have been written about the American system of slavery. To understand the slavery system in America, therefore, one need to review, compare and contrast these various sources and testimonies written about slavery. They emphasize on different issues like gender violence, sexual abuse and brutal beatings among other factors. Even though different testimonies have differences in their explanation about the slavery system in America making some look like fiction, there is always some truth in them. Having two or more perspectives about a historical event is important in understanding an incidence. It helps in distinguishing reality from fiction since they provide more information that can’t be obtained by relying only on one source. Reviewing two or more perspectives, therefore, help the researcher or writer to understand the story better and acquire more information about the event that. For instance, having two perspectives on slavery, one from a slave and the other from a slave owner gives more details some of which cannot be obtained by viewing only one story. Therefore, interrogation of various sources is important in enhancing understanding of the real meaning of what might be true or false about the incidences. In reviewing Harriet Ann Jacob’s testimony from "Incidences in the Life of a Slave Girl", she narrates about her experience as a slave girl caught in a mix between her master and mistress. Most of her challenges were not physical but rather mental and psychological. Her master considers her as his property and demands to use her for sexual satisfaction while the mistress uses her as a tool of jealousy to prevent her husband from infidelity (Jacobs & Lydia, 51). Despite being shielded from physical punishment by her master, he exposes her to mental and psychological suffering. She also talked about the pain suffered by other female slaves who suffered loss of children sold to other places, the point on gender violence. (Jacobs & Lydia, 50). Jefferson’s perspective on the other hand, pointed other issues that were not tackled by Jacobs, for instance, according to him, black slaves were considered as inferior to the whites, but he still believed that some injustice done were done to them, for example, denial of freedom of speech and worship. His opinion was for the sending slaves back to Africa to prevent possible future conflicts. He also believed in giving legal freedom to the slaves. From these two accounts, it’s clear that when a historian relies only on one perspective, some information are usually left out making the story incomplete and inaccurate. For instance, when one relies only on Jacobs’s testimony without considering Jefferson’s perspective, he/ she will only understand partially the problems faced by slaves. Issues of inferiority are only expressed by Jefferson lacking in Jacobs testimony. With Jefferson’s perspective only, one would not know that some masters protected their slaves due to their sexual interest, thus, would conclude that all masters were cruel and assaulted their slaves whenever they wanted. Again, considering only Jacobs perspective one would not know black slaves were considered inferior and had no freedom to express their feelings and opinion on religion Even though the two perspectives had similarities in the experiences of slaves in America, there are some disagreements too. For instance, Harriet Ann showed that her master considered her unique and protected her from punishment but according to Jefferson; all slaves were treated the same and give punishment despite the masters sexual interest in them. Those, who refused to abide by their masters desire, were abused by sexual assault. According to Jefferson, blacks were considered inferior to the whites both in intelligence and beauty. They were also denied the freedom of speech and worship. Jacobs’ testimony contradicts the issue of black slaves being inferior to whites in terms of beauty by stating her master’s great interest in her despite having a white wife as a Mistress. The master disregarded his marriage vows and promised to take care and protect Ann if she could accept his proposal to her. It is therefore important to consider the two perspectives for accuracy. When you review the two perspectives, more information are obtained about slavery and their challenges ranging from physical injuries, mental and psychological sufferings, gender violence such as loss of children by slave mothers sold to other places, sexual abuse and lack of freedom and rights among other factors. The two views have highlighted various issues of slavery some similar others different. Considering the two perspectives above, all of them are acceptable since they highlight different critical issues about slavery. They also talked from different points of view one as a slave and the other as a slave owner both with experiences on slavery that makes both of them important and unique from each other. In conclusion, it is indeed important to rely on more than one viewpoint to better understand an incidence like slavery where divergent experiences and opinions exist. The importance of this is to ensure that most of the issues of concern are captured when analyzing the event. It also prevents bias analysis of a situation that would occur when one relies only on one perspective. Some of the opinions and testimonies might appear as fiction but partially they have truthful accounts worth considering. Reference Jacobs, Harriet A, and Lydia M. Child. Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl. Rockville, MD: Arc Manor, 2008. Print. Read More