Incidents in the life of a slave girl - Essay Example

Full All for Freedom How much is freedom’s worth? Human beings are emotional beings. Color should have nothing to do withthe definition or categorization of humans. However, according to history and personal accounts slaves such as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, it is humans who have classed their fellow men as animals, treated them even worse than they did their properties and that, has simply been on the basis of skin color. It is unimaginable that people actually traded other people as slaves in the past.

“Slavery is damnable” (23)! Indeed, one can only imagine how difficult a slave’s life must be. In the fourth chapter of the aforementioned biography, the author discusses how her brother, Benjamin, stood up as a man to defend his human rights. As a slave, he was often mistreated by his master. His mistreatment could not even be compared to how a mule is used in the fields. He is made to work, beaten for no good reason at all but his master’s entertainment and satisfaction and still, he is not paid any centavo for his troubles.

No human being would even dare to treat his animal or property like that if only all men act and think as human beings. Benjamin had good reasons why he fought his master. He was treated even less than an animal and his animal instincts stirred up anger, retaliation and indifference in his heart and mind. Still, the human within him sought freedom, respect, love and all that human beings need.When Benjamin was young, his master did not like to sell him even if he was offered a good price. However, when the young man was imprisoned and reduced to nothing but a ghost-like being, he was priced at $300, but not to his freedom rather as a slave of another man.

Benjamin paid more than that. His whole family paid more than $300 in order for them to be treated as human beings. His grandmother worked hard and was always broken for his children and grandchildren for how they were treated by their own masters. His sister and uncle had their share of troubles, too. With all the difficulties Benjamin’s family was experiencing, the young man thought of freeing himself from all the pains by taking his own life. Is life the worth of freedom? Benjamin had his good senses working and chose not to continue his dilemma in hell just as he heard the religious say.

Escape was his remedy. However, even escape did not come easily nor freely. His escape has cost his grandmother so much grief and worries. Of course, that is not to mention that his other family members shared that same fear for his life that Benjamin himself felt. When he met a neighbor in Baltimore as he was walking the streets, he was alarmed, thinking that it was his doom. The man proved to be different from Benjamin’s master and released him with a hearty goodbye and some advice which led to his freedom.

When the young man met his uncle in New York, Benjamin said, "If I die now, thank God, I shall die a freeman" (25). From this, one can conclude that life is the worth of freedom. For Benjamin, his life has been at stake in his pursuit of his freedom. For many descendants of slaves, it has cost their fathers’ and mothers’ lives to buy their freedom. Perhaps, anyone of us today will also die if only to be free from the tyrannical hands of another for there no more valuable thing in life than freedom.