Narrative of James Curry, a Fugitive Slave - Book Report/Review Example

We learn one thing common about these writers and that is that most of them hailed from Carolina, where slavery was predominant. And all of them took the route to Pennsylvania to gain freedom. Out of the four writers mentioned above, Olaudah Equiano was a fugitive slave who was successful in gaining freedom officially, while the others managed to escape the clutches of slavery, after many unsuccessful attempts. James Curry was mainly working as a slave on plantations in North Carolina. Being a son of slaves, he had to undergo physical as well as mental tortures done by his masters.

He was whipped mercilessly by his masters, which once made unbearable for him and forced him to escape from the master's place. He has described the heart-wrenching incidents of how his mother and the other slaves were given the beastly treatment by their masters. He always desired and dreamt of gaining freedom and always looked for an opportunity to escape. His childhood was terrible and in his youth finally, he was successful in escaping by the mercy of God. He later met many kind people who helped him to get on with his life.

Although he gained freedom, he was separated from his wife and mother whom he loved the most. His narrative consists of the detailed account of the tortures rendered to the slaves from all age groups. Nobody was spared, including small children and old people. All were treated equally mercilessly. There are similarities in the narrative of the male slave writers. Equiano, Curry, and Douglass have given more or less similar accounts of the sufferings of the slaves. They have described the slaves exploited on plantations and how they underwent whipping if they failed to perform their duties.

Many of them tried to drown themselves to gain freedom from slavery. The main reason being, they all were born in the 19th Century when slavery was practiced to a larger extent and there was a lot of unrest everywhere. They were treated as the private property of the white men who owned them just like a farmer owns cattle. Equiano and Douglass went on to be successful in their lives as not only as writers but also held important positions in society and proved their mettle. Unlike these men, Harriet was a female slave writer who also underwent the torture of her master.

She was sexually harassed by her master who was against her marrying any other person. She became a nursemaid in her later life. The main purpose of writing these narratives was to give a voice to the sufferings of the slaves all over the world and to make them free of their agony. All the four writers directly or indirectly played the role of abolitionists and were successful in wiping out this stigma from mankind. Thus we can say that James Curry's narrative has definitely made an impact on the readers and it touches their hearts because of the narration, which is done in simple language.

The readers can easily understand it and they can relate themselves with Curry as a slave.