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Document Interpretation #4 Hamilton and Jefferson, The

Sports of Politics & The Master Class


I chose to interpret Benjamin Drew, from The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. In this
article two women slaves tell us about their story of how slavery was during the time they
were slaves.
Mrs. James Seward was put in jail because of the debt the state was in. After, this she
was placed as a slave in Maryland where she only had one owner, her father, three sisters and
brother were also in the same place. She tells what she saw her family went through like her
father who was an older and the owner would keep him working one full summer day with
minimal food. One of the sisters would constantly get whipped because she would always try
to run away every time they were whipping her. Therefore, the master would take away her
clothes, locked her up, and took away her child. This did not stop her as she got her baby
back so the master did not like this as she seemed to do anything she could to be free.
Though she didnt get far as she got sick trying to cross the water trying to run away.
Mrs. James Seward shares an experience when the owner hit badly on the head many times
until she could see the blood run down her face. He tied her up having her hands above her
head keeping her this way all night to the evening of the next day with no food. Her brother
was lashed on his back many times until it looked awful that he kept on whipping him even
though his back was not healed. All these occurrences made all the slaves become terrified of
this owner and Mrs. James Seward made the decision to run away to Canada. Mrs. James
Seward planed to leave with Jim Seward as they would escape to get married but they made
it to Canada safely. Since Mrs. James was trying to escape there were many different ways to
do this as it says, Some escaped with the help of the Underground Railroad, an informal
network of sympathetic free blacks (and a few whites) who helped fugitives make their way
North. (Brands, 274). So, Mrs. Nancy had other ways of escaping and if found it surprising
that during the time the Underground Railroad was in use that some whites were willing to
help blacks become free. The black slaves were traveling North since they knew that a law
had been passed referred to as the fugitive slave law, which meant that black slaves who
were living in the North were not allowed to be taken back as a slave. As this law was
designated to keep the black slaves in the North be considered as free slaves.
Then we have Mrs. Nancy Howard she got a chance to escape from her owner because her
mistress got sick from health so she took advantage of this opportunity. During this she was
sent to the mistresss cousin home to serve there, she experienced suffering with whippings
for example for telling the truth you were whipped and Mrs. Nancy did not lie. Then, there

was another chance where she forgot to put the fork while setting the table so her master at
that moment hit her in the head with a carving knife and telling her "You d--d black b--, I 'll

forget you! Mrs. Nancy may have not intentionally forget the fork that needed to be placed
on the table but there were other slaves who would act this way. As stated in the book
"Many salves worked slowly and inefficiently, not because they were naturally lazy (as whites
supposed) but as a gesture of protest or alienation. As the words of a popular slave song
said, "You may think I'm working/ But I ain't." (Brands, 274). This demonstrates how much
intellect the slaves had although some slaves were not intentionally trying to make a mistake,
as the majority of the slaves were fearful of their owners. As the days went along the owner
told Mrs. Nancy that god would punish him for not punishing her and her son for telling the
truth. So, she prayed that she would be the only one to take the whippings instead of her
son but one day she got news that her master was dying and only got to live one more week
as he could only communicate through head gestures. Since Mrs. Nancy was not going to
level down to the commands the owners wanted the whites would do what ever it too to get
the slaves to do what they wanted them to do. For example, To ensure their personal safety
and the profitability of their enterprises, the masters of these agrarian communities used all
the means---physical and psychological---at their command to make slaves docile and
obedient (Brands 270). To know that these owners would do anything in order to keep their
business going or to be part of the power you can have over a slave is just astonishing. By
reading these two womens pain they went through shows how strong the slaves were not
just only the women.
In the Slavery video of crash course with Mr. Green he had mentioned that during the end
that these slaves did not lose anything on the contrary they won. Since, they were strong
enough to go through this difficult time where the slaves who were colored had no opinion
for themselves and what they went through shows how empowering they really are.

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