Cayla Gillam 2013

In this dueling document it is analyzing the relationship between the mistress and the salves on a plantation. The mistress that was focused on was Mary Boykin Chestnut, and how she felt about the saves living on her plantation. In the other document it focused on how the slaves felt about the mistress and how they saw her. Harriet Ann Jacobs was the slave chosen to write the second document. Even though these two documents are talking about the same thing, they could not be more different. In the following paragraphs I will analyze each document and get a full grasp of what it is really like to live on the plantation. When a young white women is growing up they are taught from a young age that they must follow in their mothers and grandmothers steps in becoming a plantation mistress. While growing up this young women was free to do many leisure activities of their choosing. Once this young women entered adult hood and became a wife. The responsibilities of a plantation mistress were soon to follow for this newlywed. In the first dueling document Mary Boykin Chestnut describes what it is like for her to be a mistress on a plantation. Being a mistress of a plantation seemed glamorous to the slaves that the most responsibility a mistress had was to get ready in the morning. According to the mistresses it was hard and tiring work to be a plantation mistress. It was the mistresss responsibility to nurse the sick, make new clothes, take care of the garden, and last but not least supervise and plan the work for the domestic slaves. Some mistresses would take these tasks to the extreme. By doing this slaves would see the mistresses to be mean and overly dramatic. Mary Boykin Chestnut did not see herself this way. That she was merely helping to show the slaves the proper way to live. Mary Boykin Chestnut states that most plantation mistresses set their slaves the example of a perfect life-life of utter self-abnegation. The actions that Mary performed she thought that she was setting the standard that the slaves should strive to live for. That they too should live their lives this way

Cayla Gillam 2013

one day. With these African Americans being slaves achieving the perfect or right way to live would be impossible. In my opinion Mary had good intensions, but was mostly just rubbing it in the slaves faces. For Mary, living with these slaves it was more of a burden rather than a service. Marry hated slavery, but it was something that she was forced to live with. She didnt like that she has to be cruel to the slaves, or how they were treated as less than a human being. During the time that Mary lived in she must play the role of a mistress or she would have her own mistress to answer to latter that day. The husbands to the mistresses were cruel when their wife was not doing their job of taking care of the slaves. Im sure that there are many mistresses that felt the same way about slavery that Mary felt. Not all, but some. This is not how Harriet Ann Jacobs saw her mistress or any other mistress. In the second dueling document slave narrative Harriet Ann Jacobs describes how manipulative and bossy the mistress is on the plantation that Harriet is enslaved to. Harriets mistress name was Mrs. Flint, Harriet goes on in the document that Flints nerves were so strong that she could wait a slave be whipped and not bat an eye over it. Harriet describes how cold hearted Mrs. Flint was, how her actions were beyond cruel. Harriet made Mrs. Flint sound like a monster. The worst thing that Mrs. Flint had done was watch a young slave girl die, flint felt no remorse for this young girl. When I first read this I did not understand how or why this mistress could watch that and feel no sorrow for this young girl. I then came to the understanding that Flint didnt see her as a little girl, she saw her as an unhuman salve. Flint was bitter that this slave had given birth to an almost all white child. With this slave being black, that meant that she would have had to sleep with a white male. Wither or not it was voluntary for the girl, Flint did not care. Flint said to this dying mother that she deserved every miserable moment and more.

Cayla Gillam 2013

How Harriet describes Mrs. Flint is and extreme racist and many white people were at this time. How settle slavery, and racism was sent into the American way it was hard not to deny it. This does not make it right, but when blinded by the way society wants you to live it is hard to be the one who stands out. Many mistresses didnt even see what they were doing to their slaves was a bad thing. That this is how it has always been and how it will continue to be for many years. Though out history there is racism all threw out, wither it being African Americans, to American gay people. Racism is something that will always be in everyones life. It is just your choice on how you want to live with it, you can support it or you can be against it. These two dueling documents are the perfect example of showing how miscommunications can manipulate our history in this country. With the mistresses thinking that they were setting good standards for the slaves to live by, and the slaves thinking that the mistresses were just cruel. I think that racism could have been avoided if just talked like civil humans. Mary was too scared to tell anyone that she hatted racism and slavery because it would be frowned upon and she would lose the respect as a mistress. Harriet saw the mistresses for what they were doing to the slaves and not for who they really are. Mary and Harriet both hated slaver, had they just sat down and talked they could have been the best of friends.