Benjamin Drew from The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada

 What common experiences do both women report? In your opinion did most slaves
share these experiences?
 Why do you think both women finally settled in Canada? (Consider the year these
accounts were published)

Since reading Olaudah Equiano’s The Middle Passage in week 3, I was always under the
impression that slaves were intentionally dehumanized by their slave drivers and subjected to
psychological horrors just because these white men were able to behave that way. During
Equiano’s voyage from West Africa to the Caribbean, these slaves were tortured by being
placed in inhumane living conditions and purposely not fed left over food (Olaudah Equiano).
This type of psychological and physical abuse was repeatedly done onto the slaves in order to
ruin their morale and create an environment for them that made them believe there was no
alternative way of living.
In this document titled The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, two female slaves,
Mrs. James Seward and Mrs. Nancy Howard depict their lives as slaves living in America. When
Mrs. Seward describes her experience as a slave in Maryland she explains that her master never
prohibited her from attending school and church (Benjamin Drew). This type of behavior from
slave drivers was purposely done in order to establish the idea that slaves were property and
should be treated as such. By prohibiting them from congregating at areas that would expand
their minds, these slave masters took away their basic rights as humans and hoped that they
wouldn’t be able to have the proper mentality to fight back against their actions. This type of
inhumane behavior was like a power trip to these slave drivers; they owned the slaves as if they
were there property and there were no laws in place that prohibited their behavior. At this
point, slavery was such as instrumental part of American economy that there were laws in place
that prohibited slaves from congregating together (OpenStax 4.3).
Slavery in America was based solely on race and if someone was black they were
automatically subjected to unfair treatment and many times cruelty. When describing the
horror they experienced as slaves, both Mrs. Seward and Mrs. Howard shared similar
experiences. Mrs. Seward describes a time where she was beaten over her head by her slave
master and placed in a cupboard, whereas Mrs. Howard explains that she was beaten with a
knife because she forgot to set a fork down on the dinner table (Benjamin Drew). From reading
about Equiano’s experience on a ship to the Americas, and hearing the similar stories from both
individuals in the document, I believe that many slaves shared the same experiences. Because
there was this mentality that blacks were inferior to whites, many slave masters believed that
they could treat their slaves in any manner they desired (OpenStax 7.2).
Because various regions of America heavily relied on slave labor for their source of
income, slavery was definitely a divisive topic when it came to establishing the country’s ideals.
Documents such as the Slave’s Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1777
describes the constant fight that slaves and other free blacks had to endure in order to demand
the same level of equality that whites were privileged with. They quote directly from the
Declaration of Independence that they too deserve the same unalienable rights that are
granted upon free whites (Slave’s Petition for Freedom). Upending slavery in America was a
constant uphill battle with no end in sight. Thus, when the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was
passed, ordering all slaves to be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state, no
part of America was safe for any free or escaped black individual (OpenStax 11.5). Because
Canada had enacted the Slavery Abolition Act in August 1834 which officially made slavery
illegal throughout the country, both Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Seward left their lives in America as
slaves and reached a safe haven where they knew they wouldn’t be taken against their will to
work as slaves again (Henry 2016).

Henry, Natasha L.. "Black Enslavement in Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 26 April 2019,
Historica Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-enslavement.
Accessed 19 March 2020.