Perspective #1
"I've got a wife," spoke out the article enumerated as "John, aged thirty," and he laid his chained hand on Tom's knee,—"and she don't know a word about this, poor girl!"
"Where does she live?" said Tom.
"In a tavern a piece down here," said John; "I wish, now, I could see her once more in this world," he added.
Poor John! It was rather natural; and the tears that fell, as he spoke, came as naturally as if he had been a white man. Tom drew a long breath from a sore heart, and tried, in his poor way, to comfort him.
And over head, in the cabin, sat fathers and mothers, husbands and wives; and merry, dancing children moved round among them, like so many little butterflies, and everything was going on quite easy and comfortable.
"O, mamma," said a boy, who had just come up from below, "there's a negro trader on board, and he's brought four or five slaves down there."
"Poor creatures!" said the mother, in a tone between grief and indignation.
"What's that?" said another lady.
"Some poor slaves below," said the mother.
"And they've got chains on," said the boy.
"What a shame to our country that such sights are to be seen!" said another lady.
"O, there's a great deal to be said on both sides of the subject," said a genteel woman, who sat at her state-room door sewing, while her little girl and boy were playing round her. "I've been south, and I must say I think the negroes are better off than they would be to be free."
"In some respects, some of them are well off, I grant," said the lady to whose remark she had answered. "The most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages on the feelings and affections,—the separating of families, for example."
"That is a bad thing, certainly," said the other lady, holding up a baby's dress she had just completed, and looking intently on its trimmings; "but then, I fancy, it don't occur often."
"O, it does," said the first lady, eagerly; "I've lived many years in Kentucky and Virginia both, and I've seen enough to make any one's heart sick. Suppose, ma'am, your two children, there, should be taken from you, and sold?"
"We can't reason from our feelings to those of this class of persons," said the other lady, sorting out some worsteds on her lap.
"Indeed, ma'am, you can know nothing of them, if you say so," answered the first lady, warmly. "I was born and brought up among them. I know they do feel, just as keenly,—even more so, perhaps,—as we do."
The lady said "Indeed!" yawned, and looked out the cabin window, and finally repeated, for a finale, the remark with which she had begun,—"After all, I think they are better off than they would be to be free."
Perspective #2
To the Honorable
Upton S Heath Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Maryland -
The petition of Richard Emory of Baltimore County and State of Maryland respectfully represents unto your Honor that he is the owner of a slave for life named Ann Smith, and infant child of said Ann, that said Ann is now about the age of Thirty years, and said child is now nearly or about three years old. That said Ann was the property of your Petitioner by gift from Elijah Bosley, the absolute owner of said Ann for life upwards of Twenty years ago, to the wife of your Petitioner Ann Emory who was the granddaughter of said Elijah; and which said slave with her child have not, nor has either of them ever been directly or indirectly manumitted [1]or released from servitude by your petitioner or his said wife, but are still slaves for life as foresaid. That said Ann about two years sense escaped from the residence of your Petitioner taking with her the child aforesaid. The exact date of which said escape your Petitioner is unable at this time to specify, and your Petitioner is credibly informed and verily believes that said slaves now reside in the State of Pennsylvania. To the end therefore that your Petitioner may recover his said slaves and regain their services and to which he is entitled by the laws of Maryland, He prays your Honor to enquire into the matters and facts hereinbefore and hereinafter alleged in this Petition so as to enable him to obtain the full benefit of the Act Congress passed at the first session of the Thirty first congress, Chapter Sixty. Entitled an act to amend and supplementary to the Act entitled an act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their Masters approved February Twelfth One thousand seven hundred and ninety three, and your Petition is in duty bound will ever pray de…
And for description of said Ann your Petitioner heart appends the following - In height she was rather short, and about five feet three inches, and rather chunky of a copper complexion with straight black hair somewhat resembling in general appearance an Indian. The child having been an Infant of very tender age when so taken, has by the due corse of nature so changed its appearance that your Petitioner is unable to make any other further or better description of it.
R. Emory
Perspective #3
…My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result.
I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day's work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary—a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master. I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master's farms, near Lee's Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew any thing about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.
Perspective #4
When the congregation was dismissed, they gathered in knots round the door, to talk about the wonderful sermon, and ask each other what it meant, and what was going to follow.
"Massa preacher," said Paul, as soon as he thought they were out of the hearing of the rest "I want to talk with you. I can't go to sleep till I hear you 'xplain some of the difficulties of my comprehension."
"Wait, my brother, till we reach a more convenient place than this," answered Brainard; "follow me, and I will make every difficult place easy, and every rough one smooth."
He threaded the wild-wood path, dark with the shadows of a moonless night, till they came to a small opening, where the blacksmith's shop stood, isolated from the other buildings of the plantation. Just behind it, a gnarled and blasted oak, twisted off near its base by the whirlwind's breath, lay upon the earth. Brainard seated himself on the rough, knotted trunk, and motioned Paul to take a seat by his side.
"No, massa," said the negro. "If you please, I'll stand just where I be. I want you to tell me more 'bout that sermon, that's tingling in my ears as if someting had stung 'em. I never hearn afore Africa such a great country. I thought this a heap better."
"My poor fellow!" exclaimed Brainard, "you have been brought up in ignorance and deception. You know nothing beyond your master's fields, which you enrich by the sweat of your brow. Born in bondage, fettered, manacled, and enslaved, you are made to drag out a hopeless, joyless existence, ten thousand times more degraded than the beasts of the field, for the birthright of immortality is not theirs. Are you a man, and willing to submit to this disgrace and shame; this outrage to humanity; this robbery of your dearest, most sacred rights?"
"Now, massa," said Paul, after a short pause, in which he could see the blue eyes of Brainard glittering like burnished steel in the clear starlight, "I thought I mighty well off till I hearn you say I ain't. I got a kind, good massa, that neber said a thing he oughtn't to, nor did a thing he oughtn't to. He neber made me work harder than my conscience telled me was right. He gives me good clothes, good vittles, and never spited me in no manner of ways. When he was a leetle boy he larned me how to read the Bible; and though he ben't a preacher, he can talk beautifully from Scripter. He neber made me a slave; he neber bought me; he neber will sell me. I was born on his grandfather's plantation, I belonged to his father, and so slipped through God's hands into hisn."
"That you have believed all this I cannot wonder," said the minister, in a commiserating tone; "but the time is come when you must learn greater, better things; when you must realize what you are, what you may be, and what you ought to be. I am come, commissioned by the Almighty, to teach you how to rend asunder the iron chains of servitude, and secure the glorious privileges of freemen. I appeal to you, because I see well that you are the most intelligent of the number I see around me, and better capable of understanding me. If you choose you can be free—you can make all your brethren free. Instead of being slaves, you can be men. You have but to will it; the means are certain. You have friends at the North ready to assist you, and place you upon perfect equality with themselves. I have been labouring in your behalf, wherever I have been. I have been sowing broadcast the seeds of freedom, that you may reap a golden harvest. Will you not put in your sickle and reap, or will you lie, like a coward, on your back, and let the ploughshare cut through your vitals?"
"Oh, massa, you talk mighty grand, and I know you means right, and we ought to be much obleeged for your thoughts and obligation of us; but 'spose, massa, we get way off North, who's gwine to take care of us and our wives and children?"
"Take care of you!" repeated Brainard, scornfully "are you not a man, and cannot you take care of yourself? Who takes care of us? Who takes care of me, I want to know, in the name of the God who made me?"
"Ah! but you got the head-piece, massa," touching a forehead that indeed showed the absence of intellectual power. "God don't make everybody alike. He make some for one thing, some for anoder. If he make massa to take care of me, and me to work for him, why ain't that good? If I be satisfied, why not go to heaven the way I started?—got halfway there 'ready, massa!"
Historical Thinking Questions for Written Perspectives
Close ReadingWhat words stand out in this passage? Who is mentioned in the passage? What is the author’s tone? / Sourcing
Is this passage fiction or nonfiction? How can you tell? Does this change how you feel about the passage?
Contextualizing
Is there a time period given? Can you predict a time period if a specific year is not indicated? What was the author’s purpose behind writing this? / Corroborating
Which passages seem to agree with each other? What viewpoints are being put forth? Is one or more of the passages more reliable than the others?
Anti-Slavery Images
Illustrations from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Pro Slavery Images
Illustrations from The Cabin and Parlor OR Slaves and Masters by J. Thorton Randolph
Historical Thinking Questions for Slavery Images
Close ReadingWhat do you see in this artifact? What words do you see? What is the mood in this artifact? / Sourcing
What judgments can you make about the person who made this artifact?
Contextualizing
Why was this artifact made? From what historical period did this artifact come? Who was the audience? / Corroborating
How is the message of these artifacts the same? How is it different? How do the styles differ? Which source do you find more trustworthy?
[1] manumit – to release from slavery