When I read chapter two I felt outradged over the living conditions that the slaves had to endure. Every month the slaves received an allowance of food and their yearly allowance of clothing. Childrens clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year. When these were worn out, they were naked until the next allowance day came along. I felt horrible about this because some kids would wear nothing when it was snowing outside. I felt sad because there were no beds that the slaves could sleep on. The slaves would work hard all day and they would need a good night sleep to be ready for the next day. When there was no beds these slaves lost a lot of sleep. I felt that the slaves conditions were harsh in more ways than one.
When reading chapter three I felt sad because the master wasn't a good person. The master had a garden which always did well. The slaves would get hungry sometimes while working and take some food from the garden. The master wasn't very happy about this so he decided to put tar on his fence. If any slave was in the garden the tar would give sufficient proof that someone was in the garden and they would be punished. The slaves had a lot of opinions about their masters but never said anything because they were afraid. Even though they wanted to speak out, their fear overcame their rage.
When reading chapter four I felt like justice was never served. Mr. Gore was the new overseer and he was an evil man. One day he whipped one of Colonel Lloyd's slaves named Demby. Demby got whipped a few times then ran and plunged himself into the creek. Mr. Gore killed him because Demby refused to get out of the water. The unjust part of this situation is that Mr. Gore was never punished for murdering Demby. Killing a slave in Maryland was not considered a crime by the the courts or the community.
I really like that you included detais about how the slaves were treated as well as how you felt about the slaves being treated so cruelly. The information you provided backed up your opinion very nicely and that makes your writing very easy to read and be able to understand how you were feeling about the issues with slavery and the issue of murder of a slave in Maryland not being considered a crime. :)
ReplyDeleteDEAR Jenny,
ReplyDeletehey there(: i like how you put in things from the reading. i tmade me really happy how you connected with the reading. i agree with you this reading was an awful reading and it made me really sad. we should read the next one together(:
FROm your friend Merrisa("