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Category: History | Posted By: admin | Rating: 
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After reviewing the information found in the course links on slavery, one can see that the effects of slavery are still alive and haunting in today’s culture as they were centuries ago. Slave narratives are autobiographies of men and women who experienced life as a slave, and the narratives that have been preserved give the modern world insight as to what it was like to be a slave, and to experience the horrible things they endured. Slave narratives became a popular form of literature in African American culture. These works became popular because they established a way to keep the past alive, prevent history from being forgotten.
The majority of slave owners did horrible things to their slaves, not only tearing families apart and causing emotional damage, but abusing them physically as well, from using whips as punishment to depriving them of essential liberties that most of us take for granted. Slaves were forced into terrible conditions, living in rags, being fed in troughs; and were seen as inferior even to dogs. Whereas dogs were kept in the house and treated like people, slaves were kept in shacks, cabins, basements, anything as long as it was far away from the house, unnoticeable to guests. These living conditions meant dirt floors, no heating or cooling, and no chance to learn to read or educate themselves. Slaves were not allowed money for themselves, and any money they did have or earn was immediately taken from them by their owners. Ironically though, slaves usually took the name of their owner, not having “proper” Christian names of their own, as claimed in a narrative by Richard Toler.
Richard Toler’s father was a slave, given a name by his owner, Henry Toler. These names gave the slave only one identity and that was as property. Henry Toler had a cabin that was located far behind the giant house that he lived in; a cabin that housed his slaves who worked the 500 acres of land Mr. Toler owned. Henry Toler was a big farmer in Virginia; and his slaves were treated fairly well compared to many others. When Richard was sick, he was given medicine, if he was really sick, the owners would get a doctor to look at him. He was not whipped; he had told his owners that if he were to get whipped he would kill them. And though Richard himself was never beaten, he still witnessed many horrible things that happened on the farm.
Richard states he knew of three or four slaves that were killed by the whip, as well as many who were mauled by tracking dogs. Most slaves were forbidden from owning anything, even books. Richard recalls Henry Toler’s sons had joined the Ku Klux Klan, and he witnessed the sons whipping a woman strapped to a barrel, then pouring salt into her raw wounds. White supremacy was practiced and seen as the normal way of the world. After the Emancipation Act, Richard went to night school to learn to read and write, and while he had already grown by this time, he believed he need to educate himself. Richard had become a blacksmith while living on the farm, and was a blacksmith for 36 years, later learning to be a musician. He once saw President Lincoln and asked to be set free, and later Lincoln set the slaves free, which Richard was grateful for. Slave narratives not only include details of their hardships but hopefulness as well. Even in the darkest of times they speak of spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual findings laid in their path to freedom.
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