| Before Freedom Essay, Research Paper
The author of the book is Belinda Hurmence, she is well qualified to write a book such as this which she well demonstrates. She has done many long hours of research on slavery and the affects on the former individual slaves themselves. She has written many volumes on slavery and the opinion of many former American slaves on slavery.
This book she wrote contains the oral histories of former North and South Carolina slaves. The setting of the book is the homes of former slaves. The introduction of the book is about a former slave from North Carolina whom was forbidden to talk about slavery. From the time the New Republic came into being America wrestled with the problem of slaves telling their stories of slavery. Their very existence mocked the validity of a government that guarenteed liberty and justice for the nations people. Slaves were forbidden to read and write. They could not buy and sell merchandise or have religious services or other meetings. Slavery was a bad thing for most slaves but not all slaves. Some slaves felt slavery was a good thing because it gave them the only shelter and food they had ever had. When freedom came hard times came for a lot of former slaves. Many no longer had shelter or food to eat. There sufferings after freedom multiplied and worsened.
The author s main point was that slavery was bad for many slaves but it was also good for many slaves. There was many points of evidence supporting her main point of the book. There were oral histories told of how awful slavery was and how many times they were beaten for simply doing nothing. But there were also many former slaves in their oral histories telling how good their owners were to them and how they had never been beaten. Those former slaves felt slavery was a good thing because it gave them shelter and food to eat. The author concludes that people often have a bad one sided view of slavery but there is a good very real other side to it.
The author throughout the book supports her main point a number of times. The book has many oral histories of former slaves proclaiming slavery to be nothing but an awful thing they went through and they feel happy to have lived through such awful living conditions. Other oral histories of former slaves tell of how good their living conditions were and thankful for slavery just for the food and shelter they received. This good support of her main point throughout the book will most likely give people and altered view of slavery. That in itself makes the books worth so much more because the author made her point and supported her point with many oral histories of former slaves themselves. I felt the book was very real and sad. When I began to read the book I felt slavery was very wrong and something that I could not understand. As I read the oral histories I began to realize to a lot of slaves slavery was the only way of survival. Even though a lot of slaves were beaten and it was very sad they had shelter and food to eat for survival. Slavery will never to me be justified but after reading this book I have a very altered view on slavery.
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