I chose the article, A Visitor's Description of Slavery's Atrocity by J. Hector ST. John De Crevecoeur. (p. 422-423) This article is of a white man's journey to a planter's land for a visit and to dine with. The two lived about three miles apart, so the narrator decided to walk to the planter's residence.
On his way to the planters residence he felt a change of presence, it went from calm and subtle to where the narrator described the change in air as agitated. The narrator then heard a commotion about "six rods ahead of him." As he walked closer to the commotion he notices there was a cage with many birds ready to pounce on the care. Most to all the birds were large birds of prey.
As the narrator got closer he chased off the birds, within the tree hung the cage, and within the cage hung a negro man. The birds were looking to pray on the negro man. The description of the negro man was breath taking in horror. The narrator said he shuddered when he saw him. His disturbing description of the negro man was:
"I shudder when I recollect that the birds had already picked out his eyes; his cheek-bones were bear; his arms had been attacked in several places; and his body seemed covered with a multitude of wounds. From the edges of the hollow sockets and from the lacerations with which he was disfigured, the blood slowly dropped and tinged the ground beneath. No sooner were the birds flown and swarms of insects covered the whole body of this unfortunate wretch, eager to feed on his mangled flesh and to drink his blood."
This description of this man really brings me to realize how horrific it would have been to be an African American in this time period, but, then too, I realize I will never come close to be able to realize how it truly felt to be living in the time period, even as a white folk I could not and would not want to live in that time.
The narrator then also ends his story, about how the negro man just wanted water to help clench his thirst. We learn as readers the negro man was in the cage for two days, and in a ways he was surprised that he had yet to die. The narrator wish he had a ball in his gun so he could put the negro man out of his misery, but he doesn't have the ammo. So instead he gets the negro man the water he had requested.
Stories like these are really sad to read. I think this gives us an understanding to Uncle Tom's cabin of just how badly the slaves were treated. I think Stowe leaves out a lot of gruesome acts, such as what happened in this essay from her novel. In the novel we see how slaves were treated like property and we how they were not treated right mentally as physically. We see Tom getting whipped so badly that he ends up dying. I think this essay fills in some gaps from the novel that we are missing, such as the reality of how badly they were treated, which is quite disturbing.
ReplyDeleteWhat an atrocious act, and unfortunately it was probably very legal and a lot more common than thought. How could that guy just walk away, and go on to dinner, it makes me shudder that a display of macabre justice like this could have so little an impact. I think it's a good thing that Stowe didn't have any scenes like that in UTC.
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