In the text when i was a slave edited by Norman R. Yetman, are many memoirs of interviewed slaves about their experience during the slavery era. Mary Armstrong was one of those individuals interviewed in Houston, Texas at age 91 (pg 5). Armstrong expresses her feeling and her experience towards slavery, and gives us an inside look of how hard times were back in the 1800. She explains how hard it was and how scary but how she also got away with hurting her mistress Olivia's mother Old Polly. We can all agree that that is a form of contradiction.
Mary's mother had told her all about how old William Cleveland and old Polly Cleveland were so cruel. How they would beat their slaves and sold slave families to different households. She also told Mary how old Polly whipped her little sister to death at only nine months. After Mary's mistress Olivia bought her from her parents William and Polly, Mary decided she was going to get back at her. "I picks up a rock about as big as half your fist and hits her right in the eye and busted the eyeball, and tells her that's for whippin' my baby sister to death". Mary tells her mistress and Olivia's reply was "well, i guess mama has learnt her lesson at that".
This is a form of contradiction because during slavery if any colored person decided to commit any act of violence against white people they would be put through the worst punishment and even death possible. Also she states how scary it was living in those times, but she has the courage to bust her mistresses mothers eye knowing that Old Polly was white and she was black and that in those times blacks weren't even considered humans to even think about hurting a white person.
No comments:
Post a Comment