Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

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In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe was trying to show that slavery was actually worse on the masters than on their slaves, by writing a chapter from Augustine St. Clare view. St. Clare was talking about how slavery in America was just like the two class system in England. St. Clare compared these two practices when he said “He is as much at the will of his employer as if he were sold to him. The slave owner can whip his refractory slave to death,—the capitalist can starve him to death. As to family security, it is hard to say which is the worse,—to have one’s children sold, or see them starve to death at home.” (Perkins pg. 392) He goes on to explain how it was wrong to force people to work when he himself was the laziest of all people. He talked about examples of how his slaves would try to cheat the system by putting rocks, or dirt to make their bags heavier so they did not have to work as long. He asked himself how he could punish someone for doing the exact thing he would do. Augustine did not agree with punishment for this because he knew it was wrong but he had to do it to maintain discipline. He said it was very hard to live with himself because the people that he had to punish were also the people he lived among. This strain on his sole caused him to “became a piece of driftwood, and have been floating and eddying about” (Perkins pg. 394), which shows how alone Augustine was. All of these feelings that weighted on his soul was showing how slavery was harder on the Master that the slaves.

Part 2:  Harriet Jacobs in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” presents herself as a teenager. Choose and describe some of the challenges Linda Brent faced while she lived under Flint; there are many and they are varied in complexity. Be sure to support your assertions with quotes and cites from the source.

Linda Brent faced many challenges as she lived under Dr. Flint but I think the biggest and hardest challenge that she faced was the very inappropriate relationship that Dr. Flint had started with her. She did not want any part of this relationship, it was forced on her because she was a slave. At the beginning of the this chapter from “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” we see how Dr. Flint would do anything to one convince Linda that he cared for her, and if that did not work he would force her to be alone with him. Linda did not just get forced into a relationship with Dr. Flint but then since she was there she caught a lot of back lash from Mrs. Flint. Since Dr. Flint had an eye for Linda, Mrs. Flint became very jealous, and her actions toward Linda had caused Linda to wish that she was forced to work in the field. She wanted to work there until the grave had swallowed her up forever. We see how hurt Mrs. Flint was by this relationship when she is asking Linda about the night she was supposed to stay in Dr. Flint’s room. Mrs. Linda starts to cry and then get very angered because she knows that her marriage is falling apart because of her husband’s disregard for their marriage vows. Linda was stuck in the middle of this because she was their slave and had to do what her master told her to do. This would have been a very hard struggle to go through even today.

George Wexler

Works Cited

Perkins, George. American Lit before the Civil War. 1st ed. N.p.: McGraw Hill Education, 2014. Print.