To Be a Slave

Julius Lester begins this chapter with a key description of slavery: to be treated as an object, but to be a human being. He explains, “They were not slaves. They were people. Their condition was slavery” (15). Using direct quotes from enslaved people, Lester dispels the picture of slaves as “dumb, brute animals” or as children who benefited from slavery (15).

Some former slaves were sorry when slavery was abolished, and Lester comments that this fact demonstrates the deep impact of slavery on human beings. For some slaves, their masters were their fathers; in one unusual instance, a slave owner acknowledged his Black son and taught him that he was equal to whites. For most slaves, however, slavery was cruel, and they lacked personal relationships with their master. Whipping was a frequent punishment given out by the plantation overseer or driver.

In the slave narratives, enslaved people had a complete understanding of the economic motivation behind slavery. Lester writes: “Black men, black women, and black children were enslaved because it was profitable to other men” (23).