Slave Narratives
Accustomed to the life of being the son of a Prince and having all his needs met, Venture Smith knew no pain nor fear because he was always under the protection of his parents and extended family. However, things begin to fall apart when his father marries a third wife without the consent of Smith’s mother. She decides to run away from her family, leaving Smith behind (Mintz, 2020). However, even after being reunited with his family, the community enjoys a short-lived peace before the enemy strikes. The narrative of Smith, therefore, paints a grim picture of enslavement that captured Africans undergo at the hands of their masters.
The white man knows that he is in a superior position to manipulate the African leader into submission by first fooling him with a fake treaty. The enemy knew very well that the Africans could not have anticipated an attack or going to war and were therefore unprepared. He saw this as an opportunity (Mintz, 2020). The kind and merciful Prince is tricked. His community and family are attacked and kidnapped, and the enemy intends to rob him of all his wealth and enslave everyone. However, the resilient Prince fought to his last breath and dies a victorious death by denying the enemy the location of his wealth (Mintz, 2020).
Unfortunately, this does not save those he leaves behind. Children and women are all brutally captured, some such as Smith by blunt force and ropes tied around his neck (Mintz, 2020). A six-year-old is made to watch as his father fights a losing battle, bleed out, and be tortured by strangers until he dies. A child can never come back from such trauma. As the enemy continues to conquer more people, they continue exposing children’s delicate minds, personalities, and spirits to horrific scenes (Mintz, 2020). This adds to the terror they experience from being captured by strangers and taken to strange land while being made to perform complicated tasks accompanied by punishment.
Eventually, all their hope of victory must have been lost as the children watched older people surrender and submit to the enemy. The people they have grown to know as the strongest and a symbol of safety ad security. For a child to go through all this and be put on display in the market and be sold like a trade commodity rather than a human being to another stranger and moving from one person and place to the other, it ultimately kills their spirit and alters their being forever (Mintz, 2020). They begin seeing themselves as objects that can be owned. Their will and voice are not there anymore, and even after being free years later, the imprint enslavement left behind cannot be erased.
References
Mintz, S. (2020). Excerpts from slave narratives- Chapter 4. Retrieved from http://www.vgskole.net/prosjekt/slavrute/4.htm