Mikayla Kricfalusi
9/18/2014 11:03:28 am
"They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees, with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come- it will come, if his prayer is heard- a terrible day of vengeance, when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy."
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Jenna Welsh
9/18/2014 12:09:24 pm
If I were Solomon, and I had absolutely not hope of a better life, I would have just jumped into the bayou and saved myself a lot of suffering. I wouldn't even have bothered to rebel. So, my answer to your question, based on my own thoughts and feelings, would be no. Great analysis!
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Abby Elliott
9/18/2014 01:01:09 pm
Even if Solomon did not know of a better life, I believe he still would have had hope for a better future; therefore, I do not believe Solomon would have rebelled. Every slave either had to have hope or death in their heart.
Jenna Welsh
9/18/2014 12:01:15 pm
"I have no comments to make upon slavery...I doubt not hundreds have been as unfortunate as myself..."
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Jenna Welsh
9/18/2014 12:05:47 pm
*Malicious, not salacious
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Abby Elliott
9/18/2014 01:04:38 pm
I believe the book spells out the Hell of slavery and that no commentary is necessary. I agree with Solomon's choice.
Chloe r
9/18/2014 01:47:25 pm
I think he wants his story to speak for itself.
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Shea Saulino
9/19/2014 12:57:01 am
Beautiful quote, beautiful insights. I totally agree with your statements and no, I do not believe you are interpreting this wrong.
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Niklas Wenz
9/18/2014 12:01:44 pm
"I also gave Bob a violent shake, and asked him if he intended to sleep till noon, saying master would be up before the mules were fed. He knew right well the consequence that would follow such an event, and, jumping on his feet, was at the horse-pasture in a twinkling."
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Alexis Habib
9/18/2014 12:09:08 pm
Depends on the master, their location (city, state), and the type of offence.
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Kaeli Leoni
9/18/2014 12:46:07 pm
I think it was very rare that slaves didn't actually ever get punished by their masters.
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Christian Klosterman
9/18/2014 01:35:09 pm
I think that it all depends on what the slave did, and how kind the master was feeling.
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Chloe r
9/18/2014 01:46:53 pm
I think slavery itself was the punishment, and everything else was extra.
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Rena
9/18/2014 03:21:03 pm
Slavery is just cruel. Everytime I think about it in depth, I get really sad and picture myself as a slave. I am a dramatic person, and feel like I'm going to die when I do something as simple as like walking into a piece of furniture, or stubbing my toe.
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Alexis Habib
9/18/2014 12:04:20 pm
"I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but, stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell. While down in this situation, Mr. Covey took up the hickory slat with which Hughes had been striking off the half-bushel measure, and with it gave me a heavy blow upon the head, making a large wound, and the blood ran freely; and with this again told me to get up. I made no effort to comply, having now made up my mind to let him do his worst."
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Alexis Habib
9/18/2014 12:06:19 pm
cont.
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Tristan Elghoroury
9/18/2014 01:21:26 pm
Good question. I think if the master whipped them often enough they could easily die!
Jenna Welsh
9/18/2014 12:11:52 pm
I'd imagine that the masters beat their slaves enough so that they felt extreme pain, but not so much so that they died. Otherwise, who would they have to work for them? Who would they have as a scapegoat for their misplaced anger?
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Piper Tompkins
9/18/2014 03:43:58 pm
When masters kill there slaves back then it was like throwing away their money, I think the only reason masters would kill slaves would be either by accident or because the slave broke a really important rule and the masters wanted to set an example out of them so other slaves wouldn't break the rule. They also were in awful living conditions with little to no food to eat so many died of diseases too.
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Kaeli Leoni
9/18/2014 12:43:40 pm
Book: Fredrick Douglas
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Matt Rose
9/18/2014 12:56:02 pm
I believe most people who turned a blind eye to the cruelty towards slaves were money whores. Since slaves are very profitable, money can turn people into monsters.
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Tristan Elghoroury
9/18/2014 01:19:22 pm
yea,even the pigs were probably treated better!
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Nicole Matteson
9/18/2014 03:23:13 pm
I agree with matt, money does turn people into monsters. I think the slave owners got so caught up in the desire of profit, their human morals faultered and they found reason in their actions through their church... which was confusing and shocking in my opinion.
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Matt Rose
9/18/2014 12:53:54 pm
"They do not give the slaves this time because they would not like to
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Hunter Birk
9/18/2014 01:00:16 pm
Pretty far, im sure they installed new methods to put fear into the slaves.
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Christian Klosterman
9/18/2014 01:36:23 pm
The tactics went really far, even keeping the slaves from getting educated so they couldn't devise a plan and revolt.
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Isaac Fernandez
9/18/2014 03:11:57 pm
It's terrible to think, but society had already created norms on how to treat "your" slaves. So, I think that when they wouldn't be working like you wanted them to, you would try to make everything like you wanted to, back then you could not write people up, it just went straight to physical punishment. There was only so much they could escalate.
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Abby Elliott
9/18/2014 12:54:12 pm
Quote: “Chastened and subdued in spirit by the sufferings I have borne, and thankful to that good Being through whose mercy I have been restoring to happiness and liberty, I hope henceforward to lead an upright though lowly life, and rest at last in the church yard where my father sleeps.” (12 Years a Slave page 217)
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Lucas LeVieux
9/18/2014 01:30:16 pm
I think Solomon would say that tensions don't exist. I think he was very ignorant of racial issues when he lived as a free man in a free state. And now things are so much better than they were before, and he'd approve.
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Nicole Matteson
9/18/2014 03:26:22 pm
I think he would have been shocked at how our country progressed out of constant racism to not as popular racist remarks. However i think he would find how the south still has racial issues to be a given, knowing how strong slavery was down there and how long it lasted.
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Dylan L
9/18/2014 03:56:57 pm
I think that Solomon would see very little to no tensions in our current day life compared to what he went through. He suffered the worst a slave could suffer, so I think that current days would be pretty amazing to him.
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Hunter Birk
9/18/2014 12:58:17 pm
Book: The narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglas
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Matt Rose
9/18/2014 01:10:09 pm
I agree Frederick always has the spirit to keep going and keep moving forward, but he unfortunately hit a giant bump during his slavery for Corvey.
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Sarah Lockhart
9/18/2014 02:11:26 pm
To answer your question, most slave owners thought that a literate slave made them more of a threat than of value. They thought that the slaves would be able to gain power and rebel through education and they would lose control.
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Tristan Elghoroury
9/18/2014 01:14:26 pm
Book: Frederick Douglas
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Tristan Elghoruury
9/18/2014 01:18:21 pm
cont.
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Michele
9/18/2014 02:09:19 pm
I think that it was stated in the book that his owner at the time had come up from deep poverty and was stingier than the other of his owners, to answer your question on a more specific note.
Jack Campbell
9/18/2014 02:03:40 pm
I agree that he is a very strong person to be able to remain calm and face these people.
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Eddie Herrera
9/19/2014 12:14:18 am
I agree despite everything he has gone through, he is able to keep his faith strong and not falter to the punishments.
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Grant
9/19/2014 02:20:05 am
He was probably able to stay clam because he was so broken by slavery.
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Emily Dingman
9/18/2014 01:26:22 pm
"If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before."
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Kayla Feather
9/18/2014 01:29:07 pm
Quote: "I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer; nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself uttering what was absolutely false; for I always measured the kindness of my master by standard of kindness set up among slaveholders around us."
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Ryan Cormack
9/18/2014 02:01:19 pm
I thought this was very interesting too, and wanted to add the idea of why they cared what their slaves thought of them.
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Mrs. Clark
9/20/2014 08:39:25 am
What incentive would they have had to change their practice?
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Christian Klosterman
9/18/2014 01:34:06 pm
"Upon receiving this certificate, and a five-dollar bill from Mr. Ruggles, I shouldered one part of our baggage, and Anna took up the other, and we set out forthwith to take passage on board of the steamboat John W Richmond for Newport, on our way to New Bedford."
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Shea Saulino
9/19/2014 12:59:48 am
In response to your question, she dies. I don't know when or how, but obviously she ends up dead, for this was years and years ago. I would also like to know how/when/what she did with her life after freedom.
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Adrien De Luna
9/18/2014 01:36:55 pm
"I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the underground railroad, but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the upper-ground railroad."
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George Downey
9/22/2014 05:38:25 am
He doubts the underground railroads methods, mostly because of their lack of secrecy leading to slave master knowing where and when to guard gates and search forests. He instead prefers the idea of fear tactics, using subtle escapes to make the slave holder fear every escape route possible, making him fearful but unable to stop it. This is primarily why he doesn't reveal his route to the north, primarily to keep it safe from its destruction.
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Chloe Rice
9/18/2014 01:37:41 pm
"I considered the uncertainty of life, that if it should be the will of god, he should die."
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Kane McGrath
9/18/2014 01:40:19 pm
“They were in very deed men and women of sorrow, and
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Grant
9/19/2014 02:14:57 am
They did try to escape and just give up an example of this would be them jumping off the boat on the trip over to the Americas.
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12 years a slave
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Jackson Sjogren
9/18/2014 01:52:10 pm
because they didn't care about the slaves they only carried about the money they were making.
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Jack Campbell
9/18/2014 02:01:40 pm
White people and slaveowners didn't see what they were doing was wrong because they justified their actions to each other and themselves with religion and other Ideas like it, and it was passed down to other people.
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Isaac Fernandez
9/18/2014 03:18:30 pm
I think that they didn't see what they were doing wrong because It had been taught to some of these people that they are not equal and should not be treated that way. Also, they probably found ways to take out their anger on them.
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Emily Hayashida
9/18/2014 04:20:12 pm
I think that they knew what they were doing was wrong, but they didn't want to be the generation in charge of stopping something that had been going on for centuries. I mean would you go stop something your father had taught you and your family had been doing forever, if you even had a small hint it was morally wrong?
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Chandler Gaines
9/19/2014 01:48:46 am
Because in there mind the stuff that needed to get done got done. It didnt matter how it got done.
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Camila Antonorsi
9/18/2014 01:57:40 pm
"I have no comments to make upon the subject of slavery."
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Dylan L
9/18/2014 03:54:15 pm
I thought the same exact thing when I read that in the book! I agree with you very much. But to answer your question(s), I think that the masters rarely felt regret after whipping their slaves. It was just something that they did- a part of life, if you will. However, I do think that there is a good chance there are a few masters who didn't whip their slaves.
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Ryan Cormack
9/18/2014 02:00:02 pm
Frederick Douglass
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Sarah Lockhart
9/18/2014 02:06:04 pm
I definitely agree with you, I don't think humans are meant to have that much rule over someone else. It made her go literally insane, like a lot of slave-owners probably did. My mom always said money is the root of all evil and I see it again and again in context of slavery.
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Rena
9/18/2014 03:16:37 pm
It's crazy how people who were alive during the time of slavery has the power to be against it, and help the slaves. I totally agree that all humans deserve to be treated equally.
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Jack Campbell
9/18/2014 02:00:13 pm
“in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture—"He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Slaveowners deceived themselves and others into thinking that slavery was natural and acceptable. They did this through many ways, the most prominently they used religion. In the book, one of Frederick slaveowners attends religious services, which leads him to believe that he might emancipated slaves, but instead results with him using religious practices to justify his actions with slavery. This was a trend that was seen among many slaveowners and a excuse for everyone related to slavery. From this, I wonder what slavery would have been like if religion was neither for nor against it.
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Morgan King
9/18/2014 03:37:29 pm
It is an interesting point that you bring up. Over the last 300 years, religion has always had a say in some of the most horrific things. I find it hard to imagine what slavery would have been like without the passion that religion made from either side.
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Jackson Sjogren
9/18/2014 02:01:42 pm
Quote: I apologize for my appearance. But I have had a difficult time these past several years.
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Sarah Lockhart
9/18/2014 02:02:39 pm
Book: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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michele moua
9/18/2014 02:14:20 pm
Douglas was curious on why Covey did not just report him to police, but I think that Covey was pretty ashamed of the fact that he was beaten up but one of his own slaves. So if it went public, yes Douglas would have had to deal with the consequences but Covey would lose respect and his powerful reputation as the "slave-breaker"
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Piper Tompkins
9/18/2014 03:36:11 pm
^^ I agree I think he thought that if people knew they would think he was a coward and then other slaves might think its ok to beat him up too.
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9/18/2014 04:51:12 pm
I feel like when Douglass stood up for himself he realized that he had the power to take back his life and shape it how he wanted it to be, not his owner.
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Alexis Miranda
9/19/2014 01:58:02 am
Yeah I agree with you, Covey didn't want to seem weak.
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Michele Moua
9/18/2014 02:07:01 pm
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas.
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Kendall Tally
9/18/2014 02:13:28 pm
"I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man."
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Morgan
9/18/2014 02:27:24 pm
. A day may come- it will come, if his prayer is heard- a terrible day of vengeance, when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy."
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Justin Reyes
9/18/2014 02:46:22 pm
“My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!”
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Isaac Fernandez
9/18/2014 03:04:54 pm
Qoute:"A great many times have we poor creatures been nearly perishing with hunger, when food in abundance lay mouldering in the safe and smoke-house, and our pious mistress was aware of the fact; and yet that mistress and her husband would kneel every morning, and pray that God would bless them in basket and store!"
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Isaac Fernandez
9/18/2014 03:07:27 pm
Question:Did the slaves believe in a God, and did they think it was the same ones the slave owners prayed to?
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Chandler Gaines
9/19/2014 01:50:22 am
I am sure some had believed in a similar god as the slave owners...but there is always those people who dont.
Isaac Fernandez
9/18/2014 03:14:09 pm
Book: Fredrick Douglass
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Rena
9/18/2014 03:10:51 pm
"You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave is made a man"
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Nicole Matteson
9/18/2014 03:19:36 pm
"I heard no deep oaths or horrid curses on the laborer. i saw no whipping of men; but all seemed to go smoothly on. Every man appeared to understand his work, and went at it with sober, yet cheerful earnestness, which betokened the deep interest which he felt in what he was doing, as well as a sense of his own dignity as a man."
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Piper Tompkins
9/18/2014 03:31:10 pm
"Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising the ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger"
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Chenoa Levy
9/18/2014 06:47:38 pm
I think the slave owners used religion as a backbone for justifying slavery. And I think the reason why they treated slaves so harshly was to break them so they had no hope, and were too scared to act out and rebel.
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Morgan King
9/18/2014 03:42:44 pm
I find extremely hard to believe how lazy we have become ever since slavery has been abolished. We haven't become lazy in the sense of profit, we just outsourced to China. We have become lazy in hardship, a lot of people don't even know how to do even the basic labor today. I think the only way to answer your question, is that if people reject any positive feelings towards the slaves, then they could justify the "normal" nature of slavery.
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Morgan King
9/18/2014 03:44:18 pm
Cont.
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Dylan L
9/18/2014 03:50:41 pm
12 Years a Slave
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Emily Hayashida
9/18/2014 04:18:08 pm
Personally I would give myself about 24 hours, I was already struggling after about 5 minutes sorting the cotton from the seeds and such. I think that question is really important in the sense of putting yourself in the position of the slaves, what would you be capable of?
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Morgan King
9/18/2014 03:53:17 pm
12 Years A Slave
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Lucas LeVieux
9/18/2014 03:53:57 pm
Book: 12 Years A Slave
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Mrs. Clark
9/20/2014 08:43:07 am
Not all masters forbade Christianity, but your question is one I think about often. :)
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Noah Parr
9/18/2014 03:58:41 pm
12 years a slave
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Emily Hayashida
9/18/2014 04:15:42 pm
12 Years a Slave
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Jonathan Richeson
9/18/2014 04:45:05 pm
"In coming to a fixed determination to run away, we did more than Patrick Henry, when he resolved upon liberty or death. With us it was a doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death if we failed. For my part, I should prefer death to hopeless bondage."
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Jonathan R
9/18/2014 04:48:24 pm
Question: Why was the north "better off" without slaves?
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Benjamin Rose
9/18/2014 05:19:00 pm
"I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State. I have never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction to myself. It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced." (Loc 1394)
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Eli Murguia
9/18/2014 05:44:20 pm
Book: Fredrick Douglas
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Chenoa Levy
9/18/2014 05:48:37 pm
"Killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime."
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Alexis Miranda
9/18/2014 06:00:41 pm
The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass
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Eamonn McGuiness
9/18/2014 11:31:04 pm
Quote: It was rarely a day that passed by without one or more whippings.
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Srdja
9/18/2014 11:43:17 pm
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
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Eddie Herrera
9/19/2014 12:12:31 am
"Oh,God!" Thou who gavest me life, and implanted in my bosom the love of life-who filled it with emotions such as other men, thy creatures, have, do not forsake me."
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Shea Saulino
9/19/2014 12:56:00 am
"I was now left to my fate..."
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Shea Saulino
9/19/2014 12:58:24 am
Question- what opinions does his slave master have on his fate and how would that affect his punishment on other slaves?
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mikey
9/19/2014 01:29:00 am
Quote: "He swore that he would either conquer or kill me"
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Alex de Villiers
9/19/2014 01:32:32 am
" I was now left to my fate. I was all alone, and within the walls of stone prison."
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Alex de Villiers
9/19/2014 01:34:04 am
Question: What problems and struggles with he have to face now?
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Chandler Gaines
9/19/2014 01:47:49 am
"I hope henceforward to lead an upright though lowly life, and rest at last in the church yard where my father sleeps"
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Grant
9/19/2014 02:09:50 am
“I have said that this mode of treatment is a part of the whole system of fraud and inhumanity of slavery.”
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George Downey
9/22/2014 05:25:59 am
"If I had been killed in the presence of a thousand colored people, their testimony combined would have been insufficient to have arrest one of the murderers."
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