Henry Bibb Essay Example

obstacles he confronted was white society’s story that slavery fit into the natural order of the world. Every sign of resistance was a threat to this story, and whites felt that this needed to be eliminated with whatever violence was necessary.

Masters, Slaved Holders, and White Southerners wanted to believe there slaves were content in what they set a side as the natural order of life, because if the slaves were content then that meant that the slaves accepted what whites said was there place in the world. Every rebellion or form of resistance sent a message to the white society that there story or way of life was a lie. Whites wanted to believe that slavery was a justifiable cause. Some of the reasons it was seen as a justifiable cause was Religion, the pro-slavery book, Class, Order, and many other ridiculous reasons that they came up with.

They had told themselves this “story” for generations and generations to come that, they somewhat convinced themselves that this way of life was acceptable. They believed anything unlike this was not the natural order of the way things were supposed to be. One white man by the name of James Henry Hammond went as far to say that: “In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity.

Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society and of political

government; and you might as well attempt to build a house in the air, as to build either the one or the other, except on this mud-sill. Fortunately for the South, she found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand. A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes.

We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves […] We are old-fashioned at the South yet; slave is a word discarded now by "ears polite;" I will not characterize that class at the North by that term; but you have it; it is there; it is everywhere; it is eternal. ” (James Henry Hammond’s “Mud Sill” speech, 1858. ) White Southerners felt that slaves should accept there place and be happy, or at least content. When slaves are not happy then that meant they refused to accept the White society’s story or way of life and this angered the white southerners.

They were going to make slaves understand there way of life by any means necessary and this sometimes meant vigorous lashings or even death. Although this way of life put fear in a lot of slaves and forced them to accept this way of life Henry never let fear conquer his desire for freedom. Henry’s passion for freedom was a refusal to accept the white society’s story that he was meant to be a slave and other degrading things white southerners called blacks. It also showed his refusal to accept the fact that he was not a human being and he as well as other historical

slaves fought for acknowledgement as a human being.

Henry Bibb was born in May of 1815, by his mother who was a slave named Milldred Jackson, and his father James Bibb. Henry did not know too much about his father because he died before Henry could really get a chance to know him. Henry is the oldest of seven children who are all boys. Henry was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, and was claimed as the property of a slave owner named David White Esq. He came into possession of Henry’s mother long before Henry was born. Henry was raised in slavery and he never got a chance to know was freedom was.

Henry did not know he was a slave until he was about eight years old when he was separated from his mother and Mr. White began to treat him as a slave. Before Henry started fulfilling his slave duties he had a playmate named Harriet who was around his age and she was white. Henry was not taught the exact difference in color at first he just thought that Harriet was his friend, but little did he know that this playmate of his would soon grow up to be his owner. This was when Henry finally began to realize what slavery was and began to feel, what we call now a days depressed.

From then on everything Henry ever worked for and all the wages he should have received were given to Harriet to pay for her education. Just like many other slaves Henry was treated with so much disrespect he worked very hare for very minimal portions of food, and sleep, or even a

piece of cloth to wrap around his swore, frozen, wretched body. Henry worked in the fields day and night and he didn’t even receive shoes to protect his feet so his feet got blisters, cracks, and frost bites. This is not even half of what Henry endured during his childhood times.

Henry was a very bright young man and was always eager to expand his mind, but slaves were not allowed to read or be taught how to read. As a young child Henry learned about liberty and freedom and had a passion for this so called freedom that he heard. Henry learned there was a better life out there for slaves to be free and live there own lives and not have to be feared by the lash, he heard of a country where they would not see Henry as a slave by a man, named Canada. The circumstances in which I was then placed, gave me a longing desire to be free.

It kindled a fire of liberty within my breast which has never yet been quenched. This seemed to be a part of my nature; it was first revealed to me by the inevitable laws of nature's God. I could see that the All-wise Creator, had made man a free, moral, intelligent and accountable being; capable of knowing good and evil. And I believed then, as I believe now, that every man has a right to wages for his labor; a right to his own wife and children; a right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

But here, in the

light of these truths, I was a slave, a prisoner for life; I could possess nothing, nor acquire anything but what must belong to my keeper. No one can imagine my feelings in my reflecting moments, but he who has himself been a slave. Oh! I have often wept over my condition, while sauntering through the forest, to escape cruel punishment (Bibb, Henry. The Narrative of the life and Adventures of Henry Bibb. Page 17, 1849). Henry realized as a young boy that he was a human being worth a lot and had a purpose set aside for him by God, this struck a fire in Henry which gave him a passion and a desire to be free.

When Henry heard of this place called Canada his desire for freedom became so strong that he decided to implement his plan and became and master at running away from his plantation. Henry was caught a few times but it seemed like the more he ran away the better he got at it. In 1883 a poor white girl by the name of Miss Davis decided to teach Henry and other slaves how to read, this didn’t go on for long because other whites told Miss Davis she was not allowed to teach the slaves to read and they made sure it was enforced.

By this time it was already to late Henry had knew the basics and taught himself the rest from there. When Henry was about eighteen years old he had his eye on a light skinned girl named Malinda. Henry went to visit Malinda several times, until he finally realized that this is the girl he

wanted to marry. There was only one dilemma that Henry and Malinda knew about, which is if they were married while they were slaves that it would not be legally accepted, because slaves could not legally be married. Even though there marriage was not accepted by the white mans law Henry and Malinda still went ahead and got married.

Soon after they got married they had a child together named Frances. After the birth of his child Henry could not stand the fact that he was the father and husband of slaves and really was determined to be free now. Henry left his family to go to Canada the free country with intentions to return at the first opportunity to set his family free. Henry struggle and quest for freedom took him longer than he though but he did eventually make it to Canada. After staying there for a while Henry decided to finally return for his family and reunite with his wife and child.

Henry was so excited he could hardly wait, but his smile would soon turn into a sad frown and heartache. When Henry finally retuned to Kentucky he had heard that his wife was committing adultery with her master for the past three years, and that Malinda had told her friends that she had never felt better treated. This hurt Henry so bad that his wife would commit adultery against him; he also learned that his daughter Frances was staying with Malinda as well. Henry decided that he could not just come back after so long and ruin Malinda’s new found happiness and family so he just let her and his loving child

go.

Although this hurt Henry so bad this was something he felt he was authorized to do, Henry was going to mope in his sorrowfulness forever until he met another lady to court and eventually married her. Henry does not know if his former wife or loving child ever became free. This is one narrative of a slave’s life and there are many more slave narratives out there to portray the horrors of slave life in America. There were a lot of narratives like Henry’s running around, the U. S. at that time and with all the abolitionist groups some slave holders realized that slavery might not really be the way of life.

Some of the first wave abolitionist tried to use every technique they could to band slavery in America. Some used sad stories, others caused riots, and some even went as far as to use mulatto children to bribe slaveholders to change there ways. They would get the lightest black child they could get that could pass for white and describe all the rugged things she has to go through as a slave. This would make the slaveholders feel bad that there own kind is being subject to such pain and agony and a child at that.

To them white children are supposed to be able to play and have an education, not care for others or wait on masters. This and other techniques were used; I believe the best ones though were first person narratives of actual slave traders and holders themselves who came to the conclusion that slavery was not right. One Slave trader by the name of John Newton wrote a song called

Amazing Grace this was his testimony that he was once a slave trader but got showed him the light and that slavery was wrong. Newton did not right away listen to the spirit sent by God.

In fact it took him ten years later to end his slave trading days. Newton said that God kept putting it on his heart to feel that what he was doing was wrong and eventually he almost broke down because Newton knew what he was doing was wrong. This was one of many slave traders as well as slave holders testimony that he realized that the story that his society of people once taught him was okay, was actually a deceiving lie. A lot of slave traders/holders realized that slavery wasn’t the best thing but that was the way of life and they felt like they didn’t really have the power to change much.

There were abolitionist groups and people who spoke out against slavery and this helped out a lot. Don’t get me wrong though slavery did not end right a way after this time, many whites fought hard to keep some “evidence” of superiority, and fought to keep the white societies story alive. They fought for many years all the way up until the civil war when slavery ended in 1865. Although slavery ended racism still lived on and many blacks endured the same amount of struggle and pains they did when they were slaves now that they were free.

Although I can tell you just like Henry anyone who was a slave would rather be free then a slave any day. Henry was one of many slaves who endured

this kind of suffering throughout slavery in America, but he did not let that slave mentality get him down. Although Henry “should have received moral, mental, and religious instruction, Henry received stripes without number, the object of which was to degrade and keep him in subordination. Henry can truly say that he drank deeply of the bitter cup of suffering and woe.

He had been dragged down to the debts of human degradation and wretchedness, by Slaveholders (Pg. 4, Bibb). Henry knew that whites could strip him of every thing he had his clothes, shoes, food, family, maybe even life, but two things they could not strip from Henry no matter how hard they tried was first that God is there for him in all his time of needs and his belief in the world and second his mentality that he was a human being worth of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is how it should have been from the beginning all slaves should have been treated as an equal and not have to fight to gain respect and equal rights.