My dad got me this book since I have, of late, been watching the TV series, Roots. It's based on an African-American man who decided to be awesome and trace back all the way to the first man in his family who stepped foot in America. Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte was a young man when he was brought to America, but unlike other Africans, he did not lose his African identity when in America. He stayed strong to his people, his name, and his customs. He passed down his culture to his daughter, who passed it down to her son, to passed it down to his son, who passed it down to his daughter, and on and on until the message reached the man who decided to be awesome.
Well, you might imagine why I am going on about some TV program when I really should be talking about our lovely book here. Reasons being are, firstly, the book and the TV series concern the same topic (slavery) and secondly, I felt I understood the book two million times better after watching Roots. So there, makes sense right?
Ok, so I might as well give a little of what I think of To Be A Slave. Basically this book encompasses a collection of entries from journals of slaves during their hard times. Reading this book really made me look at slavery in way I never looked at before. Sure, I knew it was cruel and wrong, but why? What were the customs that the whites did to the blacks in those days? How did it feel like to be roped to a tree. Helpless, awaiting a cruel whipping you didn't even deserve? How did it feel like to be stacked on other human beings, like books on a shelve, for several days? Well, obviously we all know the answers to these questions. Terrible. But reading personal journal entries from slaves really put things to a different perspective. I felt like I was living their experience, working tirelessly in the field on a 100 degree day for a person who treated you like dirt, living in a small dark room, getting only scrapings of food, being frightened of "massa", being taken from your home and stacked (literately) onto a ship to be a slave.
Just imagine what those people were feeling. The feeling of being torn from your family, never to see them again. To have a child you love and care for separated from you at birth to work on another plantation. I read somewhere in this book that a mother kept having children, and her children kept being sold, so at one point when she had another child, she killed her newborn to save him from the torment of being a slave. Observe how desperate mothers got to save their children.
This is only a fraction of what slaves experienced. In this book, you are not only reading their experiences but living them. It really opens your eyes to the cruelty that had taken place many years ago, which is hopefully over. It's pretty sad actually, to know that human beings can treat each other like that solely based on the color of their skin. It's such a selfish thing to do, to overwork and abuse someone for the sake of what? Yourself.
Well, please, please, please read this book. I feel that everyone should live the life that the slaves lived, to feel every feeling that went through their body. To feel a whip at your back, then a sting in your eyes, and all the while hearing your mother begging "Massa, please massa, you can whip me, just don't whip my baby!" How cruel is that, to let it even get that way? Anyway, one million stars. Seriously, this book really is the perfect read, and I think every single human being on earth, whether black or white, should read this.
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