- Oct 2015
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openamlit.pressbooks.com openamlit.pressbooks.com
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joyfully verify’d by a happy Sight of his Person
Why is he happy to see his owner? The man he ran away from? This is absurd.
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my good Master
Didn't he run away from his "good master"?
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I was employ’d in this Service about Seven Months
He carried some guy on an elaborate chair around the country for seven months?!
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but they never acquainted him with it, nor did he know all this Time what became of me, which was the means of my being confin’d there so long.
Maybe he did know and just didn't care?
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that they intended to roast me alive.
Alright, that's pretty barbaric, I'll give you that.
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making a prodigious shouting and hallowing like so many Devils
Again with the Natives being equated with the devil!
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than to be kill’d by those barbarous and inhuman Savages
I'm surprised he refers to the Natives in this way, considering that he is considered similarly, if not worse, by white people.
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at the Sight of which we were not a little rejoiced, but on our advancing yet nearer, we found them, to our very great Surprize, to be Indians of which there were Sixty
Well that surprise turned bad real quick
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the Sloop
Is this the name of this ship? If so, strange choice.
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which if he had done, might have sav’d his Vessel and Cargo, and not only so, but his own Life, as well as the Lives of the Mate and Nine Hands, as I shall presently relate.
Damn...should've thrown that wood overboard!
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and the 15th Day of June, we were cast away on Cape-Florida, about 5 Leagues from the Shore; being now destitute of every Help, we knew not what to do or what Course to take in this our sad Condition
What happened to put them in such dire conditions?
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An Account of the many Hardships he underwent from the Time he left his Master’s House, in the Year 1747, to the Time of his Return to Boston–How he was Cast away in the Capes of Florida;–the horrid Cruelty and inhuman Barbarity of the Indians in murdering the whole Ship’s Crew;–the Manner of his being carry’d by them into Captivity. Also, An Account of his being Confined Four Years and Seven Months in a close Dungeon,–And the remarkable Manner in which he met with his good old Master in London; who returned to New-England, a Passenger, in the same Ship.
Before even reading this, I'm kind of skeptical that this man even existed. Sounds like a story slave owners would make up to keep their slaves from running away...
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Briton Hammon
"Briton Hammon was a slave in the middle of the 18th century, who, after leaving his master, may have encountered more hardships outside his sanctioned slavery than as a slave. He recorded, and published, his "uncommon" story as a slave and his many hardships. Some of these include being captured by Indians after the deaths of all persons but himself on the ship and being held in captivity twice, once for almost five years. He described many attempts of escaping his captives, almost ending his life in a very poor state, and finally prevailing as a free man." --Wikipedia
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