The crazy label for women is one big homogenous lump of insults. Crazy can mean scary, dramatic, needy, anything really

bearded woman a symbol of female empowerment

worship or fear, love or loathing,” (Rivkin & Ryan 814)

Just a friendly reminder.

Disney

Men do not pay to see a tri-boobed lady to hear her talk. They pay to look

“Natural”

fake woman

ifferent circus icons

The old feeling of insecurity, especially with regard to my children, often threw its dark shadow across my sunshine.

had sworn that he would make me suffer,

When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women

ree as the birds

I’ve got nothing to live for now. God make my time short!”

ut Jesus is my bosom friend; He rolls dem blocks away

we determined to hear him again.

God sees you; and he will punish you.

ebellious sinners. Your hearts are filled with all manner of evil.

, “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”

e well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters.

shocking outrages were committed with perfect impunity.

What a spectacle was that for a civilized country! A rabble, staggering under intoxication, assuming to be the administrators of justice!

very bush and vine, with no better success.

e. Nobody shall do you any harm.

s, as being notorious for his cruelty. He felt above soiling his hands with the search. He merely gave orders; and, if a bit of writing was discovered, it was carried to him by his ignorant followers, who were unable to read.

f hungry wolves

were robbed of clothing and every thing else the marauders thought worth carrying away

low whites, who had no negroes of their own to scourge.

white man shouldered his musket.

Nat Turner’s insurrection broke out; and the news threw our town into great commotion

When I was most sorely oppressed I found a solace in his smiles.

He was put in jail

, unless my child could die too.

it

could not have any doctor but my master, and I would not have him sent for.

I will take care of you and your child

ingratitude chafes me beyond endurance. You turn aside all my good intentions towards you

“I am thankful that I do not despise him,” I replied.

He sprang upon me like a wolf, a

don’t care a straw for you.

; “but not against you.

lover who had always treated me honorably

you shall feel the fires of hell.”

I had sinned against my master,

, I shall die a freeman!”

Through God’s providence, the brothers met. You may be sure it was a happy meeting. “O Phil,” exclaimed Benjamin, “I am here at last.”

But I would advise you to get out of this place plaguy quick, for there are several gentlemen here from our town.” He described the nearest and safest route to New York, and added, “I shall be glad to tell your mother I have seen you. Good by, Ben.”

For once his white face did him a kindly service. They had no suspicion that it belonged to a slave; otherwise, the law would have been followed out to the letter, and the thing rendered back to slavery.

He promised that he would not sell him till he reached New Orleans.

We thanked God that he was not.

This audacity was punished with heavier chains, and prohibition of our visits.

his food was of the coarsest kind, we carried him as often as possible a warm supper, accompanied with some little luxury for the jailer.

We overstaid our time, and were obliged to hurry from the jail.

For not letting him treat me like a dog?

God, a heaven. He forgets every thing in his struggle to get beyond the reach of the bloodhounds. ”

We did not speak. Sobs were heard, and Benjamin’s lips were unsealed; for his mother was weeping on his neck. How vividly does memory bring back that sad night! Mother and son talked together.

Yes, news was heard. The master was rejoicing over a letter, announcing the capture of his human chattel.

The storm passed, and they proceeded to New York. Before reaching that port Benjamin managed to get off his chains and throw them overboard. He escaped from the vessel, but was pursued, captured, and carried back to his maste

ecessary to state how he made his escape

hardships with freedom, were not preferable to our treatment in slavery.

was to be publicly whipped for the offence

When he did, his master was angry, and began to whip him. He resisted.

God was leading me through such thorny path

proceeded from fear

Good, honest man!

What was my grief on waking to find myself quite well!

, my bare feet tingled

grated harshly on her refined nerves

render me miserable.

I believed it to be in Benjamin’s heart

od-given nature. I had not lived fourteen years in slavery for nothing.

perfect coward when a tussle ensued between him and white boys of his own siz

but what’s the use?

ontentment.

I love you. 0, Linda, isn’t this a bad world? Every body seems so cross and unhappy. I wish I had died when poor father did.

will must and should surrender to his,

nature roved about day and night, seeking whom to devour, had just left me, with stinging, scorching words; words that scathed ear and brain like fire

beauty seemed to mock my sadness

nd with a spirit too bold and daring for a slave.

he spoke so hopefully, that unconsciously the clouds gave place to sunshine.

It was a beautiful faith, coming from a mother who could not call her children her own

She would have been happy could her children have shared them with her

give twenty dollars for her

, of hourly occurrence.

Gone! all gone! Why don’t God kill me?” I had no words wherewith to comfort her

ut they took al

but she has a mother’s instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother’s agonies.

But to the slave mother New Year’s day comes laden with peculiar sorrows

disposed of

like criminals,

. If no heavy charges are meantime brought against them, they are given four or five holidays, whichever the master or overseer may think proper.

e on the 1st of January

that her mistress felt unable to stay; but when she left the room, the scornful smile was still on her lips. Seven children called her mother. The poor black woman had but the one child, whose eyes she saw closing in death, while she thanked God for taking her away from the greater bitterness of life.

“There is no such place for the like of her and her bastard.”

. “You suffer, do you?” she exclaimed. “I am glad of it. You deserve it all, and more too.”

She had forgotten that it was a crime for a slave to tell who was the father of her child.

he guilty man put their value into his pocket, and had the satisfaction of knowing that they were out of sight and hearing.

They were both black, and the child was very fair.

was to wait till the doctor had taken his tea

He sent for the cook, and compelled her to eat it

but she did not object to having her master cram it down her throat till she choked.

nd then spit in all the kettles and pans that had been used for cooking.

member of the church

but her nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood trickled from every stroke of the lash.

to the man who had defrauded her of her money, and tried to defraud her of her freedom.

he gave the old servant her freedom.

Shame! Shame! Who is going to sell you, aunt Marthy? Don’t stand there! That is no place for you.” Without saying a word, she quietly awaited her fate. No one bid for her. At last, a feeble voice said, “Fifty dollars.” It came from a maiden lady, seventy years old, the sister of my grandmother’s deceased mistress.

ashamed of the job.

it was necessary she should be sold.

he silver candelabra, which had been purchased with that money. I presume they will be handed down in the family, from generation to generation.

were never repaid.

badges of slavery.

something for my breakfast or dinner

he did not intend to buy his freedom.

“Take courage, Willie; brighter days will come by and by.”

dangerous to the master

teaching them to feel that they were human beings

e was merely a piece of property.

. I thought I should be allowed to go to my father’s house the next morning; but I was ordered to go for flowers, that my mistress’s house might be decorated for an evening party.

“My child, your father is dead. ” Dead! How could I believe it? He had died so suddenly I had not even heard that he was sick. I went home with my grandmother. My heart rebelled against God, who had taken from me mother, father, mistress, and friend.

little friend of mine was buried.

. On my narrow bed I moaned and wept, I felt so desolate and alone

When my father reproved him for it, he said, “You both called me, and I didn’t know which I ought to go to first.”

had more of the feelings of a freeman than is common among slaves.

y of their little daughter.

children escaped the auction block.

grandmother’s children

I try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.”

equeathed me to her sister’s daughter, a child of five years old.

But, alas! we all know that the memory of a faithful slave does not avail much to save her children from the auction bloc

hey would do with me

my tears fell upon her grave

too surely waits on every human being born to be a chattel.

kind to me that I was always glad to do her bidding, and proud to labor for her

when they became women, my mother was a most faithful servant to her whiter foster sister.

, that the babe of the mistress might obtain sufficient food.

My mother’s mistress was the daughter of my grandmother’s mistress.

many more important services.

honor of a slaveholder to a slave!

The reader probably knows that no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property

, nearly white; for he inherited the complexion my grandmother had derived from Anglo-Saxon ancestors

grandmother remained in her service as a slave; but her children were divided among her master’s children

children from the profits

aluable piece of property

t was during the Revolutionary War; and they were captured on their passage, carried back, and sold to different purchasers

I was a piece of merchandise

he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded.

to be head workman.

passed away

blessing of God

ouse the women of the North

t would have been more pleasant to me to have been silent about my own history

This has not left me much leisure to make up for the loss of early opportunities to improve myself, and it has compelled me to write these pages at irregular intervals, whenever I could snatch an hour from household duties.

k I have undertaken.

trictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery;

ore God t

arousing conscientious and reflecting women

nd much-injured woman belong to a class which some call delicate subjects, and others indelicate.

woman reared in Slavery should be able to write so well. But circumstances will explain this.

This fact is sufficient, without further credentials of her character.

Although, I can’t say I’d do the same if I freed someone and they made the brash decision to walk right on back into the claws of danger.

Let that sink in

sense of unease.

of the story as we read it

helpless

ixed on a pole in thePlaza, met, unabashed, the gaze of the whites; and across the Plazalooked toward St. Bartholomew’s church, in whose vaults sleptthen, as now, the recovered bones of Aranda; and across the Rimacbridge looked toward the monastery, on Mount Agonia without;where, three months after being dismissed by the court, BenitoCereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leade

a mule, theblack met his voiceless end.

the superior muscular strength of hiscaptor, in the boat

ilver-mounted sword, apparent symbol of despoticcommand, was not, indeed, a sword, but the ghost of one.

“The Negro.”

was the foreboding respons

But the past is passed; why moralize upon it? Forget it.

Wide, indeed,” said Don Benito, sadly; “you were with me allday; stood with me, sat with me, talked with me, looked at me, atewith me, drank with me; and yet, your last act was to clutch for avillain, not only an innocent man, but the most pitiable of all men.

u had the Prince of Heaven’s safeconduct through all ambuscades.” “

n I yours; saved it, too, against my knowledgeand will.” “Nay, my friend,” rejoined the Spaniard, courteous evento the point of religion, “God charmed your life, but you savedmine.

is world have wakened again.

I could not look at you,thinking of what, both on board this ship and your own, hung,from other hands, over my kind benefactor. And as God lives,

Don Benito a little recovered his health, or,at least in some degree, his tranquillity

rted as he came, in his litter, withthe monk Infelez, to the Hospital de Sacerdotes

, and, in particular with his own hand,struck down Martinez Gola, who, having found a razor in thepocket of an old jacket of his, which one of the shackled Negroeshad on, was aiming it at the Negro’s throat; that the noble CaptainAmasa Delano also wrenched from the hand of BartholomewBarlo, a dagger secreted at the time of the massacre of the whites,with which he was in the act of stabbing a shackled Negro, wh

, is in the custody of the brethren of the Hospital deSacerdotes, awaiting the decision of the honourable court;

Negro Babo commanded the Ashantee Lecbe to take tarand heat it, and pour it upon Don Joaquin’s hands;... -that DonJoaquin was killed owing to another mistake of the Americans, butone impossible to be avoided, as upon the approach of the boats,

e of the seamen, steering at the time, endangered himself by letting the blacks remark a certain unconscious hopefulexpression in his countenance, arising from some cause similar tothe above; but this sailor, by his heedful after conduct, escaped;...

a sailor about sixty years of age, and formerly of theking’s navy, was one of those who sought to convey tokens toCaptain Amasa Delano; but his intent, though undiscovered, beingsuspected, he was, on a pretence, made to retire out of sight, and atlast into the hold, and there was made away with.

, to convey hints to him of thetrue state of affairs; but that these attempts were ineffectual

tortured to death, instead ofsimply killing, the Spaniards slain by command of the Negro Bab

but Atufal, with his own hand, committed nomurder; nor did the Negro Babo

Don Alexandro Aranda, andothers of the cabinpassengers; that, owing to the fury with whichthe Ashantees fought in the engagement with the boats, but thisLecbe and Yan survived

creature

stabbed his master, Don Alexandro, after he had beendragged half-lifeless to the deck

Thedeposition then proceeds with recapitulatory remarks, and apartial renumeration of the Negroes, making record of theirindividual part in the past events, with a view to furnishing,according to command of the court, the data whereon to found thecriminal sentences to be pronounce

come from God and his angel

s Captain Amasa Delano, the deponent at firstrefused to ask the desired questions, and used every argument toinduce the Negro Babo to give up this new design; that the NegroBabo showed the point of his dagger; that, after the informationhad been obtained, the Negro Babo again drew him aside, tellinghim that that very night he (the deponent) would be captain of twoships instead of one, for that, great part of the American’s ship’screw being to be absent fishing, the six Ashantees, without any oneelse, would easily take it

’s actions and words, for the Negro Babounderstands well the Spanish;

That the generous Captain Amasa Delanoremained on board all the day, till he left the ship anchored at sixo’clock in the evening, deponent speaking to him always of hispretended misfortunes,

d story that this deponent wasto tell, charging them lest any of them varied from that story; thatthese arrangements were made and matured du

, he would instantly kill him, with allhis companions, showing a dagger, which he carried hid, sayingsomething which, as he understood it, meant that that daggerwould be alert as his eye; that the Negro Babo then announced theplan to all his companions, which pleased them

Negro Babo pacifiedthem, assuring them that no fear need be had;

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