more than meets the eye

I've noticed something preety cool! i've noticed that there are a lot of people that acturally have the sentiment to feel bad for the helpless slaves of that time. It it far more then they are actural number that were given. In our next selection of reading, we established that the U.S had just passed a law stating that helping fugitive slaves is forbiden and will be seveerly punished if caught. Now let's think about it logically. What is the purpose of passing a law in general? it is to prevent large quantity of people from acting in a way that is thought unlawful in term of that specific government. If there wern't alot of people that were caught helping the slaves, the establishment of this law would be very low. From the context clue, we are able to conclude that there is a lot of white people that will risk their wellbeing by proving shelter to the slaves.

Together, we will succeed.

At the next section of the reading, we discovered that Eliza ran off with his only son, Harry. Surprisingly, Mr. and Mrs Sheley were glad that they escaped. This completely go against my previous statement. I had said in my last post that, "slaves are treated like slaves no matter how nice the master might be." we find this to be untrue because of how Mr. and Mrs. Sheley reacted toward the decision of Eliza. This certainly confirmed one thing, it confirmed that Mr. agreed to sell Sheley with great deal of pain. It hurts him that he have to sell his "friend" in order to not sell all his properties and to be able to keep his farm. In a way, his decision is made for the benifits of the farm. If we think about it, what would happen to all the slaves if the farm is sold? what will the slaves do? how would the masters find money to support them?

We also see that when the Buyer comes to Mr. Sheley's farm and demand for the slaves, he is out raged by what had happened. To avoid suspicion that they had helped the slaves escape, Mr. Sheley ordered his slaves to prepare a horse for the buyer so he can go back Eliza and his son back. While doing so, we can see that the other slaves tries to do all they can do prolong the action. For example, the slave altered the horse so that when ever pressure is put on the horse, the horse will experience excessive pain. This caused delays until lunch time. Sheley family had also contributed to the delay when they offered lunch to the slave hunters. Through this, we can see that the slaves are very close to each other. they are willing to risk their life for the safty of others. This is a way how they cope with their every day lives, they count on each other.

Courage Through Faith

In the next section of this book, i learned something that's relatively new. I learned that slaves will turn to god when ever a misfortune happens. for example, In the next scene, Mr. Shelby is going to cell Harry and his father Tom. I just happens that Eliza overheard the conversation between Mr. and Mrs Shelby and runs frighteningly to his husband Tom. When Tom heard the news, the encouraged Eliza run off to the north with her son Harry. However, Eliza replied with, "trust god." They are religious to the point where they are trusting their son in the hand of god. This is understandable because the only hope that the slaves have is in god. There is no authority figure that they can turn to ask for help. Also the only reading that they are allowed to do is religion related stuff. Even in our time, people tend to turn to god when nothing else is working. Even though most of us realize that god probably don't even exist, but we still pray. Why? for the same reason why the slaves of this time are counting on god. it is because there is no other comfort that we can draw upon. When all road leads to a dead end, God is the way to go.

Book 2- Uncle Tom's Cabin

This new book starts the reader off instantly with a glimpse of how the slaves are treated. The initial setting starts at a plantation where Arthur Shelby is negotiating with a slave buyer to discuss about slave trades. Arthur is described as being a gentleman who shows no haterade toward his slaves. He is reluctant to sell his slaves because he is in debt. ultimately, He decides to sell 2 of his slaves. to repay his debt.

This actually suggested several things. First, the slaves are viewed as being nothing more than property. This situation is very similar to a business owner whose business collapse and have to sell his car to keep his house. Arthur is doing the same thing beside the fact that the "item" he trades in is an actual human. Second, it explains that no matter how nice the slave owner is, he will still treat the slave as being a mere property. once again, this is similar to our modern situation. the way a nice slave owner treats his slave is similar to how a dog owner would treat his/her dog. it also portray the life of an slave. when an slave is sold, most of the time it's a member of a slave family. For the most part, slaves have to endure the lost of his/her son permanently. life of slaves are not glorious.