Freedom

One day, when Linda was visiting Ellen, she found out that Mrs. Hobbs’s brother, Mr. Thorne, had wrote a letter to Dr. Flint. In the letter, he said, “I have seen your slave, Linda, and conversed with her. She can be taken very easily. There are enough of us here to swear to her identity as your property. I am a patriot, a lover of my country, and I do this as an act of justice to the laws.”
This causes Linda to spill her heart out to Mrs. Bruce and confess that she is a run-away slave. Mrs. Bruce said that she would do everything to protect her. It was decided that Linda must leave the city as soon as possible. At first she went to the house one of Mrs. Bruce’s friends. Mrs. Hobbs felt bad because it was her brother who had ratted Linda out to Dr. Flint, so she was very helpful. She was also a very kind and sympathetic woman who admired the love Linda had for her daughter. Linda, William, and Ellen go to Boston. Linda decides to stay there and live with a friend.
Mrs. Bruce dies, and Linda travels for a long while, avoiding Dr. Flint whenever he stops by. After Dr. Flint’s death, Emily Flint and her new husband come looking for her, but Linda again avoids them. Mr. Bruce gets re-married, and the new Mrs. Bruce buys her from the Flints and gives Linda her freedom.
In the end, Linda has mixed emotions because even though she got her freedom, she was bought as property to gain it. Mrs. Bruce had bought her so she could be free, but since she was bought she was still owned by someone.

The North

The North is not what Linda had hoped for. Even though there were better conditions for slaves in the North, it was still disappointing. Linda was not free, but she felt that if she made it to the North, she would feel a sense of freedom.
An event that particularly sticks out is when she was going to ride the train. Mr. Durham went to go get tickets, but told Linda that he couldn’t get her seats to sit in first-class. Linda offered more money, because she thought that she had not given him enough. Mr Durham replied that colored people are not allowed to be in the first-class section of the train, and she would have to ride in the filthy cars behind all of the white people. The ticket that Linda had paid for was the ticket that allowed her to ride in the foul boxcar. This was Linda’s first disappointment. In the south, black people could ride in these unpleasant boxcars, but they didn’t have to pay for it. Even though Linda had the money to ride in the first-class seats, she was not allowed to. But instead of just coming out and saying it, everything is sugarcoated. The “Free States” seemed to have an implied prejudice.

William

When Mr. Sands left for the North, he decided to bring William with him. This was not a bad idea because Mr. Sands already seemed to be a kind master, and they would both be in the North where slavery was not as harsh.
William ran away from Mr. Sands even though he would have supplied him with a good home. Even though Mr. Sands had promised all of Linda's family freedom, time continued to pass, and they did not have complete freedom. William just wanted to be free, and he decided to run away in order to leave his life of slavery behind.
I believe that this was justified because all slaves deserve their freedom no matter what. But they shouldn't sit back and wait for a miracle, just like William didn't want to, they should do something about it. Which is what William decided to do.

Mr. Sands

Mr. Sands hires a slave trader to purchase Linda’s children from Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint did not suspect any sort of shenanigans, but that “normal” slave trader was actually hired by Mr. Sands in the first place. Mr. Sands bought Linda’s children from that slave trader so they could be free. Unknowingly, Dr. Flint indirectly “frees” Linda’s children, when he was trying to do the opposite.
I really do like Mr. Sands. I believe that he is honest and trustworthy. He was even elected for Congress, which shows me that he was an honorable. But, Linda says in chapter 27, “Then I remembered, with a sigh, how slavery perverted all the natural feelings of the human heart.” Even though he is a kind man and is doing as much as he can to help Linda, he is still involved with slavery, and there isn’t a way to tell how much it has perverted his heart.

Gold Necklace

After Linda left the church, her father’s old mistress had invited Linda to go back to her home. In an act of kindness, the mistress gave the baby a necklace. But, Linda didn’t like this necklace because of what the chains on her necklace symbolized. The necklace chains related to their life of slavery. Linda said, “I wanted no chain to be fastened on my daughter, even if its links were of gold.” This gold necklace reminded Linda of how her baby was born into this life of sadness and slavery. She wished that it wasn’t so, and that her dear baby girl never had to feel the weight of an iron chain around her. It did not matter to her if it was a beautiful and elegant chain. A chain is still a chain. Just like Linda was born a slave, she hated to think of her own child living the way she has to.

Different Worlds

The passage I picked was in chapter five, about when Linda Brent saw the two young girls playing with each other. One of the girls was white, and the other black. They grew up together as sisters, but everything would change once they get older. The white girl’s “pathway was blooming with flowers, and overarched by a sunny day.” One day this little girl would be able to live a happy life and get married. But, the black girl would grow to be a slave. “She drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compelled to drink.” Just because the color of her skin was different than her sister’s, their lives would be completely different. They grew up the same but the society in which they lived thought people with darker skin than them were inferior and had to serve the whites. They mistreated the black people just because of their darker pigmentation. It made me sad to think of these two children who had been best friends for all their lives until they got older and finally understood that not everything was happy and perfect anymore. Something so small ruined the girl’s entire life. Although she was just as beautiful as her light-skinned sister, she was stuck with a fate worse than death.

Love

For white people, love is a privilege. They are free to love whoever they choose in the white race and they have the freedom to marry and start families. The slaves do not have the same abilities as the white people do. Linda meets a free black man who she falls in love with. He offers to buy her from Dr. Flint so they can marry and be happy together. But Linda is property of Dr. Flint’s daughter, and he lies and uses this as en excuse to not sell her because he does not want to give Linda up. If Linda wants to have the chance to be in love, there are many conditions put on her. Dr. Flint tells her that if she wants to get married to someone, it has to be with another one of his slaves. The women slaves that have babies are just bringing more slaves into the slave owner’s hands. Love isn’t a right for those in bondage. They don’t ever have the chance to have proper and beautiful weddings. Slaves don’t get to have any sort of flowery love. They are not allowed to be happy. On the other hand, because of the tyranny of the slave masters and society itself, the love between slave families is very strong. Later in the book, Linda had the chance for freedom, but she could not bring herself to leave her family and children as easily as Benjamin did. Although her desire for freedom is so strong, the love for her family is stronger considering she would not be able to leave them behind even if it means getting out of slavery.

Picture of Slavery

One thing that I found very powerful was the story of Linda’s grandmother. She had been a slave all of her life. She was a very kind and good-hearted woman. Although she was a slave, she was respected around town. Linda’s grandmother even got along with her masters and usually had one of the better lives that it was possible for a slave to have. She did everything for her family, like working through the night making crackers and cakes to save up money to buy her children and her grandchildren’s freedom. She was a mother to many and took care of all of them as best as she could. She even loaned her master three hundred dollars, which was never paid back. She did so much, but she still was never able to free all of her loved ones.
In the book, Linda provides a broad view by explaining how many of the slaves felt and how many of the slave owners thought. Linda explained that some slave owners believe that slaves are insignificant. “These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their master, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend to.” (pg. 11)
Linda tells us her individual story and how she was sheltered as a child to where she didn’t even know that she was a slave. Being a slave, she was lucky because one of the worst punishments besides verbal abuse was when she had to walk miles in the snow barefoot. But she explained that it could be much worse, like the slave who was whipped until the blood ran to his feet, or the young slave girl that died soon after the birth of her child while the smiling mistress stood over her saying she nor her baby deserved heaven.

The American Dream

My favorite thing that we discussed in class this week was how Gatsby proved that the American dream is possible. He stripped himself of his former identity while trying to pursue great wealth and prosperity. Gatsby’s whole life was devoted to rekindling the relationship he once had with Daisy Buchanan.
Gatsby grew up poor and worked himself up the status chain until he was on the other side. The American Dream is just that, material prosperity, and going from rags to riches. He had always surrounded himself with things, threw glamorous parties every Saturday, and made himself be the person who he thought Daisy would want to be with and love. Although he achieved the American Dream in a physical sense, in reality, he was still empty inside. Jay Gatsby had all the money he would ever need, but he had no friends, love, or important relationships. Only three people even showed up to his funeral when he died.