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.