Narrative Essay: Life As A Slave

Life as a slave was extraordinarily cruel. For slaves who were not natives of our land it was a life they had not always known. A slave who was brought from oversees was 1st captured and kidnapped, most often by warring tribes man and guerillas. They were ripped away from their families and thrown onto ships. The ships were overcrowded no luxuries were afforded these prisoners. The captures we stowed below the ship as cattle would be. Some were even kept on deck in the harsh elements of the sea and weather. They were shackled and chained, their movements very restricted. They were fed little to nothing and as such a great many lost their lives on the voyage across the Atlantic due to malnutrition and diseases that their malnourished …show more content…
A slave woman was more likely than not to be beaten as the men were, but also starved and for many raped. Women who were raped by their masters often ended up bearing children by them which would then turn the wrath of the woman of the household upon said slave and sometimes even her children. Children were used to punish their mothers at times. If a slave was not acting in accordance to her master her children could be stripped from her and sold at auction, never to be heard from again. Conditions were deplorable.
Even with all of the cruelties that slaves faced they had to have some way to deal with the atrocities of daily life. One of the ways that slaves endured their daily life was in the form of music. African music and culture was very upbeat and hopeful. They would dance the dances of their homeland and play music, sometimes on instruments, but more often than not by simply tapping their feet and clapping their …show more content…
For a slave to escape was extremely risky. If a slave was caught during an escape attempt their punishment most often was death, or of a beating so severe that the slave prayed for death. With all the risks involved in such a dramatic attempt at normalcy it was worth it for most slaves to attempt. Some slaves were able to escape to their freedom. That thought alone gave slaves the ability to live the lives they were forced into.
Some slaves risked everything and ran away on their own, while other slaves used the help of the Runaway Railroad. The Runaway Railroad was not an actual railroad in that there were no tracks or even trains that operated on the railroad. Instead it was a network of abolitionists who were sympathetic to the plight of slaves. This railroad included homes and other locations as “depots” where slaves were given shelter on their trek to the north. Some slaves were loaded onto boats and snuck into the northern states in that