The paper provides a narrative of the life as well as experiences as an ordinary person in America during the colonial times. It describes the situation during the colonial era including the issue of slavery, discrimination and poverty. The paper takes into consideration issues of gender, ethnicity, age and religion.
Autobiographical Narrative of Colonial American Life
The rise of the colonial era in the 1600s and 1700s was a time of reckoning and awakening for very many of us. Living in this time in the divided regions of America had its fair share of challenges for every person. It was worse if you are an immigrant from other worlds or had come in as a slave worker. These challenging times dictated life for every individual irrespective of anybody's ethnicity or origin (Lassieur, 2011).
I am an African-American resident, living in the southern colonies. The southern colonies of the Americas have rich lands and are hence mainly used for farming and other agricultural activities. I was born in this place and grew to be a person of age, now in my mid-thirties years. I am male and just recently got a wife. My father was an African man, who was brought to the Americas as a slave to come and work as a slave in the farms of the rich whites who own vast lands in the region (Smith, 1934).
My family consists of my mother, and younger brother. My father passed on and my older brother too. This has left me as the father of the family since my traditions dictate that, in absence of the father, the eldest living son becomes the head of the family. This means that as an individual, I have many responsibilities on my shoulders. My home consists of three room houses, one for my mother, and the other for me and my wife and the last room is where we use to cook and also where my brother sleeps. These rooms are very small and also the whole neighborhood is very populated since we are all settled in a central area with very poor housing and sanitation (Brill, 2007).
Growing in the Americas in the colonial age is not easy. Education is a luxury only afforded by those people who have the ability and the status in the community. All the learning takes place from home, and the parents or guardians are the teachers and tutors for their children (Smith, 1942). As a result, I have very little working skills since; I did not get any formal education. The only working skills I have are of farming since that is the only work that I have ever done and seen being done. Thus, for me to make a living, I only rely on the cheap manual labor job that I can offer to the white settlers in the community.
However, securing the opportunity to work in these farmlands is not easy unless you prove that you are trustworthy and hard working person (Lassieur, 2011). The conditions of working are very hard, and I have to work for long hours in the blistering hot weather. The manual work is a lot, and the workers are quite few. This makes us have to work twice as hard so as to manage to keep the job opportunity and be able to make a living for my expanding family. This is because it is only me and my brother who work for our family. The pay is also quite explorative since it does not make up enough to meet all my needs. The very high cost of food stuff and other basic necessities is a major challenge, but since I have no other option, I just stick to keeping my job.
I am a traditionalist, believing in existence of one all powerful God. However, there is no freedom to practice and assemble so as to perform my prayers as I should. I believe that god answers prayers and that he has the best of interest for my life. However, the mixture of ethnicities comes with different religious believes. This makes it quite hard for me and other people who are of the same origin as I to link up and practice our worship rituals. Moreover, the major religion here is Christianity. This makes my religion lesser and hence the challenge to manage to practice it.
Being a simple slave, some activities are a luxury that I can only dream of (Kellogg, 2005). Such include accessing recreational facilities and being able to enjoy freely. Socializing is a thing of the rich and those people who have status within the community. There is only one bar in the neighborhood that serves all the slave workers and the people who do the manual labor. This point of meeting for the weak and lowly persons brings together people of many ethnic groups and hence, there is always tension in the bar. Recreation for every person of color is a privilege for all ages (Brill, 2007). Also in the bar, the price of the drinks is quite high. These recreation outlets are hence hard to access and also due to the high costs of the facilities and the services, it becomes quite a challenge.
In the settlement, there is the other factor of insecurity. The security of the people is not certain, and there are widespread deaths and mugging incidences. This is creating antagonistic atmosphere between the people. The diversity in ethnicity within the neighborhood is causing divisions along the ethnic lines. These divisions will not work well for us as my ethnic group is greatly discriminated, being considered to be just as good as animals (Kellogg, 2005). Moreover, these divisions are being used by the whites to oppress us more since we do not have unity among ourselves. The farm owners are also not concerned with the living situations of the people and even our security.
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