Life of a Slave Girl

¶ … Life of a Slave Girl" left an overwhelming impression on me. In my opinion, the rebellious nature of the slave girl was one to be admired for her time. She did not give in to what many around her were submitting to. She was deemed rebellious because she would not follow instructions, nor was she one to submit to her master, the Doctor, like he wanted her to. Everyone around the slave girl expected her to do whatever it was that the Doctor wanted her to do with him, but she refused. Despite the fact that she could have easily been killed, she was secure in the fact that she would not get beaten because of the orders that were given by the Doctor. But even though she had this as something that would console her, she could very well have been beaten to death, given the times that she was living in. Slavery is something that is unimaginable to someone young living in today's society, but back then it was something really treacherous that threatened the very lives of those who we now consider friends, and established a threat to what we consider to be a given right: freedom.

The fact that the slave girl would be punished at any given time for something that she stood for and firmly believed, is unfathomable. But regardless of what the consequences were, she stood up for what she thought was right, and that is very admirable. Despite appearances, which seem to be an overarching theme in this excerpt, she knew what she didn't want to do, and even though the Mistress thought that she was having an affair with her husband the Doctor, the slave girl still felt bad for the wife. It is this concern for the person who thought the least of her that makes her the more admirable. The slave girl who feared for her life was more sympathetic about the fact that the wives of these slave owners deceived them at any moment possible, that she actually felt bad for them. She thought that these women deserved more than what they were receiving.

As I stated before, appearances seem to be something very important in this excerpt. Everyone appeared to be one thing, while secretly being another in order to cover their tracks. Slave owners fathered children left and right with the slaves and some didn't even claim the children, even though it was so apparent and obvious. The slave girl refused to be just one more of these female slaves who gave in to her Master's desires. Even though the Doctor promised her everything and said that she would be living like a queen, she stood her ground and refused to give in. In times of slavery, that was something that was practically unheard of. Whatever the master told her to do was supposed to be done. The slave girl was actually pretty lucky that more severe consequences weren't taken against her. She was very confident in what she believed to be her true nature, and although she was scared, as she admitted many times throughout the story, she would still rather suffer the consequences than give in to what she didn't see as the right thing to do.