To Be a Slave

“Slavery differed from country to country. But it was in the United States that a system of slavery evolved that was more cruel and total than almost any other system of slavery devised by one group of men against another. No other country where blacks were enslaved destroyed African culture to the extent that it was destroyed here.”

At the end of the Prologue, Lester gives a sweeping overview of the era of slavery in the Western hemisphere. Before getting into the specifics of American slavery, Lester steps back and points out the unique cruelty of the American system compared to other countries in the world.

“To be a slave. To be owned by another person, as a car, house, or table is owned. To live as a piece of property that could be sold—a child from its mother, a wife from her husband. To be considered not human, but a ‘thing’ that plowed the fields, cut the wood, cooked the food, nursed another’s child; a ‘thing’ whose sole function was determined by the one who owned you.”

Lester begins the first chapter with these words—a strong and detailed description of the dehumanizing condition of slavery, the lens through which the reader must look in order to understand the details of the book. Throughout the book, Lester often summarizes key information in his own commentary, followed by excerpts of interviews with former slaves.

“To be a slave was to be a human being under conditions in which that humanity was denied. They were not slaves. They were people. Their condition was slavery.”

After describing the dehumanization of slavery, Lester adds a critical dimension to the book: the reminder that enslaved people were human beings experiencing the condition of slavery. This quote also highlights the importance of language when studying history. Although Lester uses the word “slave” to refer to people in his book, some historians use “enslaved person” instead.

“You want to know what they did in slavery times. They were doing just what they do now. The white folks was beating the n*****s, burnin’ ’em and boilin’ ’em, workin’ ’em and doin’ any other thing they wanted to do with them.”

This is a quote from Alice Johnson, a former slave interviewed in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project. Early in the book, this quote introduces an important theme: The content of To Be a Slave has importance far beyond the period of slavery itself. Quotes like these would have added impact during the civil rights movement, demonstrating that the fight for racial equality was ongoing in the United States.

“They never got nary a lick of labor and nary a red penny for any of them babies.”

This is a quote from Ida Hutchinson, a former slave interviewed as part of the Federal Writers’ Project. Hutchinson relates a disturbing story of enslaved women’s babies drowning during a rainstorm and notes that, in a way, the babies’ deaths cheated the slave holders. Lester uses this quote to show how enslaved people clearly understood the economic reasons behind slavery. This quote also demonstrates how enslaved people sometimes viewed death as a form of escape.

“Then mass, he just take out his gun and shot her, and while she lay dying, he kicks her two, three times […] You know that man, he wouldn’t bury Mother. Just leave her laying where he shot her at.”

This is a quote from Ben Simpson, a former slave. This quote is one of many examples of deeply traumatic events recounted in the book. The body being treated so inhumanely in this story is “Mother” to Simpson; this detail highlights the humanity of enslaved people and the cruelty they endured. This quote also demonstrates how many of the interviews with former slaves were recorded in a way that maintained the speaker’s grammatical style. This is in contrast to the pre-Civil War slave narratives.

“The plantation. It was a large white mansion, with fluted columns and a broad porch […] Such is the picture that is often presented of the southern plantation. It is not a true one.”

Throughout To Be a Slave, Lester tries to correct common misconceptions about the period of slavery. Here, he explicitly challenges the popular image of the Southern plantation before giving a more accurate description.

“It is the literal, unvarnished truth that the crack of the lash and the shrieking of the slaves can be heard from dark till bedtime on Epps’ plantation, any day almost during the entire period of the cotton-picking season.”

This quote is from Solomon Northup, a free Black man in the North who was kidnapped and enslaved for 12 years. Northup wrote a book about his experiences titled Twelve Years a Slave. This book was popular at the time and is an example of how slave narratives strengthened the abolitionist movement. This quote also demonstrates Northup’s tone and the fact that pre-Civil War slave narratives were written in a different grammatical style than the 1930s interviews with former slaves.

“To the sound of the whip and the shrieks of black men and women, the slave owner and America grew wealthy. Yet it is all the more remarkable that even now the two hundred years of slavery are looked upon matter-of-factly and not as a time of unrelieved horror.”

This quote is an example of how To Be a Slave is not meant to be read as history bound to the past; instead, it is important to understand the impact of this history on America’s present. Here, Lester steps back from historical details to summarize key information and to reflect on the sanitized view of slavery prevalent in the 1960s.

“Perhaps the sound of other human beings marching to the fields for another day of forced labor was a ‘pleasant’ one. Perhaps. But to those who made the sound, it was the dull monotonous sound of the living deaths in which they were held captive.”

Lester explains that while some white people worked against slavery, most had an apathetic attitude. He demonstrates this attitude with a quote from a northerner visiting a Southern plantation, describing the sound of enslaved people marching to their day’s work as “pleasant” in a letter. This quote demonstrates Lester’s strong narrative voice—he expresses his disgust at the word “pleasant” being used to describe a horrible reality.

“The slave had many means of resisting the dehumanizing effects of slavery. Religion became one of them. It became a purifying force in the life of the slaves, a release from the everyday misery.”

Lester demonstrates how Christianity was used against enslaved people as part of the effort to brainwash them. Yet, enslaved people embraced religion and transformed it, turning it into a tool of resistance instead of oppression.

“I had never dreamed of running away. I had a sentiment of honor on the subject. The duties of the slave to his master as appointed over him in the Lord, I had ever heard urged by ministers and religious men. It seemed like outright stealing.”

This quote is from the memoirs of Josiah Henson. Lester uses Henson as an example of an enslaved person who was brainwashed by slave holders and seen as a “good slave.” Later, Henson changed his mind and fled to Canada with his family.

“Even though the slaves returned from the fields exhausted at night, they would often sneak off to the woods for church services, singing, and parties, where they would sing and dance away the pain of the day and feel that ecstasy which comes from knowing that one is a human being, not a work animal.”

This quote demonstrates how pervasive—and how necessary—tools of resistance were to enslaved people. Although they were exhausted and physically abused, the need for dignity and social connection drove them to gather together in spite of the risk of punishment.

“All this was done to keep you from serving God and do you know some of them devils was mean and sinful enough to say, ‘If I catch you here servin’ God, I’ll beat you. You ain’t got no time to serve God. We bought you to serve us.”

This quote is from West Turner, a former slave. Turner describes the lengths at which the “paddyrollers” would go to intercept religious gatherings. This demonstrates how religion, used as a weapon against enslaved people, also became a tool of resistance. Slave holders recognized this; in this quote, the slave holders see belief in God as a threat to their own power. Lester notes that enslaved people began to look down on the religion of slave holders; in this quote, Turner calls the slave holders “sinful.”

“Slavery did its best to make me feel wretched; I feel no particular obligation to it, but nature, or the blessed God of youth and joy, was mightier than slavery […] The God who makes the pup gambol, and the kitten play, and the bird sing, and the fish leap, was the author in me of many a lighthearted hour.”

This is a quote from the memoirs of Josiah Henson. In Chapter 4, Lester points out that slavery was never enjoyable, but enslaved people were able to create moments of joy for themselves. In the face of constant dehumanization, enslaved people were still human beings.

“They are deceived who flatter themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs. They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come—it will come, if his prayer is heard—a terrible day of vengeance, when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy.”

This quote is taken from Solomon Northup, a man who was enslaved in the South for 12 years. Like Lester, Northup explicitly challenges common misconceptions about slavery. Writing in 1853, Northup argues that enslaved people are fully human, with a clear understanding of the oppression and injustice they suffer. Slave narratives like Northup’s became an important part of the abolitionist movement.

“Was I happy? You can take anything. No matter how good you treat it—it wants to be free. You can treat it good and feed it good and give it everything it seems to want—but if you open the cage—it’s happy.”

This quote is taken from an interview of Tom Robinson, a former slave reflecting on the news of freedom. This quote undermines any positive view of slavery that slave holders may have presented. Even if enslaved people were fed and treated well—which the vast majority were not—the longing for freedom is fundamental.

“To be really free, it was necessary that [former slaves] be able to make a living by themselves; it was necessary that they not have to go to those who had formerly held them slaves and ask for jobs […] Blacks had to be economically independent from a white South that was built on black slavery and resented black freedom.”

In this quote, Lester sets up the problem facing African Americans after emancipation. He describes what was required for true freedom and the inherent problems with former slaves relying on former slave holders and an unjust economic system.

“Freedom did not come to blacks. It merely visited for a while.”

Lester begins Chapter 7 with his own commentary explaining the problems facing African Americans and the requirements of true freedom. He finishes his commentary with these strong, clear statements to summarize the reality of what happened after emancipation. These statements are proven by the interview excerpts that follow them.

“Two snakes full of poison. One lying with his head pointing north, the other with his head pointing south. Their names was slavery and freedom. The snake called slavery lay with his head pointed south and the snake called freedom lay with his head pointed north. Both bit the n***** and they was both bad.”

This quote is from Patsy Michener, a former slave interviewed in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project. This quote dismantles the simplistic view of liberated “happy slaves”; instead, Patsy articulates the complexity of life after emancipation. Just as enslaved people understood the injustice of slavery, Patsy also demonstrates a clear understanding of the injustice experienced after emancipation.

“The legacy of slavery has been bitter and in the 103 years since the end of the Civil War little has been done to alleviate the bitterness. Much of that bitterness was reflected in some of the interviews conducted by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s. Seventy years after the end of the Civil War, some ex-slaves expressed attitudes and feelings, which, if anyone had bothered to listen, once more gave the lie to the stereotype of the happy slave, of the slave freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and accepted as a man equal to any other.”

In this quote, Lester once again makes strong connections between the past and the present. Writing in 1968, he asserts that “little has been done to alleviate” the legacy of slavery (107). Lester will not allow his readers to comfortably examine the past; instead, he puts before them the continuation of racial injustice in the present. Lester also explicitly challenges historical misconceptions in this quote; specifically, he challenges the simplistic happily-ever-after version of post-emancipation history.

“Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I didn’t like her book and I hate her.”

This quote is from Thomas Hall, a former slave interviewed in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project. Harriet Beecher Stowe is a famous writer and abolitionist, and her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is typically credited with giving the abolitionist movement the momentum it needed. Thomas Hall’s declaration that he “hates” Stowe is startling, inciting readers to re-examine previously held beliefs about American history.

“White folks are not going to do nothing for Negroes except keep them down […] The Yankees helped free us, so they say, but they let us be put back in slavery again.”

Thomas Hall, a former slave, undermines the view of “Yankees” as liberators of enslaved people. He believes that all white people want to suppress Black people. This statement may be uncomfortable for an American audience as it places the blame for racial injustice on both the North and the South.