Historical Analysis Essay

Holly Ryan

Her Personal Battles

Slavery dehumanizes everyone it surrounds, as learned from prior texts, and can corrupt a person forever. Slaves especially are made less than human from the agonizing hostilities of slavery. They share the same hardships with each other, but also face such brutality on their own. Each slave, just like every person, has their own story and challenges to overcome, some more than others. Mary Reynolds was a slave that encountered these hostilities of slavery, and her story increase my awareness on this disgusting time period. The slave narrative of Mary Reynolds expanded my understanding of slavery by describing her personal struggles and the cruelties of slavery that affected her, while also providing evidence of such harsh times.

My previous awareness of slavery was expanded through Mary Reynolds’s personal struggles with endurance. During the bitterest cold winters, “when the frost was on the bolls” as she said, Mary hated picking cotton. Her hands were so cold they began to crack open and bleed, a personal struggle that she described with great detail. Her explanation expanded my understanding of slavery because it was personal to her slavery experience, making it more powerful and realistic. Also, it used more specific evidence to show how she overcame her crusade. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, written by Himself, Frederick Douglass briefed on the idea that work was torturous during the ice-cold winters, but never provided specific examples or struggles he personally had. While on the other hand, Mary Reynolds exhibits an image of how she suffered in the freezing weather.

Mary Reynolds expands my awareness of slavery by describing the cruelties that were unique to her. She does so when explaining her wardrobe, all she wore was a long collared shirt that went down to her knees, with an unsuitable pair of shoes. “Shoes was the worstes' trouble… they'd never git them to fit. Once when I was a young gal, they got me a new pair and all brass studs in the toes. They was too li'l for me, but I had to wear them. The trimmin's cut into my ankles and them places got mis'ble bad.” No one cared that every step she took, her wounds would expand greater and greater. Slavery consisted of multiple outrageous acts of cruelty like this, but because this inhumanity was so personal to her, I can now fully understand how devastating slavery truly was.

Mary Reynolds’s entire body is cover with battle wounds from the harsh crusades of slavery, forcing me to honestly believe the hardships slaves had to overcome; the hardships of beatings everyday, of working with shoes two sizes too small, and of frozen hands. Every personal encounter Mary had with slavery left a scar, whether it was on her back, her hands, or her feet. She claims, “The scars are there to this day”, from wearing those uncomfortable shoes, and from the whippings on her back, “They was things past tellin', but I got the scars on my old body to show to this day.” Evidence that proves the struggles and cruelties of slavery are real and scar a slave for the rest of their life, not only physically but also emotionally.