oppressed

I just want to start off by saying how much the events in the book have horrified me. I don't think that any one of us can say that we aren't horrified and sympathetic, but that's all expected. Slavery was a horrible thing and we expect any slave narrative to be full of incidents that provoke our sympathy and our anger. I found something unexpected in the book as well. When she sympathizes with the mistress who has been tormenting her I am thrown. I know that she has been tormented and psychologically tortured, and if I was her I would be mad. I was mad for her, angry at the mistress and Dr. Flint. Yet, she doesn't blame her, at least she doesn't blame her completely. She blames the institution of slavery. She blames the oppressor – oppressed dichotomy for the way that they acted. She even provides examples of situations that would have turned out differently had that dichotomy not been in place. Sh focuses not solely on the problem that slavery creates for the oppressed slaves but also for the oppressors, the damage that it does to their characters, to their families. I didn't expect to find that in the narrative.

The concern that she has for her tormentors, the family of her tyrant, and the observation that the institution of slavery has done them harm as well are all elements of Friere. Friere's pedagogy outlines the same principles, that an oppressor – oppressed situation is harmful for both parties, and he goes further by suggesting that only the oppressed can truly escape. The oppressed can escape, and in order for the oppressors to be saved they must acknowledge the humanity of the oppressed and then help them out of their oppression. There are a few slaveholders that meet this definition, but only in death. Just like their slaves they only exit the slave-holding system when they die, and manumit their slaves.