The Life OfWilliam J. Anderson

Bricola JohnsonAminah Marshall

Ashley PollardTakilah Hassan

Taking It Back Into the Horrors of Slavery!

Imagine This!As your walking through the southern markets at a crossing of roads after a toiling days work, you feel the excruciating pain of 13 pound shackles weighing you down, your feet are shuffling through rugged pebbles and dirt, and as the scorching hot sun beams on your back causing your whole body to drip with sweat, you suddenly hear the cries and screams of wives taken from husbands and children separated from parents.

300 Years Ago……when the freshly independent country of the United States was generating plenty of wealth from the forced human labor of African Slaves. The hatred and malice of slaveholders was pungent in the air. One slave in particular, William J. Anderson, was born on June 2nd, 1811. His mother was a free African American and his father died as a slave. Anderson’s mother put him under the guidance of a slaveholder, not too far from her home. However, he was treated just the same as the other slaves. Years passed as he was raised a slave, and one day, he was kidnapped by another slaveholder. He was sold to another merciless White man, and endured the hardships of traveling shackled to a faraway farm. He had attempted to run away countless times, and was sold eight to nine times, thrown in jail sixty times, handcuffed fifty times, and whipped three to four hundred times.

Intended Audience Anderson’s narrative speaks to:

Whites Slaves Christians

How did the dehumanization of slaves

influence Anderson’s strong faith in God?

There were two things that William J. Anderson

desired, namely:

Knowledge of Books

The Truths of Christianity

The Purpose/Arguments Of Anderson’s Narrative

To give the audience a glimpse of the Horrors of Slavery.

To prove that slavery is wrong, based upon the laws of nature and God’s Word.

Slavery was the most extreme form of prejudice and was exhibited in great extent.

To describe how he was tormented by the brutality of his slaveholders; he was beaten, starved, and violated.

Emotional Appeal

Slaves were prepared for sale. (Abused, violated, and stripped down.)

Slave owners “loved” black women, took them from under their husbands and raped them.

Anderson uses examples throughout his narrative in order to appeal to his audience. For example, he illustrates instances of malicious abuse and the disregard of “natural human affection” (Anderson, 14).

Another Glimpse In Time

Audience imagines the traumatizing fear of being caught.

The Unthinkable (Consequences)

Whipped 300 times

Anderson got caught killing and eating the Chicken on the farm because they weren’t feeding him enough.

He never continued to try to escape from his masters

What drove his desire to be free?

In his first instance to escape, when he was put on a cotton farm his spirit was at unrest because they did not observe the Sabbath day and Anderson felt that he was once free so he had the God-given right to escape: “Far, far away I was once free—now kidnapped and sold into a strange land, and never expecting to be released until death should set me free again” (Anderson, 16).

To what great lengths did Anderson reach to escape slavery?

Anderson attempted to escape several times before succeeding.

Most slaves went to great lengths, putting their lives in danger, in order to see their loved ones once again.

In his pursuit of freedom, he attempted to runaway several times. He was caught by several different types of people, such as Northerners who abided by the “fugitive slave laws”. Many fellow slaves who saw him trying to escape alerted his master, and he was brutally whipped as a punishment.

Hard Times of a Runaway There are great many things to encounter in

escaping: large and small rivers, lakes, panthers, bears, snakes, alligators, snitching slaves, blood hounds, guns, and all of the above starvation.

Mysterious Narrative

This narrative is unknown to us because most slave narratives are often hidden from common historical records. It is a part of American history that is often ignored because it shows the shameful truth of the evil practices of slavery. This narrative illustrates the trials and tribulations that Anderson, as well as other countless slaves went through. He proves that slavery is an abomination against God, and it is as close to Hell on Earth as any place can get.

The Truths of Christianity Throughout Anderson’s narrative, he shows how

his faith in God helped him throughout his trials

and tribulations. Likewise, in The Meaning of

Faith in the Black Mind in Slavery this text

explores how black slave uses faith as a means of

connection to identity and pride. Both of these

things were stripped from the slave by the slave

master so faith is all the slave had left that could

not be taken away.

Oh Happy Day! (Freedom)

Anderson wrote his own pass. Escaped to Indiana. Start of a new life and gaining spiritual

growth. Connected and established his own churches. Established own business (grocery keeping

and huckstering).

Works Cited Anderson, William J. Life and Narrative of William J. Anderson, Twenty-four Years a Slave; Sold Eight

Times! In Jail Sixty Times!! Whipped Three Hundred Times!!! or The Dark Deeds of American `Slavery Revealed. Containing Scriptural Views of the Origin of the Black and of the White Man. Also, a Simple and Easy Plan to Abolish Slavery in the United States. Together with an Account of the Services of Colored Men in the Revolutionary War--Day and Date, and Interesting Facts. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries, Documenting the American South.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South<http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/andersonw/andersonw.html> accessed February 10, 2012.

A Slave Caught Without Pass. Photograph. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.<http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=577708&imageID=1229153&word=Slavery&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=2&k=0&lWord=&lFeld=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&total=846&num=80&imgs=20&pNum=&pos=95&print=small>.

Diouf, Sylviane A. “American Slaves Who Were Readers and Writers”. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 24 (Summer, 1999): 124-125. J-Stor. 16 Feb 2012.

End of Slavery. Photograph. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.<http://melyjanex3.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html>.

King James Bible. Photograph. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://www.jesus-issavior.com/Bible/1611_authorized_king_james.htm>.

Lowence, Mason. Against Slavery: An Abolitionist Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Print. Marable, Manning. The Meaning of Faith in the Black Mind in Slavery. Rocky Mountain Modern

Language Association. 15 February 2012.<http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1347694.pdf?acceptTC=true>.

Works Cited Cont. Mellon, Mathew. Early American Views on Negro Slavery. 2nd ed. New York and

Toronto: The New American Library, 1969. 1-187. Print. Row of Antique Books. Photograph. Web. 21 Feb.

2012.<http://www.flickr.com/photos/35737011@N03/3326816 872/>. Slaves Gathered in Church.Photograph. Web. 21 Feb.

2012.<http://cghs.dadeschools.net/slavery/antebellum_slavery/plantation_slave_life/diet_religon/slave_churches.htm>.

The Underground Railroad in Piedmont North Carolina. Photograph. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.<http://randolphhistory.wordpress.com/category/african-american/>.

“Underground Railroad Network to Freedom: The Story of Georgetown District in Madison, Indiana.” In.gov. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

<http://www.in.gov/dnr/historic/files/georgetown.pdf>. White, John. Slavery in the American South. 1st ed. New York: Longman Group

Ltd, 1971. 3-164. Print. William J. Anderson. Photograph. Web/ 21 Feb. 2012.

<http://books.google.com/books/about/Life_and_narrative_of_William_J_Anderson.html?id=aSaYuD7un6cC>.