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Voices from the past were resurrected to give testimony to the reality, angst and cruelty of human beings in chattel enslavement in the U.S. at “A Reading of Slave Narratives” during Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Black Heritage Month. 

SIUE’s Black Theatre Workshop and the Black Studies Program presented the dramatic reading on Monday, Feb. 10 at the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion (CSDI). Bryan Jack, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Historical Studies, moderated the discussion.

“When I began to work, I discovered the difference between myself and my master’s white children. They began to order me about, and were told to do so by my master and mistress,” read senior Kiara Ulmer, from the slave account of Lunsford Lane. “I found, too, that they had learned to read, while I was not permitted to have a book in my hand. To be in the possession of anything written or printed, was regarded as an offence.” 

“At the time I was sold … my poor mother, when she saw me leaving her for the last time, ran after me, took me down from the horse, clasped me in her arms, and wept loudly and bitterly over me,” read senior Avalon Palmer, from the slave narrative of Charles Ball. “My mother then turned to him and cried, ‘Oh, master, do not take me from my child!’ Without making any reply, he gave her two or three heavy blows on the shoulders with his raw hide, snatched me from her arms, handed me to my master.” 

“How does it feel to hear the words from people who were enslaved?” asked Jack. 

“It’s horrid. It hurts to hear it,” replied one audience member. “You can feel their pain.” 

“Think about Lunsford’s words in his slave narrative title, ‘Embracing an account of his early life, the redemption by purchase of himself and family from slavery, and his banishment from the place of his birth for the crime of wearing a colored skin,’” said Jack. “We are fortunate to have their accounts, but we only have access to a miniscule amount of information from the slaves themselves.” 

One slave chronicle that was read came from a more notable black history figure – Frederick Douglass. 

“Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves and others masters? These were perplexing questions and very troublesome to my childhood,” read freshman Rhonda Whitter, from Frederick Douglass’ slave history. “I was very early told by some one that ‘God up in the sky’ had made all things, and had made black people to be slaves and white people to be masters. I was told too that God was good, and that He knew what was best for everybody. This was, however, less satisfactory than the first statement. It came point blank against all my notions of goodness … Besides, I could not tell how anybody could know that God made black people to be slaves. Then I found, too, that there were puzzling exceptions to this theory of slavery, in the fact that all black people were not slaves, and all white people were not masters.” 

Another slave description came from Lucy Ann Delaney, who wrote the only first-person account of a “freedom suit” regarding legal battles in St. Louis, which was a forerunner to the landmark decision of Brown v Board of Education.  

“I was beginning to plan for freedom, and was forever on the alert for a chance to escape and join my sister. I was then 12 years old, and often talked the matter over with mother and canvassed the probabilities of both of us getting away,” read freshman Neshay Sanders, of Delaney’s slave narrative. “No schemes were too wild for us to consider! Mother was especially restless, because she was a free woman up to the time of her being kidnapped, so the injustice and weight of slavery bore more heavily upon her than upon me . . . My mother returned to the house to get her few belongings, and straining me to her breast, begged me to be a good girl, that she was going to run away, and would buy me as soon as she could. With all the inborn faith of a child, I believed it most fondly, and when I heard that she had actually made her escape, three weeks after, my heart gave an exultant throb and cried, ‘God is good!’” 

Concluding the dramatic readings was Kathryn Bentley, associate professor in the Department of Theater and Dance, with her emotional rendering of Sojourner Truth’s slave story. 

“I was often surprised to find my mother in tears; and I asked ‘Mau-mau, what makes you cry?’ She would answer, ‘Oh, my child, I am thinking of your brothers and sisters that have been sold away from me,’” read Bentley. “… In the evening, when my mother’s work was done, she would sit down under the sparkling vault of heaven, and calling her children to her, would talk to us of the only Being that could effectually aid or protect us … ‘My children, there is a God, who hears and sees you … He lives in the sky, and when you are beaten, or cruelly treated, or fall into any trouble, you must ask help of him, and he will always hear and help you.’” 

For a complete list of Black Heritage Month events, visit Black and Unified. 

Photos:
Participating in “A Slave Narrative” presentation (L-R): Bryan Jack, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Historical Studies; senior Kiara Ulmer, freshman Rhonda Whittier, Kathryn Bentley, associate professor in the Department of Theater and Dance; senior Avalon Palmer; and freshman Neshay Sanders. 

Sanders reads an account from Lucy Ann Delaney.