I found most of Chapter Twelve disturbing. Harriet writes about how, after Nat Turner’s Rebellion, white countrymen raided her grandmother’s cabin. She describes how these men harassed and beat her neighbors. I was disgusted as I read how these men rummaged through their food, their clothes, and their personal belongings.
“The door was rudely pushed open; and in they tumbled, like a pack of hungry wolves. They snatched at every thing within their reach. Every box, trunk, closet, and corner underwent a thorough examination… Towards evening the turbulence increased. The soldiers, stimulated by drink, committed still greater cruelties. Shrieks and shouts continually rent the air. I saw a mob dragging along a number of colored people. Among the prisoners was a respectable old colored minister.” (99, 102)
It’s very unsettling that Harriet must explain her letters and belongings to a group of drunken men. It’s disturbing how, as Harriet explains her literacy, her neighbors and friends are being whipped and searched. Her use of detail is effective in this chapter. The use of the words “shrieks and shouts” to insinuate torture is especially haunting. Her decision to write about the arrest of the “respectable old colored minister” tells the reader that these white men are cruel and without mercy.
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I was very disturbed when it came to this part of the book, and brought out a great amount of emotion from those passages. It would be humiliating horrible to have low white men search through your house and belongings without care to your thoughts or protests. Also, they would look and take things that had nothing to do with what they were searching for, and the blacks could do little to stop them in fear of being accused of association to the Nat Turner rebellion. Also, it was really sad when they were dragging around the old minister, and how they cruelly punished various black people.
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