"Incidents In the Life Of a Slave Girl" Journal Entry Chapters 12-17

 In this section of "Incidents In the Life Of a Slave Girl", a couple things interested me. One thing that strikes me was how the houses of blacks were searched by such low, poorly educated whites, as a result of the Nat Turner rebellion. These ignorant men just came in and took whatever they thought the slaves shouldn't have, which was a lot. They didn't even know what they were really searching for; one of the men said "We's got 'em! Dis 'ere yaller gal's got letters!". (Brent 67) This just shows how foolish these men are. The men couldn't even read, so when they saw the letters they thought they had discovered letters that had something to do with the rebellion. Really they were just letters from family and friends. Another part of this section that interested me was the clergyman who gave sermons to the slaves. The slaves loved him, because he understood their pain. Although he and his wife had slaves, they were taught to read and write, and were treated well. They were set free eventually. It was hard to find to a man like that back then. One thing that really surprised me was when the clergyman admitted that he gave better sermons to the slaves than the white people; "He honestly confessed that he bestowed more pains upon those sermons than upon any others; for the slaves were reared in such ignorance that it was a difficult task to adapt himself to their comprehension." (73-74) He did this because he felt so strongly about letting the slave know that they were humans beings too.  It took courage to admit to that, and to share those feelings.