Читать книгу Benjamin Drew. The Refugee. Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada онлайн

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Drew’s transnational slave narrative, though, banks on the classical tropes of the genre: the dreadful experience of racist violence, family separation, and the fear of being sold south. The catalogue of infamous mistreatment and coercions are told in the current sentimental tone to appeal directly to the white reader’s compassion. George Johnson tells Drew that “the slaves were always afraid of being sold South” and also speaks of the mistreatment of a fellow-slave who “received five hundred and fifty lashes for striking the overseer … two months after, I saw him lying on his face, unable to turn over or help himself.” James Adams recounts that: “I was not used so badly as some even younger than myself, who were kicked, cuffed, and whipped very badly for little or nothing”. William Johnson also remarks the violence inflicted upon him: “I used to have rheumatism, and could not always do so much work as those who were well,– then I would sometimes be whipped” and Henry Banks horribly exposes how