Brian

Annie L. Burton’s slave narrative was interesting, compared to other things we have read about slaves in class. She wrote about her owners like they were her friends and according to her recollection of the events, they got along with each other. Also though her slavery was shorter, as i had expected, because the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect and afterwards she was taken in by her mistress. Her mother had been with them originally, but she ran away because the mistress beat her for the first time after an arguement and Burton’s mother had considered her a friend until she hit her. Later on in Burton’s life her mother comes back for her and her brother and sister. Even though they were free though and did not have it as hard as other slaves had while in slavery, afterwards they were not well off. They had to continue working and working to stay alive and support themselves. This whole narrative showed an instance where a girl was treated nicely by her owners, but then shows what happened after the Civil War, and how hard it was for the freed slaves to keep living. I was right in thinking that this was the more interesting of the narratives also because this showed more then the others of the afterwards when slavery was “gone.” This was a nice change, showing both slavery and the “freedom” after the Emancipation Proclamation.