North

While the north was much better than her situation she was in in the south, it wasn't entirely as she expected it to be. Firstly, she in a way expected that the second she reached the north, that she might have a feeling of freedom within her and this was not the case. Even when she was in this free state, she still worried about her freedoms being taken away from her and still confined to some of the habits she had grown up with as a slave, such as the fire bells. She also always found herself not telling the complete truth or leaving out parts of her story because she didn't want people to figure out that some of the things she had been doing in the past had been lies, like writing to Dr. Flint from the north. The one time she did completely come out and share her story, she was told to be more careful about who she talked to like that,because they might think differently of her. This was scorching her freedom a little.
Another thing that was not what she expected to be like in the north, was her trip on the train. In the south she could ride in the boxcars behind all of the white people for free. When she got to the north, she couldn't buy a good seat, and now had to pay to sit in a car full of smoke and dirtiness, a car a slave could ride in for free. This was not what she was expecting and was very surprising to her.

William

William had a chance to go to the north with Mr. Sands and help him out. This was the perfect time for him to make his way to the freedom Mr. Sands had been promising him for a while now. He knew that, in slavery, things were not always as they had been promised, and the master is the one in control and can change what he decides to do whenever he feels like it. He realized that Mr. sands could decide that he doesn't want to make him free, so why not leave him when he is somewhat willing to let him go.
I think that Williams actions were definitely justified, but the way hew is carrying them out is a little rude. Obviously, any slave should become free whenever they had the chance. This was Williams chance to do just that, and he took it, which is what he should have done. No one wants to be under someones control their whole life, even if the person you are under the control of is extremely nice to you. I think his actions were a little rude because he didn't give his family any warning and didn't even write to them in a few days to tell them he was well. THis is inconsiderate and a tiny bit rude.

Children

After the children where in Jail for many months, and after a few slave traders finally came and went, Dr. Flint finally started thinking about selling them. His original plan was not to , because for the time being, revenge was worth more to him than money, but this soon changed. A slave trader came to him with a very generous offer, and he got to thinking about the chance that the children might die before they get to 15, at which time they could be sold for the most, so he decided after alot of thinking to let them go. What he didn't know was that this slave trader had an agreement with Mr. Sands to sell them to him after he buys them from Dr. Flint. THis is how Mr Sands finally gets ownership of his children.
Linda trusts him becuase hs has no reason not to. Ever since she has had a relatinship with him, he was been kind to her and has promied to help her, he has always said he wanted ot buy the children, but Dr. Flint always prevented it.
I, like Linda, also have no reason to not trust Mr. Sands. He has always tried tohelp his children and in the end he is the person who got them out of jail and helped them when they wer in this time of need. He seems like a very trustable guy.

Necklace

Linda compare the gold necklace to the chains that are put on slaves. She says she doesn't want any type of chain put on her children even if these chains are made of gold. She never wanted her children to have to feel the weight of a chain on their skin. Linda compares the act of putting the necklace on her daughter to an owner putting chains on its slave, and she didn't want her children to have to ever be put into the harsh reality of slavery, and have those chains put on them if they ever upset their master. To a certain extent i do agree with her comparison. If i grew up as she had the latter half of her life and seen the things chains had done to those around her, i would not like the sight of them. It was the idea of the links being put fastened together, into something that was impossible to break that frightened her. She had seen what chains had done to the people around her and didn't like the sight of them. While she had a good reason to not like the idea of chains, i dont think she should have been that upset about the idea of this necklace being given to her daughter. The woman who did it was not meaning for the chain to be a symbol for total control, rather a nice gester given because she felt bad for the little girl.

Quote

"All could not be relied on. Mighty power of the torturing lash" (55.)

This passage is a very meaningful one. Even though all of the slaves were all in it together and faced the same horrible future day in and day out, but that didn't matter to some slaves. There were certain slaves that if they had to pick between a fellow slave or even a family member or their master or any other white person for that matter, they would pick the white person without even thinking about it. These slaves are constantly trying to cover themselves, even at the risk of other slaves around them, who are going through the same thing as them. In today's world, we might call these slaves backstabbers or tattle tales, but during their situation, it was more like survival of the fittest, and if you had to tell on another slave, so be it, at least you saved yourself from a week of misery as well as got on your masters better side. There were cases that fathers would even tell on their own daughters or sons if it saved them a trip to the whipping post. It is amazing how the threat of the lash will cause certain slaves to totally obey and cause others pain.
I liked this quote because it just showed how much power the masters really had over the slaves. If they slaves just took one second and all came and worked together, they could have possibly revvolted and became free, but that one whip caused enough control over certain slaves that that could never happen.

Love

Love for a slave, is something that is so close, yet will always be out of reach. They might fall in love, but their master wouldn't think of letting them go and be happily married. Sometimes, love is forced onto a slave by the master. This is a predicament that is almost impossible to get out of, yet your life is dependent on it all of the time. The master never lets down and will always " love" the slave and treat them right, but only behind closed doors. Slaves are almost forbidden to be happy, especially when it comes to love. If the master does let two slaves, or even a slave and a freed black man, get closer together, or they have a secret relationship, the second they settle down with each other, their family gets ripped apart by auctions and severe punishment that leads to death. Wanting to love someone and the side affects that come from it is almost as bad as the masters, chains, and whips for a slave. Even if they found the perfect person, love is so far away because of rules and laws and society. They can never be happy, with a family, and everything that that entails, because when they start getting close, there is always a catastrophic event that takes place and ruins everything for them.

Image of Slavery

In the beginning, Jacobs image of slavery was one that depending on your luck, could go undetected. If your master was a kind person, and you worked hard or someone from your kin worked hard, you could live your life with the label of a slave, but not having to be treated like one. The second you get into the home of an awful master, this image turns to one of a dog, or any other object you have at your house. Its powerful because dogs do not have much freedom. They eat when their owner gives them food, can only go out side or too the bathroom when their own lets them out, and they in general do what their owner says, in fear of how them refusing will affect them later. This image is a muted down version of what a slave really is, but it does show the helpless aspect of a slaves life. In Jacobs story, she does a good job showing both the broad and individual tales of slavery. While so far, this story is only following a single family, from time to time she tells stories from the auction block. For example, she tells stories of a woman who lost all of her children in the auction or specific examples of how certain slaves were punished for small things they did. Stories like these help give the broad view of slavery, even though the main idea of the story of the individual family.

Reflection

What I enjoyed from the class discussion on Tuesday, was when Keaton brought up the idea that everything in the book was all coincidence, and Keaton asked if Fitzgerald just wanted to write a book just to write a book, not to get a point across. At first, if you didn't go into depth about the book, you might not think that he wrote it to make out a specific point, but once you discuss it, you find out it is almost impossible to have the type of connections found throughout the book, and any book for that matter, with out them meaning to be there. The connection with the glasses that is found twice in the book is one example of how the author must have planned it out a little, and it wasn't just luck that two places a God figure was needed, just happened to have glasses.
I enjoyed this conversation because it was a different way of looking at how authors write. Before I had never really thought about how most authors write to get a point across. I always thought that theyh might have a character that they like and want to build a story off of, and the plot just goes from there, but I learned that it is most times the other way around.