EXAMPLE ESSAY - HAGAR - 3rd PERSON

“An advertisement offering them for sale appeared in the Boston Evening Post. The slaves being sold were skilled tradesmen, including carpenters and sailmakers. During the same period, a black woman named Hagar was a cook in the household of Malachy Salter, a prominent Halifax magistrate and legislator.” (pg. 15)

Africans were captured by Europeans in various places on the West African coast and transported across the Atlantic ocean; they were eventually sold in many countries. Today, people of African descent can be found across North, South, and Central America and in many parts of Europe. The slave trade stole many men, women, and children from their homeland and shipped them to foreign countries and into the hands of Europeans and Citizens of the United States. The institution of slavery was genocidal and crushingly inhumane. It lasted for hundreds of years; the perpetrators, over the years, tortured, maimed and killed millions. In this period of time, many women showed strength and courage as they challenged the system and used their ingenuity and positions to protect their own. Hagar was one of those women.

Owned by a well known family in Canada, Hagar, a black woman who lived as a slave woman in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was an example of female strength in the 18th century. She knew that her family was Africa and that they arrived in North America and the famous slave ships; she had the heard the horrific stories from many of the older African slaves on the plantation. But, she sid not remember her family because they had all been sold to separate places. Their names had been changed and there was no avenue for slaves to contact each other. Over the years, Hagad had heard stories of the lands of Africa and she had learned many African traditions; she enjoyed the music and the dances. She knew that her people had spoken different languages and she had heard a few of the words, but on the planation, she and the other Africans were not allowed to marry, speak their own languages, or practice their religions.

At one time, Hagar did have a husband and children. She loved her family. But, by the time she became the property of the magistrate, she was on her own and she had only one son; his name was Jack. Hagar husband and her other children had been sold and she struggled every day to keep her last child on the magistrate’s plantation. Every day the fear chilled her insides as she watched her son become more and more rebellious as he witnessed and experienced the inequality of their lives. The master beat him daily and the more he was beaten the more angry he became. She knew that his behavior would eventually mean that he would be sold. She prayed for him; she prayed that she would be able to protect him.

Hagar was a hard worker. She had learned very early in life that if she did a good job and the slave owners were happy with her performance it meant that she would not be sold quickly or spontaneously. She had learned that to be good meant that she was secure. Hagar loved to cook and she made it her focus. She became an excellent cook and she was very valuable to the magistrate and his wife. In this way, Hagar felt more secure in her position in the household, but she knew that this security did not include her son. She feared for his safety and she feared that she might lose him if the magistrate decided to sell him.

Hagar lived with a certain amount of fear every day. Throughout her life she had lived with the physical and verbal abuse of slave owners. She had survived severe beatings and many incidents of unwanted sex from men. The white owners used the black women for their own entertainment and this started with girls of any age. And some of the black men were forced to sleep with slave women in order to increase the slave population. This behavior was the norm for many in the slave world.

Slavery was brutality personified. Yet, the brutality crystalized the strengths and the pride of many black women. Hagar was one of those women. She lived with the possibility of death and loss every day. She held her head high and she was prepared to make sacrifices for her son’s survival.