This week I have been reading "Nightjohn" by Gary Paulson and it's very graphic. In the book, you are in a third person view of the life of Sarney and her struggle for reading. Back then, if you where a slave and knew how to read, it was law to have one of your extremities chopped off, so as you may see, it was very risky business. She continues to read up until the point where she learns a word. She goes insane, writing it everywhere she goes until "Old Waller" the plantation owner catches her and starts beating the slaves until they tell. In the end, he "Mammy" is getting whipped, NightJohn confesses and gets two toes chopped off.The quotes through the test tells you exactly how slaves where brought up. "It isn't certain how old I am except for the sticks. Mammy keeps a stick for each one of us and sometimes she cuts a notch on the stick for each of the girls." The word choice that the author used really shows how uneducated slaves where. A slave with intelligence would be very easy to spot because of their lack of using run on sentences and bad sentence conjunctions.
Another piece of the story that revealed information that we would have otherwise not known about where their living conditions. The field workers worked "dawn to dark hard work" six days a week. This was for two reason, the obvious one being they wanted to make the years harvest and have the largest possible amount of time to sell their crop before winter. However, this was also to ensure the one who had picked up more and where a bit wiser where always away or too tired to either run or break the rules in any way (I.E. learning to read.)
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