Aidan’s Portfolio Activity 1: Research Process Journaling

As I was reading Unrequited Toil, a particular sentence caught my attention. “In Slave Societies, owners and managers intensified violence to boost productivity, mitigate rebelliousness, and prevent uprisings.” I had always understood slavery to be a particularly ruthless experience, so I was not surprised when reading this. However, reading it gave me the idea: Are there any examples of peaceful or non-violent slave owners? If so, how successful were they? So, to find the answer to these questions, I went to websites such as docsouth.unc.edu and dp.la to find primary sources. I was able to find a primary source that made me reframe my question. That particular source I found was The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave (https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/prince/prince.html). The readings describe Mary Prince, a slave owned by Captain Williams. Mary spent most of her time under the care of his wife Mrs. Williams. The time Mary spent under Mrs. Williams was the happiest she had been. She had also been given tasks such as babysitting. The sources made me reconsider the notions I had coming into this process and as a result I restructured my questions. I discovered that being enslaved did not always mean one would do hard labor like tending to fields, but could also consist of doing housework, babysitting, or being a friend to the slave master’s daughter. This expanded my understanding on slavery. One did not have to own a slave for purely economic gain like farming a cash crop. Also, in the case of Mary Prince, slaves could be happy being under a master, like Mrs. Williams, who was kind and peaceful. So, I restructured my questions around those new discoveries. To answer my questions, there are definitely examples of peaceful or non-violent slave owners. Adjusting for my redefinition of success, I would say that these slave owners were successful. I didn’t really feel the need to access materials that were non-digitalized.