The narrative by Annie Burton about her childhood and adulthood helped me expand my knowledge of slavery. There was a lot of content that I expected to read about in the narrative and was never mentioned. For instance, I almost entirely expected to read about the childhood discoveries of Annie Burton that addressed how truly horrible slave-owners were to their slaves, but I read nothing of the sort. Sure, Ms. Burton mentioned some whippings and beatings, but her stories were told from the innocent perspective of Annie as a child in slavery. I learned about happy and care-free life was like for a slave child, because the older children had other jobs to do and the master and mistress were more concerned about the Civil War than the little boys and girls on their plantation.

“The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, with my little white and black companions, is often with me. Neither master nor mistress nor neighbors had time to bestow a thought upon us, for the great Civil War was raging.” (Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days, Annie Burton)

The children could do anything. They’d play all day, and be nuisances to all others. There would be consequences and punishments for, maybe, eating the food that was suppose to be for the slaves in the fields before they received it, but the children did not realize the punishment, similar to how they did not realize what else was in the world. The persons, places, and things in and immediately around the plantation were the only persons, places, and things they knew existed.
This is particularly similar to Huck Finn. The children ran free on Annie Burton’s plantation in the South, and the boys in Huck Finn run free too. In Huck Finn, Huckleberry and Tom knew some things about the world around them, because they had gone on adventures through the countryside. However, they only knew so much. They were limited to the Mississippi, and we all know that the area surrounding the Mississippi is such a small fraction of the entire world. Therefore, the limit of knowledge in the children is eminent in both stories.

“As I read Louis Hughes’ narrative, a feeling, an almost indescribable one, overwhelmed. I couldn’t even fathom the horrors that many slaves went through.” (Norma)

It is interesting to see the differences between the interpretations of slavery that each author expresses. Annie Burton narrated her life on a plantation that was happy despite the punishments and losses of family members, but Louis Hughes approached his narrative differently. The loss of his mother must have had a greater impact on him than the loss of Annie Burton’s mom to Annie. In conclusion, life on a plantation was formed around the attitude and character of the master, the mother, and (not to rhyme on purpose) all others.

I am about to read a Slave narrative by Annie L. Burton called “Memories of Childhood Slave Days.” I’m actually not sure what to expect from this narrative, but I’m fairly sure that her stories will either be along the lines of telling how slavery was bad and how slave children weren’t treated well, will talk about how good life was as a slave child, or will introduce unopinionated stories. I am leaning more towards expecting stories that portray the fact that slavery was bad. However, I’m not sure enough about the theory, and would feel more comfortable expecting both. If my theory is somewhat correct then the text may include stories that tell how the slaveowning family treated the slave children and every other slave around the children.
English teachers have discussed why students should not just read the words they see on the pages, but analyze them, why the author would write them, and what they provide to the entire picture (in this case slavery.) Learning from them, I am going to need to do exactly what they would like me to. Any writer has the capability to indirectly present an idea, or, in other words, say something without actually saying it. I expect to be on the receiving end of this action when I read, and I hope to be interested.