Introduction
Between 1792 and 1796, John Aikin and his sister Anna Barbauld published a series of children’s stories titled ‘Evenings at Home.’ Among them was an imaginary dialogue in which a plantation owner accused a slave of ingratitude for running away. It is relevant not only to the history of Abolition but also to that politics which promises cradle-to-grave security in exchange for letting an elite shape our world.
MASTER. HAVE I not endeavoured ever since I possessed you to alleviate your misfortunes by kind treatment; and does that confer no obligation? Consider how much worse your condition might have been under another master.
Slave. You have done nothing for me more than for your working cattle. Are they not well fed and tended? You treat both your men and beast slaves better than some of your neighbours, because you are more prudent and wealthy than they.
Master. You might add, more humane too.
Slave. Humane! Does it deserve that appellation to keep your fellow-men in forced subjection, deprived of all exercise of their free will, liable to all the injuries that your own caprice, or the brutality of your overseers, may heap on them, and devoted, soul and body, only to your pleasure and emolument?
Master. But it was my intention not only to make your life tolerably comfortable at present, but to provide for you in your old age.
Slave. Alas! is a life like mine, torn from country, friends, and all I hold dear, and compelled to toil under the burning sun for a master, worth thinking about for old age?
Précis
John Aikin and his sister Anna imagined a dialogue in which a plantation owner taxed a slave with ingratitude for running away, despite satisfactory conditions and even provision for his old age. The slave replied that if such comforts and securities meant toiling for another man’s wealth and accepting whatever was supposedly best for him, they were not worth having. (60 / 60 words)
John Aikin and his sister Anna imagined a dialogue in which a plantation owner taxed a slave with ingratitude for running away, despite satisfactory conditions and even provision for his old age. The slave replied that if such comforts and securities meant toiling for another man’s wealth and accepting whatever was supposedly best for him, they were not worth having.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, besides, must, ought, since, until, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did the planter accuse his slave of ingratitude?
Suggestion
Because he had escaped from the plantation. (7 words)
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A slave ran away. He was recaptured. He was brought before his master.
Variation: Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of these words: 1. Escape 2. Runaway 3. Who