Slave Narrative of James Cape

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices05.html


I chose to focus on a narrative by James Cape, an African-American slave that was said to be over 100 years old. The account begins with him saying "I's bo'n in yonder southeast Texas and  I don' know what month or de year for sho', but 'twas more dan 100 years ago". There are two things that I chose to pinpoint from this quote; The first being the inherent lack of grammar understanding. Learning to read and write was not a luxury afforded to slaves at this time, and from this account that is made clear. The mere fact that he is able to formulate sentences that we can understand on paper is remarkable in itself. I also found it startling for him to not know his age. In the day in age we live in today it is almost un heard of for one not to know such a thing. This clearly shows a complete bereavement of any form of joy or celebration in the life of this man. It suggests that his life was full of such trial and tribulation that the trivial task of remembering ones birthday every year was not something he had time for. We talk about how Ideology dictates what we consider natural and explicit and  how this changes over time. This is a clear example of this.



However there does seem to be an aspect of cultural origin and awareness on his part. He states how his parents told him they were born in Africa, information not afforded to very many slaves. However what he knows about his family seems to be limited which still points towards a broken culture. In his account he also outlines his labour as tending to horses. He is often taken on excursions to Mexico along with other slaves, sometimes under heavy conditions. What I find most interesting is that there is a clear idea of that "Slave Code" which was so prominently used in order to regulate good behaviour. This is shown where he says "  I was de leader and do you know what happens to dis nigger if my hoss stumbles? This seems to imply that he will punished if this does infact happen. In contrast he later says that "  Marster give me a new saddle for savin' de hosses" Such drastic measures for reinforcing good behaviour often leads to the slave develop and father figure like view of his master. One that becomes very much apparent when reading James Cape's account.









(A picture of James Cape)