Collective Identity

E-202 Marginalized Whiteness, Morten Oddvik, 22.10.2002

Mary Prince and Collective Identity In this essay I will look at how the writer in The History of Mary Prince creates a collective identity for Anglo-Africans, Africans and especially how she makes herself part of this identity. I will also look more closely at the text and discuss the importance of narration in relation to my question of collective identity. I will try to clarify the implications that the narrative holds. By using the text and additional material associated with the main text of Mary Prince I will argue that the narrator creates a collective identity because she feels part of a community, not only by experience, but an emotional one as well. In the end of the narrative Mary Prince becomes the spokeswoman for all slaves and the desire for freedom.

The narrative perspective implies some problems. First of all it is important to bear in mind that the story as it is presented in The History of Mary Prince is a story that Susannah Strickland has written as related by Mary Prince herself. For this reason I find it necessary to make a distinction between the writer and the narrator where Ms. Strickland is the writer and Mary Prince is the narrator. Additionally Thomas Pringle has definitely had his impact on the story and how it has been presented in his role as editor and Anti-Slavery activist.

It is interesting to note how Mary Prince relates her story to Ms. Strickland in retrospective and especially her choice of words and pronouns. If we look at her descriptions of her childhood in Bermuda at Brackish Pond in the first couple of pages it is presented as being quite tranquil and peaceful. She looks back at her childhood with happiness. She experienced happiness through play with Miss Betsey and in a sense enjoyed freedom. Mary Prince interestingly expresses a close bond to her masters, and in particular her mistress, and as she says: «I was truly attached to her, and, next to my own mother, loved her better than any creature in the world» (The History of Mary Prince, 8). Little Mary Prince could still 1

E-202 Marginalized Whiteness, Morten Oddvik, 22.10.2002

not distinguish between her own family and their status in relation to their masters. As an adult Mary Prince regards this oblivion as a blessing, but she acknowledges the fact that: «Those days were too pleasant to last» (The History of Mary Prince, 9). When Mary Prince and her sisters are brought to Hamble Town to be sold she begins to realize the distinction between the black and white and their respective communities. This terribly shocking experience did obviously make a great impact on Mary Prince and her happy days are over. At this point in the story she makes an interesting remark about white people: «They were not all bad, I dare say, but slavery hardens white people’s hearts towards the blacks; and many of them were not slow to make their remarks upon us aloud, without regard to our grief - though their words fell like cayenne on the fresh wounds of our hearts. Oh those white people have small hearts who can only feel for themselves.» (The History of Mary Prince, 11) At Spanish Point where Mary Prince are brought in her new captivity she begins to feel a new affinity with other slaves and acknowledge the miserable facts of slavery. In the case of a French Black slave named Hetty Mary Prince witnesses for the first time gruesome atrocities committed against fellow slaves and a collective identity is starting to take form: «Poor Hetty, my fellow slave» (The History of Mary Prince, 15) The terrible atrocities that Mary Prince relates from this time strengthens the collective identity, where suffering is a central issue. The work in the salt ponds at Turk’s Island presents the reader with a new kinship of sufferers, between Mary Prince and her fellow slaves: «Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so many hours, soon became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the very bone, afflicting the sufferers with great torment.» (The History of Mary Prince, 19) This kinship of sufferers is a collective identity in which Mary Prince can consolidate herself with. She experiences incredible hardship and atrocities, but finds some comfort in the collective sense of suffering in the way they are being treated: «We slept in a long shed, divided into narrow slips, like the stalls used for cattle» (The History of Mary Prince, 19) They, as slaves, feel closer to cattle than their white masters, and by this the collective identity becomes even more alienated from humanity. There exists a great divide between the ruling white race and their slaves. 2

E-202 Marginalized Whiteness, Morten Oddvik, 22.10.2002

Furthermore Mary Prince takes on an important role as an observer. In the case of Old Daniel at Turk`s Island she says of his condition: «This poor man’s wounds were never healed, and I have often seen them full of maggots, which increased his torments to an intolerable degree» (The History of Mary Prince, 21). Not only does Mary Prince’s role as observer strengthen the collective identity in the narrative, but it does also provide shocking evidence for English readers. Mary Prince seems to be aware of her position as an observer and an informer in her retrospective perspective: «Oh that Turk’s Island was a horrible place! The people in England, I am sure, have never found out what is carried on there. Cruel, horrible place!» (The History of Mary Prince, 21). These passages in The History of Mary Prince does also serve as propaganda as Sara Salih reminds us of in her introduction: «Most importantly, it documented accounts of the abuses inflicted upon slaves in the colonies; graphic and harrowing accounts which were undoubtedly intended to provoke the reader to a sense of outrage and anti-slavery crusading zeal.» (Introduction, xxvi) The collective identity is very strong at the end of The History of Mary Prince. Mary Prince is becoming a spokeswoman for all slaves in the 19th century: «All slaves want to be free - freedom is very sweet. I will say the truth to English people who may read this history (...)» (The History of Mary Prince, 38).

The main text of Mary Prince has narrative implications as I suggested above. The involvement of Susannah Strickland and Thomas Pringle forms the text as much as Mary Prince herself. As the editor Sara Salih writes in her introduction: «It is also important to bear in mind that the History is a piece of propaganda and that it was certainly `pruned` by Pringle and Strickland so that it could be used in the Anti-Slavery Society’s campaign against the slave trade.» (Introduction, xxxi)

3

E-202 Marginalized Whiteness, Morten Oddvik, 22.10.2002

Mary Prince’s story is but a piece of evidence of the slave trade and was used in the Anti-Slavery Society’s campaign. Nevertheless, her story is important in order to try to understand the life of the slaves in the colonies. Ms. Strickland and Mr. Pringle present Mary Prince in a careful manner in order to help their case as part of the Anti-Slavery campaign. Evidence is found in the Supplement, where Mr. Pringle explains the circumstances in the case of Mary Prince. Mr. Pringle refers to John A. Wood, Mary Prince’s last master, as «The angry slave-owner» (Supplement, 41), and describes Mary Prince as «a well-disposed and respectable woman (...)» (Supplement, 41)

The importance of identity, of belonging somewhere, is significant in The History of Mary Prince. When Mary Prince is a child she feels safe and that she belongs to a family, but as soon as she is sold at the slave market she is loosing this security. From now on she will have to redefine her identity. In such a situation it is natural to feel lonely since it is difficult to build relationships based upon trust, as her overseers and masters abuse her in such a violent manner. Although she develops relationships to fellow slaves she seems to distrust the human race, in particular white people. Notwithstanding she develops relationships of trust to white people too. This is especially true in the case of the Morovians, where she finds peace and hope in a religious context. «I always thought about what I had heard from the missionaries, and wished to be good that I might go to heaven.» (The History of Mary Prince, 29) In essence continual separation and displacement leads to a collective identity. Mary Prince relates a story of her own that is common for other slaves. The degradation of being treated like animals is common for every slave: «How can slaves be happy when they have the halter round their neck and the whip upon their back? and are disgraced and thought no more of than beasts? - and are separated from their mothers, and husbands, and children, and sisters, just as cattle are sold and separated?» (The History of Mary Prince, 37)

4

E-202 Marginalized Whiteness, Morten Oddvik, 22.10.2002

This emotional aspect of the collective identity is stated clearly at the end of the story: «I have been a slave myself - I know what slaves feel - I can tell by myself what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me.» (The History of Mary Prince, 38) Her emotional bonds are fragile, but precious, as in the case of her husband and the Morovians in the West Indies. She is a living proof of the slave trade and can relate personal evidence of it. By telling her story she has created a collective identity, which she has made herself, part of through observation and experience. In her retrospective perspective she acknowledges a kinship of suffering with other slaves and through this she creates a collective identity.

Works cited: Prince, Mary. The History of Mary Prince (1831), Ed. Sara Salih, Penguin Books, London, 2000

5