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

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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