Leo Ameika

8/8/18
7.2 Assessment - Letter to Future Self

Dear Future Leo,

If you are reading this, congratulations - you remembered that I, your past self, wrote you a
letter (we all know how poor your memory is!). If you followed your own instructions properly it
will be 2028 for you, or 10 years after you learnt about Victorian Era nonfiction in your English
12 class. To jar your memory, the piece of nonfiction that most struck you was that of Mary
Prince, a woman who was born a slave in colonial Bermuda. Prince describes her childhood as
the happiest time of her life because she was too young to understand her position as a slave.
However, as she ages and is sold to different slave owners she finds that her life is “but going
from one butcher to another”; time and time again she witnesses and experiences firsthand the
abuse that slaves were subject to. Particularly poignant is her description of the house of one of
her slave owners; “the stones were the best thing in it,” she says, for they “were not so hard as
the hearts of the owners”. Prince’s argument for abolition is compelling; I felt incredible
sympathy for her and other slaves like her.

Her argument is relevant still because slavery - albeit illegal this time - persists all over the
world, and is just as barbaric as it was during Prince’s time. Certain conditions today can
potentially aid in preserving the institution of slavery: lack of awareness, advances in technology
that make transporting slaves easier, and weak gubernatorial efforts to hold slave
owners/traders accountable are just a few. For example, while the African country of Mauritania
officially abolished slavery in the early 80s, little was done to punish slave owners until the mid
2000s.Thus, spreading the knowledge that slavery still exists and lobbying governing bodies to
tighten anti-slavery legislation are solid efforts that could reduce slavery’s prevalence. And while
technology can facilitate slavery, it can also help lead to its destruction; witnesses can more
easily report suspicious activity and surveillance equipment such as GPS trackers and cameras
can alert officials. I hope that by the time you read this slavery will have been markedly reduced,
but if it hasn’t, follow my advice above. Also, preserve the remnants of slavery in the U.S. -
many people are quick to forget that slavery was as horrendous and as ubiquitous as it was.
Just last week I read an article in which a woman claimed that slaves were well taken care of in
America! To borrow the phrase used to honor victims of terrorist attacks like 9/11, “never forget”
the experiences of slaves like Mary Prince.