!

Amanda (Rickie) Watson

Instructor Chad Ostler

History 1700

15 September 2018

Same Kitchen, Same Yard

On a plantation, near Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1803, Lunsford Lane was born into

slavery. In 1842, The Narrative of Lunsford Lane was a published memoir, which depicted a first

person point of view of His Experience as a Slave Child. Lane gives a short illustration of what

his experience was like while being a slave in the South during the early 1800s. Starting from his

infancy to adolescence, while discovering the differences between himself and his master’s white

children. Lane’s only intent to writing his memoir, was to shed light on the behavior of the

slaveholding community during his era, but through a child’s eyes.

All while, in 1833, William Lloyd Garrison of Massachusetts, helped to form the

American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). This group focused on giving the same rights to people

of color, just as their counterparts. Garrison almost lost his life trying to give justice to those

enslaved, but remaining hopeful, he last saw the abolition of slavery on December 6, 1865.

The beginning of Lane’s document paints a picture of where he was born and where he

spent most of his childhood, which was an apartment he called, “the kitchen”. Recalling his

infancy being spent either on the floor, in his mother’s arms, or in a cradle. Fast forwarding to his

early youth described as some light, occasional labor due to his young age, as well as playing

with other children, both colored and white. Lane states that he did not perceive there to be any
 !2

differences between himself and the other children, but that there were colored families living in

the same kitchen, playing with children of both races, in the same yard.

Lane describes his infancy to childhood years, just as any other child may, with nothing,

but pure innocence. Now, Lane becoming of age were it is common to begin working, his

innocence was broken, leading him to find the differences between him and the other white

children. Some differences exhibited were when the master’s white children began to read, were

as Lane having any writing or print in his possession, would be transgression. Another difference

was when the same white children he had grown up with, began to give him orders, with those

orders being fueled by his master and mistress. These are the same white children that he had

played with in the yard and would even share the occasional biscuit his master would give to

each colored and white child. Lane’s description of his early childhood, proves a point that

nobody is born a racist, but instead, it is taught.

The southern slave owners kept their slaves uneducated, obedient by punishments, which

lead to instill them with nothing but fear. The intense fear placed upon Lane, was if he were to be

separated from his friends, which his friends were the only ones that heard his voice. Now

knowing what and who he is, but from his young adult eyes, is nothing. This realization of

having no say in when or what he would eat, where he slept, or what he did, his friends were the

one thing that made him feel like a person. To take away the one thing he thought life was worth

living for, would be worse than actual death.

All humans want self defining roles, whether that is to have an education, chose your

friends, eat what you want, or just to live and do what you please. To determine this self

definition, it is formed from ones self wants, opinions, needs, clearly summed up as basic human
 !3

rights. This document portrays how insignificant a person of color was, they had no existential

self in who are what they are. A slave’s opportunity of developing a self concept is stripped at

such a young age, that they know exactly the difference between them self and their master’s

white children. Lane had this small window of not knowing those differences, which beginning

to develop a self concept of who you are, then abruptly having it taken away would be worse

than death. Lane most likely new the obvious truth, that death is inevitable, but that small

window he had, made him realize that dying is what we all have to look towards, but the things

of value during our life, is what makes the difference.

 !4

Works Cited

Lane, Lunsford. “His Experiences as a Slave Child.” Digital History, 2016,

www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=480.

“Anti-Slavery Sentiment and the Crises of the 1850s.” American Civilization, A Brief History,

2014 Rice University. Textbook Content Produced by OpenStax College, 2014, pp.

180-181.