Tommy Meade

A Mercy Essay

Slavery in America is one of the worst things our Country has done. To own a human

being and claim them as your property because they do not have the same skin color as you is

disturbing. History shows how the United States treated minorities the worst and forced them to

work and if not they would be beaten. Slavery in America was inhumane and a regrettable part

of our country's history. Many slaves tried to run to the North for freedom due to the lack of

rights they were given. The book A Mercy by Toni Morrison shares an impactful portrayal of

American Slavery through symbols, themes, and the characters.

Religion plays a large role in the book with many different symbols from many different

types of religions such as Judaism and Christianity. A symbol that depicts religion in the book is

the comparison of the Plantations mansion on the hill as the city on the hill from The New

Testament. Another symbol in the book is the floral accents on the plantations front gates as if it

was the Garden of Eden which is supposedly a place of sanctity and peace.

One of the largest symbols we see is the name of the north which is The Promise Land like the

jews looked for israel for their freedom the slaves looked for the north. Many slaves relied on

god as their sign of hope and prayed for freedom. Religion in this book plays a prevalent role

throughout the slaves stories told.

Slavery was caused by minorities having lack of rights which caused much violence

towards them. Lack of rights and violence against minorities has been a prevalent topic

throughout the United States history and plays a major theme in my book. Many slaves were

raped for profit to have a new slave that didn't cost the plantation owners any money.Slavery

was not only an act against African Americans in this book but it was an act against all minorities

their were Native American, Portuguese, and African American slaves.The United States White

Males forced minorities to become slaves for them and be their property due to their lack of
rights. To judge people based on color and force them to work based on the way they look or

the country they are from is a disappointment and a disgrace to our country's history and

founding fathers theory.

Throughout the book we hear many different stories told from different slaves living on

the plantations points of view. One of the slaves named Florens is from Portugal who shares

the story of her life after being forcefully separated from her mother at the young age of 8 years

old. Sorrow is a Native American who was forced into labor against her will and will do anything

to gain freedom. Many characters in the book have loved and lost due to slavery they have

watched their loved ones being beaten or ripped apart from them. Many slaves were torn apart

from their families and forced to be separated. Some slaves were even torn from their mothers

arms at birth to be sold off as young workers in the cotton fields. Slavery proves how impractical

and thoughtless our countries ancestors were. They treated other human beings awfully

because of the color of their skin and believed that since they were white they were higher up

than others.

The book has an impactful portrayal of slavery in America through many different

symbols, themes, and characters. As we see the book shares many different themes and

symbols. Two of the most important ones are religion and the lack of rights/violence towards

minorities. This helps the reader understand what slavery was like by telling the story through

the eyes of multiple different slaves. The book shares the stories of many slaves through their

eyes and how they were treated. We see many different types of people whether hispanic,

black, gay, or native american treated poorly because they are not good enough to the

average human being.

Highlights:
 1. What did you hope to accomplish with this writing?
I hoped to raise awareness about how poor our country treated minorities and why it was not alright
to treat other human beings like that. My essay talks about how many slaves used religion as a sign
of hope and how the only belief they had was that God would save them.
2. What do you think you did well in this writing?
I think i shared the views that the story had in a very detailed and insightful way that talked about the
way that slaves and minorities viewed how they did not have the freedoms our country granted due
to the fact that they are minorities.
3. What are areas of weakness in this essay?
I did not use quotes in this essay for evidence. I chose to use details and the symbols that many
slaves talked about in the book like religion and how they felt that they did not have the rights they
deserved.
4. After the peer review and self revision, what are changes that you
made?
I did not do any peer revision on my essay.

4 = exemplary 3=proficient 2=developing 1=insufficient

Purpose: writing clearly communicates an insightful or original point or purpose 3

Development: writing supports purpose with sound thoughts, ideas, and arguments that reference and 4
explain specific details or facts

Organization: writing is well organized and features logical progression, effective transitions, and
coherence within and among paragraphs

Style: writing creates reader's interest through accurate, varied and creative use of words, sentence
types, and sentence patterns

Grammar: writing follows conventions of standard written English about literature (includes: spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, syntax, MLA format, etc.