Contradictions are beliefs that cannot be proven true. In times of slavery, contradictions were constantly used to 'trick' slaves into believing things that weren't true. Slaves were made to believe things that were said to them in order to take advantage of their worth. An example of this belief comes from the book, "When I was a Slave", memoirs from the Slave Narrative Collection, edited by Norman R. Yetman. Arnold Gragston a former African slave was interviewed by Martin Richardson at the age of 97 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Arnold Gregston was 'tricked' into believing contradictions that his master, Mr. Jack Tabb said and did to him. Arnold expressed his feeling towards his master, as stated in his interview, Arnold says, "Mr. Tabb was a pretty good man, He used to beat us, sure, but not nearly so much as others did some his own kin people, even" (Arnold 56). Judging by this statement it may seem to the naked eye that Mr. Tabb was a reasonable master, yet he still used to beat his slaves. Adding proof to this contradiction, Arnold later said in his interview, "He would ask us where we had been. If we told him we had been learn' to read, he would near beat the daylights out of us - after getting somebody to teach us" (Arnold 56). This shows, although Arnold believed that Mr. Tabb was a nice guy, he technically tricked them getting what he wanted and needed. Yes, he may have treated them better than other slave owners and even hired someone else to teach them, but he kept the boundaries closed at times. Learning to read was a benefit to Arnold, but not Mr. Tabb, so in restricting him from such a privilege Mr. Tabb was in some way tricking his slave from something that could benefit him in the long run. I personally believe Mr. Tabb did that to ensure that Arnold, as well as the other slaves remained without a knowledge of being able to read, because it could have open the door for them to become smarter and wiser in achieving their freedom.
The vocabulary use in your first paragraph could use some tweaking. For example, you said “wasn’t true” where you should have said “weren’t true” and “was said” should have been “were said”. In addition, I think the explanation for the examples you will be using could be less vague in order to give the audience some more detail and direction. In the second paragraph I think you can be more specific on how Mr. Jack “tricked” Arnold into believing the contradictions. I thought that your examples from the text did show accurate contradictions and supported your topic sentence in the first paragraph. I also agree with your last sentence, Mr. Tabb certainly restricted the amount of education Arnold and other slaves received, in order to maintain the knowledge gap between them and to insure they wouldn't get any wiser and smarter and figure out a way to achieve their freedom.
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