Excerpt: "I was Born a Slave" Monologue and Video
One of the classes I took this semester was actually an Independent Study Course...and I loved it!The culmination of my independent study work is a play I have entitled "Do you believe in Majick?" The play is an exploration of black stereotypes down through the centuries - with a focus on the idea of magical niggers and militant negroes.
One of my characters Aaron is based on one of the slave narratives I read during my course. Aaron only has one monologue in the play and this is it. I don't care to much for rhyming but I do like how this came out.
Also I quickly threw together this movie with me singing bits and pieces of a negro spiritual - "Follow The Drinking Gourd" and some images of slavery. Nothing spectacular but if you play the video and read the monologue at the same time you'll sort of get the effect I'm going for at this part of the play.
--
Aaron: (standing up) I was born a slave!
(soft singing in the background “No more auction block for me…No more auction block for me…etc” until Aaron finishes his monologue)
But glory to God no more auction block for me! The auction block was a sight to see. A range of Blacks aged gray and white haired to infancy. Souls being sold at the sound of a hammer. Families that God had joined together were separated forever. Blacks bartered for cash, counted as property, whipped and lashed. Broken. Their black bodies broken. Their spirits broken. The only way to survive was to live with a hope in - God. Even when I became free I found life to be hard. They thought they was using me when they came to me and asked me to tell my story but really I was using them in hopes to see the brotherhood of all humanity. It was a lesson to be learned. That people should never be converted into property. Men should never be made merchandise. As all men bare God’s image they should never be turned into instruments. Thank God for the day freedom came. I traveled the white world preaching in Jesus’ name. Yeap, (sitting back down) no more auction block for me.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02kWiOg6Kxo&w=420&h=315]