Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Chapter 37 Summary & Analysis

In the spring, Linda is saddened to learn that Mrs. Bruce has died suddenly. Mr. Bruce decides to take Mary to see her English relatives and hires Linda to care for her during the journey. Leaving her children with friends, she sets off for London, where no one questions her right to sit by her employer at dinner. That night, she feels the sensation of “pure, unadulterated freedom” for the first time. She’s proud that Mary behaves well among the children of her father’s friends.

Traveling into the country, Linda sees families who work in the fields for pitiful wages and live in tiny, “primitive” cottages. Despite this poverty, their lives seem better than “the condition of the most favored slaves of America.” Their homes are small but protected by law and no one can break apart a family or abuse vulnerable women without incurring punishment. Many charitable campaigns are working to educate these people and give them more opportunities; no one is forbidding them to learn to read.

Moreover, Linda receives “strong religious impressions” in England, where the genuine faith and humility of the clergymen she meets contrasts starkly with the “contemptuous” manner with which American pastors treat slaves and their firm defense of slavery. During her entire time in England, Linda never experiences the slightest instance of discrimination—in fact, she almost forgets that racial prejudice exists until she returns to America.