When looking into the slave narratives from When I Was a Slave, we can conclude that many slaves felt as if they had no hope. They were forced to believe that they were nobody until there was a white man there to guide them. Tell them what to do, in that sense the slave realized what kind of potential he/she really had. We can look into the memoir of Frank Bell, at the age of 86 he was interviewed by an unidentified individual in Madisonville, Texas. Bell states “you know, the nigger was wild till the white man made what he has out of the nigger” (Yetman 10). What Bell says in this quote is that, a black slave is lost he/she can be lost emotionally, and or mentally, until his capabilities are put to the test by a white man. The slave feels as if he/she is nobody until they have someone white by their side, someone that will guide them, as a young boy who always needs his father at a young age to guide him. Frank Bell can be compared to a lost young boy, who replaces his father with the white master, the white master that he looks up to.
We are quickly forced to look into fear once again as the main reason that Frank Bell feels wild until the white man made what he has out of him. Fear plays a major role in what Bell says, it sounds as if he fears being lost. He fears in not having his “father” around. If Bell chose to escape from his master, fear would have had the best of him, Bell would feel doubt. Doubt in finding food, shelter all of the typical needs in continuing life. Bell would fear that he was not capable of finding work that he would actually get paid for. Bell’s master says “Nigger, you’s supposed to be free but I’ll pay you a dollar a week and if you runs I’ll kill you” (Yetman 10). We clearly see that fear was put into Bell, he feared death. Of course Bell wanted to get paid; he has worked so many years without receiving any sort of compensation. Once again Bell may have stayed due to him feeling “wild” and or lost, without his “father” or the white master.
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