Vive Libre O Muera Tratar (john Parker Paper)

John Parker was a very calculating, restless, and irate spirit, he was “designing, hateful, and determined… [he] was resentful…” (Parker 27). How would you feel, as a “free” human being in the United States, if for your entire life, you were under the control of another person, young or old, mild or mean? They controlled every thing you do in life, all the way down to the manner in which you breathe. How would this make you feel? I, for one, would not stand for it, and whole heartedly agree with Parker when he admitted; “ I was bitterly touched with a hatred which I had to conceal, but it rankled and festered and bore its sour fruit…” (26). Parker’s life was not like nature, free, strong and powerful, but angry, and indignant. He was constantly faced with the conflict of containing his rage, but regularly defeated himself in this effort because he “[took] delight in smashing down [his] revenge on the things that were free” (Parker 27). Until he decided to live life on his terms, Parker was forced to conform, adding to his desire, and that meant taking his freedom at any cost. Freedom was an ever-present light in the distance, like “the north star”, guiding him on his voyage (Parker 71). Along with this guide; it took Parker’s own deception, humility, perseverance, game-play, and disregard for the consequences of capture; to stimulate the hunger for personal liberation from the institution of slavery, and to deliver the food of hope to others who did and did not contain his intimate knowledge or drive.

Parker uses deception, or “tricksterism”, and well-earned malice, to delude and intimidate his way into freedom. These methods did nothing for Parker, other than get him caught time after time, because he did not see the grand scheme of things. Parker lived in the moment, constantly formulating ways of escape, but never creating a concrete plan. Once he realized the error in his effort, shortly before he was to be sold south as a field hand, Parker saw his salvation in Mrs. Ryder. This was not an easy task to embark upon because it involved humility and honesty, not his modus operandi of deception and intimidation. Parker was forced to beg Mrs. Ryder to purchase his freedom. This feat was not simple, thanks to his unfavorable history with violence, egoism, and failure to secure his escape to the North. To Mrs. Ryder, Parker was a risky investment because “the proposition [he made] did not appeal to her, because [he] was always in trouble, and could not keep a job. [He] was a dog with a bad name” (Parker 66). But this problem was rectifiable, once Parker recognized that he “had to get out of the country and this was [his] one great chance [at freedom]”, and thus began his transformation into another type of cunning character with a goal in desperate need of being met. Parker became “a man with a plan [who now] always had the advantage” (Parker 52,66).

Deception and intimidation were not the only mechanisms Parker relied on to obtain his freedom. Perseverance and animosity towards slavery, the condition he called “ an incident to the curse… not a pain of the body (sic), but a pain of the soul”, helped Parker formulate the reason and means by which he ought to use for escape (26). Slavery was not a way of life to Parker, but an incessant obstacle he was challenged with. Parker believed that slavery was a process of breaking people when he stated that “it was not the physical part of slavery that made it cruel and degrading, [but] the taking away from a human being the initiative (sic) of thinking, of doing his own ways” (25). Just the idea of being suppressed; his drive, spirit of innovation, the God given right of free will, was far worse than the beatings, which were stifling to his soul. Due to this entrapment slavery caused, Parker was an independent, restless spirit that could not be contained by ordinary means. Parker used these values, from his own experience, as a reason for escape for himself, and later