Imagining Slavery: Representations of the Peculiar Institution on the Northern Stage, 1776–1860

Abstract

i m agi n i ng sl av ery 3 1 Mungo: Yes, Massa, if you no lick me again.Diego: Listen to me, I say.Mungo: You know, Massa, me very good servant Diego: Then you will go on?Mungo: And ought to be use kine-Diego: And if you utter another syllable-Mungo: And I'm sure, Massa, you can't deny but I worky worky-I dress a victuals, and run a errands, and wash a house, and make a beds, and scrub a shoes, and wait a table.Take that!-[says Diego, striking Mungo]-now will you listen to me?Mungo is instructed to stand outside in the cold guarding a door to make certain Lenora does not sneak out.He laments his treatment to the audience, expressing both anger and awareness of his exploitation as a worker:Dear Heart, what a terrible life I am led!A dog has a better, that's sheltered and fed.Night and day 'tis the same, My pain is dere gain.Me wish to de Lord me was dead.Whatever's to be done, Poor black must run: Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo everywhere.Diego departs the castle, and Mungo, defying orders, admits a young man who is Diego's competitor for Lenora's aff ections into the castle.

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