Martin Lutter King once said, “as long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery”. This means that enslaved people were not only restricted from any physical freedom but from mental freedom as well. When the mind does not belong to the body, when your thoughts are controlled and trap into a bottle, that is the worst kind of slavery besides the physical one. In the book “Underground Railroad”, major themes such as brutality, autonomy, and ownership are brought up. The author, Colson Whitehead, used Cora and Ceasar as principal personages to illustrate these themes and to connect it with slavery and what many enslaved people have been through for generations and generations. In the Underground Railroad, Cora grew up in a brutal atmosphere and that turned her into a brutal person. When she used to live in Randall plantation, Cora was constantly abused whether it is mentally or physically. One of the worst physical brutality she had been through is when she was raped by a gang of four male slaves right behind the plantation. “Not long after it became known that Cora’s womanhood had come into flower, Edward, Pot, and two hands from the southern half dragged her behind the smokehouse” (“the Underground Railroad, Chapter 2, page 21). This episode of Cora’s life has marked her mentally and emotionally because of her womanhood was taken away from her, not by the colonist, but from her own people. That is psychological brutality but also physical because she was abused by five men consecutively without anyone to intervene. In the article “Rape of bodies, Rape of Souls”, the author talks about physical brutality African woman have been through during the transatlantic trade and how them being raped and physically and mentally hurt is seen as not important. “The African woman experienced the most complete of aggressions, that is, the daily and repeated rape of a crew that had been made crazy in the practice of their trade”. This quote says a lot, it shows repetition of an action that should not be repeated. Cora is the one more woman of color who is a victim of rape and nobody talked about it because it is a current and normal act that can’t be changed. Another example of brutality is when Cora was captured by Ridgeway in Tennessee, Ridgeway told Cora, “I’m sure I’d have scooped up the three of you before the trail got cold. Lovey- was that its name?” (Chapter 8, page 208). Ridgeway was talking about Cora’s friend Lovey who ran away with Ceasar and her at the beginning of the book. Lovey was left behind when they were running away and she ended up being captured by Ridgeway and killed on the trail. Always on page 208 of chapter 8, “Cora covered her mouth to keep in her scream”. Cora’s reaction to this news shows the trauma and the way enslaved people hide their reactions to the brutality of slavery as a way to protect themselves, protect themselves from the cruelty of the enslavers. When brutality is the hardest kind of treatment enslave people went through, ownership is the worst. Enslavers owned people of color’s body, soul, voice, and mind. They only had their dream, the dream of having their freedom, autonomy far from the plantations. In the underground railroad, the author points out the fact that enslaved people are a great profit for the economy of the country. Besides separating and selling them for money and goods, the colonists use the body of the enslaved as materials. Cora finds out that some white people want to use colored people’s bodies for medical experiments and since black people are not considered and are seen as more animals than humans, they could use them without anyone intervening. Additionally, in chapter 4 page 105 of the book “Underground Railroad”, “My babies, they’re taking away my babies!”. This emphasizes the idea of putting birth control in the body of the women of color without their consent to enable them from reproduction. That is a perfect example of ownership because even if women of color ran away to find freedom and autonomy they are still owned by white people and don’t have a word to say when it comes to their own body. Another example of ownership is when Cora found a job at the museum and thought that she would just clean the place. She ignored that her job was to sit and wear a certain dress that enslaved people wear. “Some people never left the countries where they were born, he said. Like a railroad, the museum permitted them to see the rest of the country beyond their small experience, from Florida to Maine to the western frontier. And to see its people. “People like you,” Mr. Fields said” (chapter 4, page 109). This shows once more the fact that white people treat people of color’s bodies as object for their own profit. When the white people’s figure is presented as precious and important, the black figures are presented by real people and are shown as unworthy, down and merely things. Indeed, according to the document “Before the Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom”, it is stated that, “Slavery usually meant an extra pair of hands working beside them on their riverside farms, it meant a domestic servant or an attendant to accompany them when their roles took them outside the settlement”. This means that enslaved people are owned by the colonist and are used for their own purpose and profit. Besides that, they are merely considered and that is the worst. Beside living constantly in fear and in brutality, Cora and Ceasar had the chance to be free for a while. Most of the enslaved people have only dreamt of freedom, far from the plantations and the cruelty they constantly live in. Cora’s mother is the reason why Cora had the courage to run away with Ceasar. Mabel was later killed by a snake because her body was never found after that. That is why her daughter, Cora, found the purpose to her too, chase freedom and find their autonomy. When Cora and Ceasar risked their life for their autonomy, some other enslaved people chose to kill themselves and to be free after death, which is another kind of freedom, but the desperate one. When Cora reached the south, she landed at the Anderson’s and worked as a caretaker. She starts getting money and buying stuff for herself. She bought a beautiful blue cotton dress, and the feeling of the blue dress on her skin felt new and comfortable because she used to make cotton so that the enslavers could use it. Walking on the streets head up, talking and moving freely was pleasant to Cora and from enslaved to free, I think it was worth taking the risk to find her autonomy through the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad helped millions of enslaved people accomplish their dreams, to be free. Although it was a risky journey to take, it was worth it even if death would come right after and take them away, they still would be free from the brutality and cruelty of the enslavers. Some people might say that it would be smarter to stay in the plantations and live underground than to suicide by looking for autonomy. I would say that dying a million times for trying to escape was better than being owned by the colonists. Harriet Thuman once said, “I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” This quote adds up to the point that freedom and death are somehow connected and that if enslaved people fail to free on earth, they freed themselves on the other side, and it was better than slavery.
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