Reddit reviews The History of Mary Prince A West Indian Slave

Hey, so the answers you have received have been pretty bad, so I'll try to add some context:

First, it is imperative to understand that slavery in the U.S predates the existence of the country itself. The slave trade in the U.S, its practices and infrastructure, were one in the same as slave trading practices in other British colonies. A good read on these early practices for introduction would be [James Walvin's Slavery and British Society] (http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-British-Society-1776-1846-Walvin/dp/0807110493). Its a little dated, but you will understand more indepthly how American colonies connect to the British Slave trade, and how largely even after the War of Independence, the two countries remained connected in this regard. So just as it is imperative to understand how the two are connected, it is equally imperative then to concede that the premise of your question may be too narrow. Its hard to separate slavery in the United States from slavery in the rest of the world at the time, because slaves moved between the Americas, the West Indies, and even back to London, sometimes in just a few years times. One of these "common" slave experiences I would suggest you read is the [The History of Mary Prince] (http://www.amazon.com/History-Prince-Indian-Slave-ebook/dp/B0084CGEQK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369628146&sr=1-1&keywords=mary+prince). Take it with a grain of salt, as it was used during the time as abolitionist propaganda, however, it and its contents are still an integral part of the history of slavery in the Americas. But I digress:

Secondly, slaving practices and cruelty varied from estate to estate. It should not be said that slaves ever had an easy time, but some masters were more cruel than others. To say generally that slavery in the United States was "less cruel" or even "more cruel" I think is too much of a stretch and is something that is really unknowable or unarguable from a pure historical perspective (what exactly do we mean by cruel, and moreover, how as historians do we measure it?). All that can be said is that conditions (weather, climate, disease, etc.) was less harsh in the United States as it was in say, Jamaica or Barbados. Picking cotton in Georgia was preferred to say cultivating sugar in the West Indies. Moreover, the planter class themselves had, politically speaking, less influence in the United States than in the West Indies, as, they had to compete with other interests such as industrial, immigrant, low wage workers, and (to a lesser extent) political progressives.

Sorry if this isn't very helpful to you. It is quite a complex question. However if you take anything from this answer I hope it is that you cannot separate slavery in the United States from the slave trade in general or slavery amongst other industrial powers, as, they are intrinsically connected and inseparable from one another.