slave narrative post 2
“To be a man, and not to be a man–a father without authority–a husband and no protector–is the darkest of fates. Such was the condition of my father, and such is the condition of every slave throughout the
United States: he owns nothing, he can claim nothing. His wife is not his: his children are not his; they can be taken from him, and sold at any minute”
For some reason, out of everything I have read on slavery, this one statement makes more of an impact on me than anything else. It is probably because control is a huge part in my life. If I do not feel in control, I panic. I can not imagine what it would feel like to watch everything I love be taken away from me before my eyes. I would go crazy. I can easily see why Jim ran away in Huckleberry Finn. The idea of being taken from my family against my will is one of my biggest fears. If I had had to live like that, no matter how drastic it is, I probably would have killed myself. I would be in a constant state of fear and anxiety at the thought that at any second my family could disappear.
