This story BROKE my heart!!
It starts with a family that is so proud of liberty! The father is off fighting in the revolutionary war and everyone in the family is so proud. When two soldiers come to the house saying they're there on behalf of congress, the family flies into action. Everyone gives any blankets, clothes, the socks off of their feet, basically anything they could spare to the soldiers for those who are fighting. This story ends with the mother stating that she gave all she could, her husband and children. The next part begins with a happy black family in their home, they make dinner and have a nice little life. There is a pounding at the door and the father is taken away in handcuffs because he belonged to a slave holder in Georgia, even though he had been free for 10 years. This man was then taken to a slave auction and auctioned off as a piece of meat. Many showed up and cheered because they were not going to let anyone escape from their masters.
I cannot believe that this happened. I know it did, and it did all the time, but I hate it! I'm not for sure when both of these stories took place but what I think what happened is the first story is during the revolutionary war when America is fighting for its freedom, and the second story is after that war and before the civil war and shows how many Americans were actually not free. I feel like after America gained their freedom from Britain, the slaves were clearly not free. In all reality America didn't stop fighting for their freedom until slavery was abolished and even still, not then.
The family in the first story is so picture perfect, with the husband off at war fighting for the freedom of the country. Everyone was so proud and liberty was something that was spoken of with great respect. In the second story the family was so happy to be free and they too were a picture perfect family. I feel like the first family would be upset with what happened to the second family!! The father was off at war fighting so that Americans could be free and didn't have to live under British rule anymore, and yet once they became free more people were enslaved stateside. To make an example of the second father to show slaves in America that if they were freed for any reason that if they were caught they would be brought back to their owner. The fact that any American was owned by another is truly disgraceful.
I completely agree with you! The second story was really heartbreaking. Can you imagine what the mother and children felt when they saw there father and husband get taken away, knowing that they might never see him again. I thought it was so cruel, even though it probably happened a lot back then as you stated. The first family was soo cute though, with the little boy who was all about liberty because he took his father as his role model. How do you think the mother of the second family felt when they took her husband away?
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly not even in a place to imagine that. I was almost married to a guy in the military so I've been faced with having to take over a household by myself and run things while the person I loved was absent. The feeling I had when I was home, somewhere where the person I loved should be, and he was gone was absolutely awful. You truly cannot begin to understand the feeling until you're in the situation. I think that's kind of how this is. I cannot begin to imagine how this wife felt watching her husband, someone who had been free for so long, being taken away.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking if something happened to where I had to witness my daddy being taken away. I can't even imagine that. It's almost as if their father died because they will never see him ever again. Even thinking about never seeing my father again or talking to him again makes me cry! How this affected those children and the rest of their lives is unimaginable!