Incidents Blog Post #3

 In this blog post I would like to talk about slavery's affect on family life. Slavery has a tendency to break up families due to auctions and the selling of slaves. This happened often if not always during the time period of slavery. Being separated from blood-related people in your life can cause much emotional pain. It is unhealthy for the mind to have to grieve over the loss of a loved one and in the book Jacobs gives us many examples of families being separated. Most of the time the separation occurred because the individuals are sold to different owners; and the same happens with Jacobs’ family. One case in particular is that when Jacobs’ grandmother receives news from William's master, Mr. Sands, saying that William did not return with him from their journeys and that the abolitionists had taken him away. The news of course devastated Jacobs’ grandmother. Jacobs explains her grandmother’s grief in the following quote: “If you had seen the tears, and heard the sobs, you would have thought the messenger had brought tidings of death instead of freedom” (Jacobs 136). One would think that Jacobs’ grandmother would be happy to hear William was free, however, she thought she would never see William again. Jacobs explains the reason for her sadness in the quote: “Poor old grandmother felt that she should never see her darling boy again” (Jacobs 136). Most of us would indeed feel depressed if we knew we wouldn’t see a loved one again, even if we know that it is for their own good. The breaking of the bond causes us to feel sad instead of joy. If only we learned to always look at the bright side, the world would be a happier place.