Harriet Jacobs, Wheatley, And Olaudah Equiano

Throughout the years, many people have attempted to portray the hardships and struggles of slaves based on what they learned or what they might have been taught. But realistically, there is no way for anyone to understand the lives that many blacks were forced into because they have never actually experienced it themselves. During slavery, blacks were separated from their families and pushed into a lifestyle that was dehumanizing and depressing. Their everyday lives were being watched and harsh punishments were being given for reasons that were unethical. Harriet Jacobs, Phyllis Wheatley, and Olaudah Equiano wrote about the different struggles that they faced as slaves in order to give readers an understanding from their point of view. In

In this line, she is speaking on the fact the she was taken from her home in Africa and brought to America. For a little over four hundred years, many Africans were seized from their homes and transported to America. In America, they were forced to work on plantations and mines. Slaves were also not allowed to learn how to read because many white were afraid that if they learned how to read they would eventually get to freedom. From day to day, slaves grew crops, took care of animals and served their “owners” for sometimes up to eighteen hours a day. The hard work of these slaves serve as a shrine for the enormous wealth that is still enjoyed by many Europeans and Americans. In her poem, Wheatley also says “Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train”. Phyllis Wheatley’s conversion to Christianity as a consequence of her surviving the infamous middle passage from Africa to America. The middle passage refers to the triangular trade where millions of Africans were packed onto slave ships and moved across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies. This was one of the first struggles of slave that eventually led to