¹ ¹  ¹ ((Schneider, Eric B. 2017. “Children’s Growth in an Adaptive Framework: Explaining the Growth Patterns of American Slaves and Other Historical Populations.” Economic History Review 70 (1): 3–29. doi:10.1111/ehr.12484.))

A Mother’s Anguish² ((Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. “A mother’s anguish.” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 25, 2023. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-7589-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99))

The history of slavery within the United States has stood its testament in time demonstrating as a key player in the country’s upbringing and prosperity. With this, many slaves were brought from Africa to the United States for white plantation owners to gain cheap or unpaid labor for their businesses to thrive, while the slaves endured insufferable punishments. Many of the punishments that slaves endured included various degrees of pain such as whippings, branding, starvation, rape, separation of families and ultimately killing the slaves if they were disobedient or were useless to their owners³((David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History (Volume 1) (W.W Norton & Company; Brief Twelfth Edition, 2022), 323.)). This struggle for power that many of the owners had over the slaves conditioned them to treat the slaves as property, which they were bought and sold throughout all the states, though primarily the South. The owners had no regard for those enslaved and truly did not care for them besides what physical attributes they could bring to benefit themselves. This inhumane regard of human life reinforced the ideals and morals of racial superiority/inferiority, racial discrimination, and bias, amongst other prejudicial biases that unfortunately still occur to this day. However, throughout all of history, many lack the knowledge of gaining perspective from the slaves going through the situation. Textbooks generally overlook the individual stories of people that were alive during this time and often just state general facts and move on. However, from the first recollection of slavery in 1619 to its abolishment in 1865, stood centuries of torture and torment for individuals and families nationwide. For example, the number one symbol of justice and leadership seen within the United States, the White House, was built upon the backs of slavery. Quoted by Duchess Harris in How Slaves Built America follows, “To meet the demand, the architects of the city rented enslaved people from slaveholders who lived nearby. James Hoban, the architect of the White House, brought four of his own slaves to the work. His assistant, Pierce Purcell, brought one as well. To build the president’s house, slaves cleared the land of trees and brush. They dug foundations and hauled the bricks and stone into place. According to official White House records, dozens of slave laborers worked at the site…It took about eight years for the laborers—slave, free, and indentured to complete the White House”⁴((Duchess Harris, and Tom Streissguth. 2019. How Slaves Built America. Slavery in America. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Essential Library, 7. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=e867sww&AN=2108688&site=eds-live.)). Based on this treatment and excessive labor, many slaves did not want to continue with this lifestyle and truly wanted to live free lives. With this, many slaves attempted to escape, but that was a risk due to other plantation owners and commoners on the lookout for runaway slaves. A slave’s fate, if caught running away, was either severe punishment or death, so it was a severe risk one would have to take⁵((Damian Alan Pargas. 2018. Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America. Southern Dissent. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 116. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=e000xna&AN=1801777&site=eds-live)).With that, the predominant issue that slavery brought on besides forced labor and mistreatment was the separation of families being sold to different owners in different states. Unfortunately, “all ‘Negroes, Mulattoes, and Indians’ sold into bondage as having become enslaved for life, as were the children born of enslaved mothers⁶((David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History (Volume 1) (W.W Norton & Company; Brief Twelfth Edition, 2022), 109.)). Thus, young children also had to endure the same pain and beatings as their parents did. Many of these slave children like their parents suffered “nutritional shock, long-term illnesses, and later maturation” due to the lack of care that they received⁷((Schneider, Eric B. 2017. “Children’s Growth in an Adaptive Framework: Explaining the Growth Patterns of American Slaves and Other Historical Populations.” Economic History Review 70 (1): 3–29. doi:10.1111/ehr.12484.)). This concept was common for the time and is seen in the image and story of The American Anti-Slavery Almanac under A Mother’s Anguish. This almanac provided slavery abolitionists to spread the word to supporters and the public to share the struggle slaves endured. Within this record from 1837, a mother is pictured above her two sleeping children holding an axe. The article describes a mother who loves her children more than anything. After a long day of work, the children who brought her joy, also brought sorrow, since she was notified of them being sold six hundred miles away from her. Though the mother loves her children dearly, she is conflicted with the torment they will receive so far away from her and most importantly not being able to defend themselves since they’re so young. Troubled by her thoughts, the mother kills them so that they cannot live a dangerous future⁸((Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. “A mother’s anguish.” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 25, 2023. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-7589-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99)). Many mothers like this one had to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect their children from their worse nightmare. Thus ending the cycle of torment and slavery with themselves.