When people generally think of family they think happy thoughts, thoughts of love and togetherness. A person's family is usually the point of origin to who we become and what we accomplish. Antislavery writers used the displacement of mother from son, sister from brother and wife from husband to show the pain slaves endured when their family members were taken and sold as a moments notice or sometimes with no notice at all. Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass share their experiences through their narratives. Harriet Beecher Stowe shows us that family can prevail in her fictional novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. These three writers shared one common meaning in their writing, that is, slaveholders tried to destroy the black family to make the slaves unfeeling and cold people so they (slaveholders) could obtain their riches without paying for the labor.
Olaudah Equiano was the second youngest child of seven children. At an early age his mother began grooming him for greatness. His daily physical training included shooting and throwing javelins, and his mother constantly shaped his mind. Equiano's original destiny was to follow in his father's footsteps and become an Embrenche. At the age of eleven this destiny was abruptly ended when slave traders abducted Equiano and his only sister. His beautiful life of peace and happiness was destroyed. His destiny forever changed.
In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Equiano shares his grief with his readers. Although he was affected by the loss of his parents and brothers, Equiano stressed the pain he felt from the separation of his sister. In chapter two of his narrative Equiano says,.
the only comfort we had was in being in one another's .
arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears. .
But alas! we were soon deprived of even the small comfort .
of weeping together. The next day proved a day of greater .