African American Struggles

200 years of slavery, with an estimate of 2 million, to 5 million deaths of African Americans during the slave trade, nevertheless even after being freed, or running to freedom, the fight still wasn't over. Everyone will know some stories of the life of the African American slave and have learned how these slaves continued through the struggles and physical and mental abuse, but no one will genuinely know the extent of the deprivation these people had survived. Not only were they treated like beasts in every form of the word, but it was mentally debilitating. While being treated as anything less of a human, in a place where liberty and freedom reigned, African Americans endured. Aftermaths of slavery, cross massive impacts psychologically and …show more content…
Being "an attractive African American slave was a curse," words from Harriet Ann Jacobs, "the first female ex-slave to use the autobiographical genre to write and to develop a liberation theology" (Townsend, 2010). Jacob states in the book of her experiences with constant sexual harassment from her master, Dr. Flint, therefore in return, "cruelty from Mrs. Flint (Townsend, 2010). Jacob finally fled when it became unbearable, along with her two children, where she also talks about going crazy and seeing things. Many African American women endured physical abuse, rape, and brandings, "countless are the numbers whose bodies succumbed to the ravages" (Thornhill, 1985). A lot of this physical torture was not exempt from pregnant women. Many of these strong women wanted to raise their child, like Jacobs, in a free world. The pain and suffering were so much that many, during the slave trade jumped overboard in a "suicidal jump" (Thornhill, 1985). The dominance of a white male towards an African American woman was of the norm; …show more content…
African Americans were huddled together on the bottom of ships, in barracks, side by side, on top of one another, with little to no food, in the survival of working for the rest of their lives, for little to no heartbeat. Many of the females on the ship were sexually abused, and when landing on a plantation, were ready for the birth of their child. The African American culture has built a form of alliance against the slave trade and American laws, by the creation of unity amongst each other, as well as creating a family. Although they tried to make a home for themselves, the slave trade separated their families and sent their brothers, sisters, mothers, sons, and daughters to other plantations. For many slaves, these were one of many memories, as well as "the profound emotional trauma of African Americans forcibly separated from family during slavery" (Humez, 2012). Slavery was a huge struggle, but it was a comfort of having ones loved one where they could watch their loved one and protect them in some way. For this reason, it was difficult for the normalcy of raising a child, while knowing that they would also be a slave. Many flee with their children, others, like Margaret Garner, "an African American slave who attempted to escape from Kentucky to the free state of Ohio with her family in 1856" (Lewontin, 2016). Margaret was then captured in Ohio by her owners and killed one of her

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