1) Slavery destroyed relationships with the families of the slaves.
-I say that slavery in any form is degrading to humanity; that it is cruel wrong done to one’s own neighbor, and that to acquire slaves and hold them as property, wars must be waged, homesteads must be destroyed, families must be broken up, whole districts set on fire, many lives destroyed, and other cruelties perpetrated. (1-216)
A) Husband and Wife
- "State laws gave slave marriages no legal protection and in these transactions husbands could be separated from their wives and children from their mothers."(10)
- “I don't know whether I have told you Laura Spicers story. She was sold from her husband some years ago, and he, hearing she was dead, married again. He has had a wavering inclination to again unite his fortunes with hers; and she has received a letter from him in which he said, "I read you letters over and over again. I keep them always in my pocket. If you are married I don't ever want to see you again." And yet, in some of his letters, he says, "I would much rather you would get married to some good man, for every time I gits a letter from you it tears me all to pieces. The reason why I have not written you before, in a long time, is because your letters disturbed me so very much. You know I love my children. I treats them good as a Father can treat his children; and I do a good deal of it for you. I was sorry to hear that Lewellyn, my poor little son, have had such bad health. I would come and see you, but I know you could not bear it. I want to see you and I don't want to see you. I love you just as well as I did the last day I saw you, and it will not do for you and I to meet. I am married, and my wife have two children, and if you and I meets it would make a very dissatisfied family."” (13)
-
B) Parent and child
-Slavery robbed the cradle—cursed and mocked the tomb. A mother’s tears for her babe in chains outweigh the grief and mercy of the world. (2-132)
- I grieved...