Slave Narratives

During the times of slavery many people opposed the thought of forcing someone to do everything they say, to own someone. They believed in the freedom of others and to treat everyone equally. There were many abolitionists and slave narratives who wanted their side of the story to be heard. Aunt Harriet Smith was a black woman from Homestead Texas and Aunt Phoebe Boyd from Dunnsville Virginia, both slave narratives. Aunt Harriet Smith was married to Jim Smith. They white folks killed her husband and she never knew why they would do such a thing, he was an honest man who went to church and always did what he was told (Soul, 2003). During one of her interviews Harriet was asked how long ago she could remember from her slave days, she could remember all the way back when she was thirteen years old. Harriet could successfully remember everyone’s names as well, all the white children, her owner, everyone of the slaves she was around, and people she came into contact with on a regular basis. Her owner had first purchased her grandmother and from then on owned the rest of her family from there on down. One thing she was extremely faithful to was church. They allowed the white people to go to church in the morning and the black people were allowed to go at night. They had a white preacher and he was always telling them to behave themselves. If the black slaves were to act up then the preacher would tell there owners and they would be punished. She believed that there was a God, and he would help them. The slaves were never taught to read and write, the only gossip they had was the stories they heard during church about slaves being mistreated. This was something all the slaves would talk about when they seen each other and were able to communicate and talk. Harriet said that the white people were good to them. Her owner never hurt any of them. Her owner treated her well and whenever her and her family would hear about slaves being mistreated it would shock them.