Women in Africa could trade, own property, and sometimes collectively influe

It is certainly true that the broomstick ritual came to hold an honored place in the wedding customs of enslaved people. And the marriages it initiated were taken with great seriousness, regardless of their lack of legal force. However, it is important to remember how slavery affected these marriages. First, most enslaved women had no choice about whether or not they were become wives and mothers. It was not only expected of them, it was demanded. If a woman did not choose a husband, she would be assigned one. It was part of her job. It was also part of a woman's job to bear children. A slave girl was expected to have children as soon as she became a woman. Some of them had children at the age of twelve and thirteen years old. Black men six feet tall went to some of these children. (P 80)

After that, during the 1830's, the term came into general use, and the Railroad took on all the trappings of a real railroad. There were "conductors," who led slaves out of capacity or guided them at various points in their journey. There were "stations," where sympathetic men and women gave runaways food and fresh clothing. There were even timetables of the "runs," which indicated when fugitives would arrive or depart from a particular station. (P 97 NF)

Female slaves, like women in all cultures, had a social "destiny" that was intimately related to their biological capacity to bear children and centered within their own families. They assumed primary responsibility for childcare and for operations involved in daily household maintenance- cooking, cleaning; tending fires, sewing and patching clothes. Wives and mothers completed these tasks either early in the morning, before the start of "regular" workday on the plantation, or at night, after other family members had gone to sleep. (P 36)

"Who is it?" A farmer would ask when she heard her knock at his door. "A friend with friends," would come the answer. It was a code. It was her "commuter ticket" on the Underground Rail Road. With her codes and her courage, she carried more than three hundred slaves to freedom in this railroad that had no tracks and no trains but somehow managed to get its passengers where they wanted to go. (P 95 NF)

To be slave. To know, despite the suffering and deprivation, that you were human, more human than he said who you ere not human. To know joy, laughter, sorrow, and tears an yet be considered only equal of a table.

" One day Sukie was in the kitchen making soap. Had three great big pots of lye just coming to boil in the fireplace when old Marsa come in for to get off her about something. He lay into her, but she ain't answer him a word. Then he tells Sukie to take off her dress. She told him no. Then he grabbed her and pulled it down off her shoulders. When he done that, he forgot about whipping her, I guess, 'cause he grab hold of her and try to pull her down on the floor. Then that black gal got mad. She took and punched old Marsa and makes him break loose and then she gave him a shove and pushes his hind parts down in the hot pot of soap. Soap was near to boiling, and it burnt him near to death. He got up holding his hind parts and ran from the kitchen, not daring to yell, 'cause he did not want Miss Sarah to know about it. Marsa never did bother slave gals again. (P96)

Some common words found in the essay are:
July August, North Carolina, Slavery African, P18 Children, Hebert Gutman, Harriet Tubman, Underground Railroad, Ant Sue, Booker Washington, Upper South, black women, enslaved women, slave women, harriet tubman, underground railroad, black children, children born, african woman, slave woman, 1662 virginia, status black women, profound redefining position, altered status black, women profound redefining, black women profound,
Approximate Word count = 7882
Approximate Pages = 32 (250 words per page double spaced)