With admiration

To Harriet Jacob’s Grandmother,

I live in place where my food is cooked for me, my dishes are washed for me. My days as a college student are dedicated to learning and creating––my lifestyle here has been perfectly orchestrated so that I barely have to concern myself with my bodily needs, cleaning, working and doing other mundane everyday tasks. With this great fortune, I should have all the time in the world. Yet I feel I don’t have nearly enough time to call home, to call friends from home, and to spend time with the people I love here in my new home.

So if I, with all my privileges, struggle to express this love, how did you do manage to? You endured the cruelty that was slavery: cooking, cleaning, sewing for a family that wasn’t yours, that valued you so little, that after decades of toiling for them, tried to sell you away. Then you did the exact same tasks within your own home, for your own family. And after all that, how did you have the time and energy, to bake and sell crackers? Your love for your children and grandchildren motivated you to make this money, so that you could first clothe them, and eventually buy their freedom. But at what cost? Did you sleep? Did you ever think about yourself and your needs? And for what profit? You were defrauded by your master, and Willie and Linda were sold into slavery after all. And you had to watch slavery’s cruelties inflicted upon them, helpless and unable to protect them. In the face of such trials I know I’d have given up. Nonetheless you did everything you could, playing an immense role in your children and grandchildren’s lives, providing them with small but precious comforts and unconditional love. Please tell me how you managed to get out of bed every morning and begin again, working tirelessly for the proportionally meager rights and comforts you could attain for your family within the harsh reality of slavery.