common knowledge

In this money, most of the former slave starts their stories by "I belonged to." The word "belonged" means "v: be owned by" [dictionary.com]. It seems that they're all accepted the fact that they are nothing more than properties that their owner can discard as wish. A great example of this would be when the owner sold the sold of his slave, Ria Sorrell. This separation is very common in this era because African American are looked at as nothing more than a property. This indeed cuased the mother a great deal of pain especially to slaves who's primary job is to give birth. Many tries to escape this life, however many tragic stories had been told regarding reaway slaves. most of them are caught by the owner and ultimately whipped to death.

In our modern time, This kind of injustice would be dealt with by the law. however, back in the early 1900s this is very common throughout the county