Research suggests that in many ways the role of women in early African society were equal to men, even

in armed battle. Gustavas Vassa, a West African who was taken to Barbados as a slave in the 1700s, wrote in, his account of life in Africa: ". . . even our women are warriors, and march boldly out to fight along with the men!'

The Europeans captured the African women from their homelands known as Nigeria, Angola and Biafra today. The "middle passage" was the name of the route from Africa to the "New World." These African women were crowded together on slave ships, where they experienced sexual assaults, different climates and were naked. These conditions caused a fifth of them to die while on sea. Many more died when the trip was over. As soon as they would arrive to the New World, they were auctioned off to slaveholders. Strong Black women were sold as breeders valued for their reproductive as well as productive capacity.

An account from Olaudah Equiano, a famous former slave, turned abolitionist stated that: One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. He continues on, describing the journey to the ship that would lead them to bondage Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound; but we were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which calmed our misfortune for a short time.

After African women were brought to the New World they were auctioned off to the whites. The whites were granted the right to examine every inch of the womens body from head to breasts to their toes before they were purchased. A plentiful of times women were placed in a completely new environment where they would be very fortunate if they spoke the same language as the person they worked alongside. They started depending on each other. While working in the fields or the plantations, women would share stories with one another and sing or hum songs that reminded them of their origin. After they learned to speak English many of the women began to hum and sing songs of breaking away from slavery. In the places where slavery existed slaves where in high demand, which was the reason why the slave communities ended up with more slave women than white women. Because there were more slave women the result were mulatto children. Mulatto children were the creation of a white master raping his black female slaves.

Harriet Tubman was known as the "American Abolitionist." She was also a spy, nurse, feminist and a social reformer. She fled from slavery and worked the "Underground Railroads" during the nights. For sixteen years, she guided and helped over 300 slaves using the North Star as her compass to bring them to freedom. The Underground Railroad had safe houses on its route to freedom where other abolitionists helped. People considered her the "Moses" of the time. She married John Tubman who was a free African-American from Cambridge in 1844. To recognize and honor Mrs. Tubman, the Liberty Ship was christened for her during WWII. Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913 and was buried in Ohio with military honors.

Sojourner Truth lived in New York City for a little while after being freed by the New York State Emancipation Act of 1827. She began to preach to people around the nation and was known for speaking the truth. She drew large crowds and lectured before many abolitionist audiences. People said she had "mystical gifts." With her abolitionist life, she also made friends who were white that fought for the same interests as hers: James and Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe. During the Civil War, she helped to raise money for gift's and such to the soldiers and distributed them herself in the camps. When the blacks reached or escaped to the north, Sojourner Truth helped them find a shelter and living to stay at. As she got older and more feeble, she rested at the Sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Harriet Jacobs tells what it is like to live as a female slave in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. A female slaves life is never easy but a female slave who is bestowed upon with beauty holds the key to a life full of sin, shame, and misery; such was the life of Harriet Jacobs who was cursed with beauty and caught the lustful eye of her master. Such circumstances lead Jacobs to compromise with her morals and to have a surreptitious relationship with another man in order to get away from her master, Dr. Flint. Jacobs unfolds the bitter and sweet trials of her life after she escapes slavery and starts a new life in the north. Jacobs states that slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Jacobs's book was the first to address the sexual exploitation of women under slavery.

The creation of the thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865.

Although the slaves gained their freedom they still had to fight for their basic rights, it was a fight that continued all the way into the twentieth century.

Another problem the African Americans faced was citizenship. The solution was the fourteenth amendment, which extended citizenship rights to African Americans. The south was the area with the most black people so the blacks pushed for their children to be able to go to school. The blacks believed that if their children went to school it would benefit them and their families.

1) Name the author of "incidents in the life of a slave girl" 2) Approximately how many slave did Harriet Tubman free? 3) How did mulatto kids originate during slavery? 4) What type of gift did people think Sojourner Truth have? 5) Name two jobs that the household female black slave served as? 6) What name was Harriet Tubman given because of her helpful action towards slaves? 7) Which amendment abolished slavery in 1865? 8) How did the 14th amendment help African Americans? 9) When the female slaves gave birth to children, who did the child belong to? 10) Who had more slaves? The north or the South?

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/history.html http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.str onghold/index.html http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/history.html http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/2000/women/slavewomenpage.htm http://piccle.ed.psu.edu/pages/lew11/awh2web/01emeeurope/Slave%20Tra de/TST_files/TST.ppt Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl By Jacobs Harriet