Stowe

When I read this I was confused at first what was going on because it switched to another family in the middle. In the beginning, Stowe was telling us about two children that were picking up chips. The brother and sister seemed like a typical pair of siblings, where the boy tells the girl what to do and of course she listens to him. It was kind of cute that the little boy was treating his hat as a thing to give up for liberty trying to represent his father. The little girl seemed so innocent and scared to listen to her brother, but she knew that if she didn't listen he would taunt her. When she returned home, it seemed different that the grandmother and her two daughters, one of them being the little girls mother, all in the same house. Aunt Mehetabel was kind of controlling towards the little girl and tried to make it seem like she was her mother, demanding for her to wipe her nose and asking where her brother was and where her bonnet was. When the grandmother came to the door, she seemed like a typical grandmother sticking up for the little girl and comforting her. The mother of the little girl and boy seemed very caring and motherly towards her children.    When the little boy returned home he simply explained what happened to his mother and she thought it was okay. The family is approached with a letter explaining that the men in the war are suffering from the weather and they would be coming around to gather things for them soon. A little while later the men come by to collect linens such as socks and blankets to keep the men warm. 


In the next situation Stowe, describes a lifestyle of a family who is faced with the sadness of having to watch their father being taken away from them to be sold to another slave owner. The man had been working as a free man for ten years but apparently his previous owner didn't think that he should free. The family seemed like a very close family and did a lot of things together. The children helped out around the house with chores that their mother asked them to do. The father was the only source of income, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary in the 1800's. The wife seemed very appreciative of everything her husband did for their family and her husband also seemed to treat her with respect and not as if she was his property. The little boy in the family was one of the only ones who could read, but I didn't quite understand who educated him? Did his mother attempt to homeschool him? Did anyone else in the family know how to read? Did he attend school with other children his age? When the children and mother had to watch their father being taken away to be sold, I can't even imagine how heartbreaking that was for the wife, let alone her children. They probably would never see him again, especially since he was taken away by the government. The father was their only source of income towards the family as I mentioned earlier, so now that probably put a lot of stress on the wife because now how was she going to afford to take care of her family without any income? Women did not have jobs back then and I don't think her children were old enough to work to earn any amount of money for their family.