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On the Sanctity of Marriage
Jun. 9th, 2010 03:29 pmI read this and all I can say is "Oh my God".
Anyone who grew up as part of the post-Roots generation probably heard in a History class how one of slavery's great evils was how it split up families: couples, children and parents sold to different owners never to see each other again. But what if, after the Civil War, they did find each other? That would be a heart warming scene, families reunited, right? Not so fast.
This letter hit me in the gut and made me think of how heart rending these separations must have been and the bitter consequences thereof.
(A good point is made somewhere that the Holocaust might seem more accessible to us today because most adults today have heard people who lived through it, prisoners as well as liberators, speak about what they experienced. This letter makes slavery just as tangible and immediate to me as that.)
I dare you not feel the ripping pain coming off of the page.
Anyone who grew up as part of the post-Roots generation probably heard in a History class how one of slavery's great evils was how it split up families: couples, children and parents sold to different owners never to see each other again. But what if, after the Civil War, they did find each other? That would be a heart warming scene, families reunited, right? Not so fast.
This letter hit me in the gut and made me think of how heart rending these separations must have been and the bitter consequences thereof.
(A good point is made somewhere that the Holocaust might seem more accessible to us today because most adults today have heard people who lived through it, prisoners as well as liberators, speak about what they experienced. This letter makes slavery just as tangible and immediate to me as that.)
I dare you not feel the ripping pain coming off of the page.
