Question

Use this passage to answer the following question: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Excerpt from Chapter II. The New Master And Mistress Harriet Jacobs On one of these sale days, I saw a mother lead seven children to the auction-block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all. The children were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother was brought by a man in her own town. Before night her children were all far away. She begged the trader to tell her where he intended to take them; this he refused to do. How could he, when he knew he would sell them, one by one, wherever he could command the highest price? I met that mother in the street, and her wild, haggard face lives to-day in my mind. She wrung her hands in anguish, and exclaimed, "Gone! All gone! Why don't God kill me?" I had no words wherewith to comfort her. Instances of this kind are of daily, yea, of hourly occurrence. Based on the passage, which part of slave life most likely made its way into songs and stories of the slave communities?

Answer 1

Splitting of families--the passage accounts the selling of children and tearing apart of families at the slave block. 

As slaves were not seen as capable of having family relationships, the selling of children was quite common. Children were often ripped from the arms of mothers as soon as the child could be used for labor. The reproduction of children made women valuable and allowed for slave masters and traders to make money off of the females. 

Answer 2

Families were divided and eventually spread across the country.