s and the 1800's. By 1835 there were over two million black men, women, and children who were slaves. Araminta, having her mother near her, was very fortunate. Some slave owners separated a mother from her children very soon after she stopped nursing. Sometimes the mother was sold or hired out to live and work on another farm. The law did not recognize the marriages and families of slaves. It was up to the owners if they were considered married or not. As a result, many slave children never knew their parents or their own brothers and sisters. Only during the later years of slavery did most owners try to keep families together.
             Araminta later worked as an apprentice to Mrs. Cook who taught her how to weave. The lint from the weaver's yarn made Araminta cough and sneeze. She wasn't at all interested in becoming a weaver and having to sit all day in a workhouse, so she paid little attention to her work. Mrs. Cook later gave up on her, so Mr. Cook decided to try her at another job. So the Brodas decided to give Araminta a job of a babysitter, she was now a scrawny seven-year old who didn't seem bright enough to follow the simplest instructions. Her master probably thought he was lucky to get anything at all for her. So Araminta was put into the woman's wagon without a word of explanation and driven off. After a while, the wagon stopped beside the woman's house. She had never been in her masters' house before. The woman's house wasn't very fine. It had a wooden floor and several rooms, including a parlor that was furnished with tables, chairs, and oil lamps. Araminta had never seen such nice things. Apparently her new mistress, Miss Susan, had never had a servant before, because she seemed to have no understanding of her own responsibility toward the child. Her most important duty was caring for the baby. Many years later Harriet said, "I was so little that I had to sit on the floor...