Read the excerpt from "We Are All Bound Up Together” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.A great sorrow had fallen upon my life. My husband had died suddenly, leaving me a widow, with four children, one my own, and the others stepchildren. I tried to keep my children together. But my husband died in debt; and before he had been in his grave three months, the administrator had swept the very milk crocks and wash tubs from my hands. I was a farmer's wife and made butter for the Columbus market; but what could I do, when they had swept all away?
The excerpt describes Harper’s husband dying suddenly, leaving her to care for four children. She then loses even the household goods and tools she relied on to earn a living. These hardships are likely to make readers feel sympathy for her; anger, curiosity, or relief do not best capture the response prompted by her loss.
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