The spirit, or soul, of a person is an element of oneself that, despite the capability of being strong, is fragile. The more it is worn down, the more the spirit cannot go back to its former state. I believe that there are ways of getting around a broken spirit. Olaudah Equiano and Harriet Jacobs are fine examples of how to do so. Equiano didn’t necessarily “repair” his spirit as he got older, but “rebirthed” his spirit. As a young adolescent, Equiano’s spirit was not merely broken from what was a bright soul, it was shattered and pieces of it began to be misplaced throughout his suffering youth. Through kidnapping and separation, it seemed as though his spirit would wither away and never rise again. As he got older, Equiano left his old spirit in the dust and began to form a new spirit with a more ambitious soul to battle for his freedom, even in actual warfare. Harriet Jacobs's youth, meanwhile, was unaware of horrors soon to come, until the death of her mother awoke her from dreaming that she had been free. Even more of a dark awakening was the death of her father, which lead her teen years to be set in the household of Dr. Norcom, or Dr. Flint, in Incidents. The only way to keep her spirit strong and away from Dr. Flint’s hands was for her to hide her spirit in the shadows from him and her children until she managed her escape. These people…show more content… She was close to her grandmother (435), a free black woman, and had a younger brother. Jacobs believed to live a happy childhood. She had knowledge of being a slave (435) only until she was six years old. Which was also the time of her mother’s death. (436) To learn the world is cruel and you are in such a circumstance that you cannot escape from as a child is quite a tragedy. To lose someone dear to you at the same time during all of this is a woeful tale. Yet, fate is twisted and Jacobs would have to go through even more difficult hardships as she got