Dear Nell Irvin Painter,

I am writing to you from a place where I no longer have to cry, a place where I am finally happy. I am a writing from a place where I am finally FREE. Your article Soul Murder finally gave me the voice I never got to have as a young child. See I never had this voice because I gave birth at the age of 13 to a child whose father was the same person who raped me. It was on that very bed that I gave birth on that I died. But as we both know I died a long time before that day.Although, I was not physically dead my soul was dead.

Growing up as a black female, I was not allowed to talk about my rape with anyone not even my mom. I was not allowed to mourn for my lost childhood and I suffered from what people today called "depression". I often blamed myself for what happen. Maybe I was too nice to him and he took that niceness I used as a way to keep me alive as an advancement? However, after reading your article I realized that it was not my fault what happen. Even though, it is to late to save me I am a glad that someone is finally talking about this issue.I appreciate how you told not only my story but the story of many other like me. You gave voice to problems we suffered from and revealed how even though all we suffered we pushed though.But most importantly, you showed that even though we were enslaved we were just as HUMAN as anyone else. 

Thank you for finding and listening to our voice.

- A Young Slave Girl

*Written in the pov of  the young slave girl who died after giving birth in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl