From Africa to Barbados, via Virginia, to a ship traveling the British Empire, if a stable location was the basis of her identity, Olaudah Equiano surely would not have one. However, he still develops a specific identity throughout his narrative, a striking task as he is torn from the family and culture he was born into and never stays in one place for too long. In contrast, Harriet Jacobs develops an identity based largely on the family and community around her. Jacobs and his contemporary, Fredrick Douglass, were also influenced by the diverse and vibrant cities that developed after American independence. This difference which developed from the time of Equiano in the 18th century to the 19th century of Jacob and Douglass is partly determined by the transition from the system of economics of the British Empire before the United States of America only gained independence from the growing South, where a booming economy the population remained largely agrarian, rural and isolated, without an integrated market as in the North. Overall, two of the major economic developments from the 18th to 19th centuries that strongly affected a slave's identity were the shift from the external to the internal slave trade and the rise of cities. However, two crucial aspects of a slave's identity remain the same, despite drastic economic and social changes. From Equiano to Jacobs to Douglass, each never loses the overwhelming desire and drive to become a free individual and we never cease to see the destruction that slavery caused to self and community identity. Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745, decades before the American Revolution and more than fifty years before Harriet Jacobs (1813). Jacobs' identity largely revolves around the medium of paper. Acobs, Fredrick Douglass, and Olaudah Equiano are all capable of developing their own identities. As time passes and the United States of America grows economically, different facets of identity emerge. An identity based on family and community becomes more possible with the elimination of the slave trade and in the South instead of the unstable and murderous West Indies. With the growth of cities, slaves, aware of their condition, had more chances of becoming free and fighting for the abolitionist movement. However, regardless of these developments, a unique theme of challenge and strength shines through all three identities. As long as there was slavery, and regardless of economic developments, slaves shared a common identity: they had no control over their own lives and bodies and, as we see in these stories, struggle to overcome their condition..