SLAVES
OF THE
NORTH
100$ Reward
2 Negroes and their pesky mutt escaped from the halard plantation 1 kid almost 13 and a mamma age 39. Whoever can find these 2 alive will get 100$ reward including 10 free pounds of cotton.
CHAPTER 1
I woke up before the rooster. I walked out the door, to the shed. Grabbed my hoe, and looked up at the starry night sky, and got to work. I began plowing the fields. Slowly one by one the rest of the slaves began to wake up. And grabbed their hoes and began plowing too. We finished plowing and started to collect the cotton. After an hour our master came, we gave him all the cotton that we had collected.
“Each of you are soon going to get your 1-hour meal break.” He said “You know what you need to do next, take this cotton to the city.” “Charles go and give this to the city folk, rest of you keep on working.” I grabbed the cotton bag, as I was walking down the dusty road,
I turned around and said “I’ll be home by lunchtime Mamma.”
“Bring R.D. with you” said Mamma.
I whistled and called “Come here boy!” Behind our cabin a plump golden retriever trotted in.
The dreadful memories rushed back as I got closer and closer to the city of that day of that terrible day it was bright and sunny out, when the master took papa and gave him to another person who was smoking a cigar. When we got to the city, I began to see hunting dogs. At last at the top of a mountain I could finally see the city tower. Once I got to the city R.D. looked as excited as I was. I finally found a man who was willing to pay 80 bucks if I gave him the cotton. I was about to give it to him, then in the corner of my eye, I saw something I used to be, I saw a poor person begging on the streets. I quickly stopped my trade, I turned around and took a couple of steps toward the beggar, once he saw me he asked
“Do you have anything you could give me sonny.” I took out the cotton and gave it to him. His eyes were gleaming. “Thank you sonny” he whispered and with that he ran to his little hut. I turned to the trail that would lead me back to my house.
I could feel the wind blowing in my face. As I was walking down the 5 mile road, my first step reminded me of something, my papa used to tell me, One small step is only the beginning to a big journey. Well that didn’t matter, after all he wasn’t around anymore. After an hour or two, I could see my little cabin. R.D. ran behind the cabin into his little dog house. As I walked through the door. I could smell dry, hard bread with a little butter. As I was eating my master came to see the money, I was going to tell the truth, you could hear how scared I was in my voice. I closed my eyes when I finished I was too scared to look. When I opened my eyes, he was steaming, his face was red.
He stomped to the door, he didn’t even bother to slam it instead he called over his shoulder as he walked to his mansion, "You aren’t gettin your little break time. For this entire lifetime of your wee little life, and don’t you worry it aint gonna be that long at all." When he left I looked at mamma to my surprise she wasn’t angry in the least bit. Mamma smiled and said we were going to have a visitor who could change our lives forever. Thoughts raced in my head, was it a fortune teller or was it the sheriff, maybe a cook to give us some good food to eat, or maybe even a banker to give us some money.
CHAPTER 3
Once the sun fell down the horizon. A strange man with a peg leg, named peg leg Joe. He lit the fire, the flames lighted the entire sky. For a moment while our master was there peg leg Joe was telling us how to be better slaves. As our master left. I was still thinking how this man could change our lives forever. Then he got real quiet, he started to tell us to memorize a song that would lead us to freedom in the north. I looked at mamma, she was humming along as Joe sang in his raspy voice. It seemed as if she already knew the song, I looked around all the other adults were humming along. It seemed as if they knew the song, and as if they had seen this Joe before. You could tell by a quick glance that I wasn’t paying attention in the least bit. It was kind of like the time when the master told me to go to the next planation and they were going to sell some slaves to us, they became pretty good friends names were Andrew and Alex. They always said how their dad traveled to the north in Canada, did such a place even exist how there were no slave catchers and their freedom. Anyways there was a preacher that was telling them to well behave themselves, and they weren’t listening in the least bit. I think the preacher said something like this
“From now onward you will and shall behave better in the next planation and anything you do will not be our responsibility at all it will in fact ruin your masters day and you will now sign the contract beca-blah blah bla blah- it will also help you know that your father will never make it to freedo- blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah -And now we must escort you awa- blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and now see ya- blah blah blah. As they followed me to the maste-
“Hey you Charles, come on and listen, like they do in schools,”said Peg leg Joe. I was really confused. I think he could tell from my startled face that I was confused. “A school is a place to learn.” He said. For a second schools sounded magical, like Canada was. As Joe started to explain to me what a school I started thinking that a school was a place to learn and not do all the plowing and most importantly having freedom. You could feel how sad mamma was when he went packing. A single tear looked as clear as a diamond and at the same time as dirty as R.D.’s paws when he ran on the dusty trail to the boat so that they could give us the cotton seeds exported from England.
Everyone sadly drooped to their cabins with old, rusty, mossy, cracked, a thousand words would even be enough to describe it. I turned my head 90 degrees to the right to see the only thing that was a nice place to live in, it would be our Masters mansion It was new, shiny, clean, fixed. I walked to the cabin with no door so the shivery cold winds could slither in as snakes. The only good part about having our doors and windows broken was that the shining moon. Directly below it be the drinking gourd that has this magical freedom power to bring you to the magical and enchanted Canada. I plopped down on my creaky old and dusty bed. I looked at the moon and see 2 birds heading straight for the North Star, they’re probably heading towards Canada, I thought. That gave me an idea, during the night I tried to formulate my plan so that we could go to Canada. . . I woke up early the next morning, so early that the sky wasn’t even lit up with the fiery ball of a sun. I was starting to think that now was the chance to leave. But Joe’s words were starting to appear in my head ONLY LEAVE DURING NIGHT. I walked to the shed. But instead of that . . .
“Get away from that shed, mister unless you want to be sold to someone not as nice as me! A way to repay me Charles is if you can go fetch some food, since Master James from the is coming!” My feet started to shake, I knew what he was talking about, going in the jungle. I’ve been in the jungle before. There are many dangerous animals in that jungle such as Jaguars, Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Leopards, and the Crocodile. As much as dangerous animals so are dangerous plants such as Poison ivy, and many others. I was walking back to the cabin so mamma could help me hunt. “By yourself” yelled master again. When master went back in his mansion, I quickly called R.D. for he used to be a hunting dog. I ran in the cabin to get R.D. I found nothing, mamma was staring out the broken window. . .
“He’s gone, long gone, we don’t have a chance to get him back. Never, he won’t let us. They are soon going to start the selling carnival, we better leave before that happens we’ve got to leave, now.” She wept.
“Where’s R.D.? And what are you talking about, who’s long gone and what selling carnival? I said
“Charles its best you young folk shouldn’t hear about this so soon but here it goes. R.D. is gone a man saying “You better give up that mutt, missy I’ll call a court order.” And he got R.D. I whimpered.
“And what carnival?” I nervously asked, knowing the answer would be terrible, since we never got a day off, so there was no way master was just going think to have a carnival for my hard-working slaves.
“The carnival happens every year, at St. Charles’ place. They hold slaves from all ‘round the south. This year we’re probably going first on his list. And I’m pretty sure I heard that master wanted you to get something for Master James.
“Oh no,” I exclaimed. “I forgot about the food I needed to pick for him!” “Because of this now he’s definitely going to sell us first!”
I came out and tip-toed to my master’s mansion. And looked in the window, where I saw my master writing a letter in his neat handwriting it said:
Dear Mr. James 1861 Mr. Halard
I am so terribly sorry about the incident with my slaves, I promise that next time they will be better behaved by more punishments than even they are used too. I personally think that it is better if I give you a few of my slaves for a reasonable price.
Then my mistress came in the room, and reread the letter than she added in her messy handwriting:
And each slave will cost you 50$. So in case you don’t know math 50$+50$=100$. We only wish to sell those 2 slaves, even if you are asking for more, we will refuse because this plantation needs hardworking slaves who can actually farm an tend to the crops.
I know that most slaves don’t know how to read but at night the cotton seller, the man who brings cotton to Europe. He taught me how to read sometimes.
As the sky turned darker, I ran to my little cabin and told mama what I had just seen, in the letter. Then I remembered the one thing that I read that shocked me.
“Mama you tried to escape once before I was born,” I said a little bit angrily. “And whenever I want to escape you just ignore me for the rest of the cotton picking time.”
“Yes I know that Charles, but I just wanted to wait until you were until you were a full grown 13 year old, and until you met Joe. And that’s why today we are going to escape. Since today we get a break since it is the master’s anniversary day. So pack!”
I spent the whole day packing. I packed bread, little bits of cheese, some butter. I even packed every single cent that I had. I admit I’ve lied to master before to get money. Very few times when I go to the city to trade in money for the cotton, every time I went, I made to price 3$ higher and I hide the money in my pocket. I ran outside of the cabin, just in time to see a falcon fly overhead which isn’t that much of a common sight here in the Halard Plantation,2 items fell from the falcon, which made tear because one was one of the items which my father had loved, a falcon feather, I knew papa used to love falcons so I kept it with me for good luck, The secondly is bird poop, Yuck, Blech, Yuck, it’s a good thing it didn’t land on me.
Mamma comes rushing in with something yellow in her arms, she throws it in her bag and runs out again, I slowly but carefully move the piece of fabric at the top of the cotton picking basket; the fabric’s zig zag patterns started to make me dizzy, although a second before I fell, I tore open the fabric and saw Corn. I later woke up with a hard tap on my shoulder, and when turn around, I saw someone who I never thought I would see again
O O O
By the time Mamma comes back, the sky is dark red and purple, and the man who I had been talking to had left. She walked in with a scared look in her face.
Hi Nimeesh, Is this your own story? Nice to read.