How Did Miss Watson Sell Me

I never expected Miss Watson to sell me. She never once whipped me, she never threatened; she had been as good an owner as any slave could hope for. Why would Miss Watson sell me? Was she even going to sell me? I had no idea. The only thing I was sure of was that I had to say goodbye to my family. I never expected leaving my family. I arrived at the cabin where we all lived. It was small, no bigger than the average slave quarters. It was not home, either. It was merely a place where my family lived in, and we were fine with it. None of us have known anything except slavery. My wife had been born into slavery, the daughter of a slave and her owner. My children were born to slavery too, something my wife and I regret upon seeing the looks on their faces after a day of hard work. Slavery was our lives; slavery was who we were. …show more content…
“Jim, darlin’, what happened? What’s wrong? Tell me, Jim. Oh tell me it’s not-” “She’s sellin’ me, Sadie. I’m leaving.” Her face fell and I could tell that she was holding back tears. There is nothing as horrible as telling the person you love that you might never see them again. Being sold was not like going off to war, it was nothing like a white person could understand. Being sold was becoming someone else’s property, like a new horse or cow that they can brand and whip, that they can mold into a new version of yourself, more obedient, more worked, more scarred. I never expected my daughter to look up at me from the bed and not know what to say, for once in her bright life. “Papa, you can’t leave us. Papa, if you leave, then we-- then we-- Papa you can’t!” she cried out, rushing forward to hug me. “Now Elizabeth! You stop that! I ain’t leavin’ no one if I have a say in it, ya