How I Escaped Slavery
P R O L O G U E
“That plantation in Kentucky is offering a good price for them.”
I was right around the corner of the house. Crouched down, my dress pooling around me and my basket of laundry set down to my side. Eavesdropping on the plantation owner wasn’t something that I usually did. And it wasn’t something that any slave should do unless if they want to be punished severely. And that’s what would happen to me if I was caught, since the plantation owner was anything but merciful.
I suppose eavesdropping wasn’t a very wise thing to do, but at the mention of my husband’s name, I knew that whatever they were talking about couldn’t be good.
You see, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson had been talking about selling my two precious …show more content…
And I made it safely away from the plantation. I spent the next few days alone, hiding from others that would try to return me to Mr. Wilson. Finding food was harder than I thought. Once, I had heard dogs barking from behind me, surely trying to hunt me down. I had jumped into a pond and held my breath underwater to hide my scent from them until they passed by. And once they left, I continued my journey.
I ran into several other runaways, sometimes traveling in a group, saying that they were traveling from safe house to safe house on the Underground Railroad. I had decided to go on my own until I met a fellow escaped slave named Caleb. He claimed to be a conductor of the Underground Railroad, as well as a slave wanted dead or alive for killing the man that had whipped him. He had lost his group of escaped slaves while a slave hunter had found them when they were hiding in a safe house. The majority of his group had been killed, and the other survivors chose to stay behind or go on their own. I decided to join Caleb. He told me that he was following the Underground Railroad until he got to Pennsylvania, where he could be free.
For a few more days, Caleb and I traveled, trying to make it to each safe house every two days. There, we would rest for a few hours, eat, and get a fresh change of clothes before leaving once more.
Maybe this would actually
P R O L O G U E
“That plantation in Kentucky is offering a good price for them.”
I was right around the corner of the house. Crouched down, my dress pooling around me and my basket of laundry set down to my side. Eavesdropping on the plantation owner wasn’t something that I usually did. And it wasn’t something that any slave should do unless if they want to be punished severely. And that’s what would happen to me if I was caught, since the plantation owner was anything but merciful.
I suppose eavesdropping wasn’t a very wise thing to do, but at the mention of my husband’s name, I knew that whatever they were talking about couldn’t be good.
You see, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson had been talking about selling my two precious …show more content…
And I made it safely away from the plantation. I spent the next few days alone, hiding from others that would try to return me to Mr. Wilson. Finding food was harder than I thought. Once, I had heard dogs barking from behind me, surely trying to hunt me down. I had jumped into a pond and held my breath underwater to hide my scent from them until they passed by. And once they left, I continued my journey.
I ran into several other runaways, sometimes traveling in a group, saying that they were traveling from safe house to safe house on the Underground Railroad. I had decided to go on my own until I met a fellow escaped slave named Caleb. He claimed to be a conductor of the Underground Railroad, as well as a slave wanted dead or alive for killing the man that had whipped him. He had lost his group of escaped slaves while a slave hunter had found them when they were hiding in a safe house. The majority of his group had been killed, and the other survivors chose to stay behind or go on their own. I decided to join Caleb. He told me that he was following the Underground Railroad until he got to Pennsylvania, where he could be free.
For a few more days, Caleb and I traveled, trying to make it to each safe house every two days. There, we would rest for a few hours, eat, and get a fresh change of clothes before leaving once more.
Maybe this would actually