Escape From Slavery: Return To The North

Hard labor and starvation are everyday truths when you’re a slave. If you can’t change it, best to stick with it; that’s what I said. But there was a way to change things. There was one glaring light in the darkness of the life I seemed doomed to: escape. But before I get ahead of myself, I should explain what was so horrible about plantation life. What would cause me to risk it all for a chance of freedom? Well, the work we did was painstaking. We picked cotton, or whatever crop the owner decided to grow, from sunup to sundown. When we were too slow, the overseers whipped us until we couldn’t stand, and then whipped us a bit more for good measure. When we weren’t being punished or overworked, we were being starved. The overseers saw to it that our stomachs were never filled. At this point, the risk of being caught during an escape seemed no worse than what we already faced. …show more content…
I had heard a legend of a place to the North; a place called Canada, where I could roam free. After another day of beatings, I saw my chance. While the others were asleep in their cabins, I ran off with all the strength I had. I followed the North Star; had the skies been cloudy, you wouldn’t be reading this. I’ve heard the plantation was on lockdown after I booked it out of there. Anyways, I had a few tricks up my torn sleeves. I followed the direction of moss; I’d heard it grows facing the North. I ran through rivers to hide my scent from the dogs. Yeah, as soon as one of us was missing, the owner put up a bounty for our capture. Any sensible bounty hunter would put a dog or two on my trail. I traveled at night - well, I’m sure you can see why. For the next few days, I followed those tricks: follow the moss, go through the occasional river, all