A Child's Anti-Slavery Book: Containing a Few Words about American Slave Children and Stories; of Slave-Life.Various
History
A Child's Anti-Slavery Book: Containing a Few Words about American Slave Children and Stories; of Slave-Life.
Various
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Social conditions
"Judy obeyed, and after arriving at the wharf, they went on board a
vessel that was bound for New Orleans. In about a week after they had
started, they arrived at Mr. Martin's plantation, where Judy saw about
one hundred and fifty slaves at work in the field. Without being allowed
a moment to rest herself, after her long walk from the boat, she was
given a basket and ordered to the field. Poor Judy's head was aching
severely, and when she was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun of
the south, her temples throbbed wildly, and O! how she longed for some
quiet shady place, where she could bathe her fevered brow and rest her
weary limbs. But she must not think of stopping a moment to rest, for
the eyes of the brutal overseer were upon her, and the thought of the
stinging lash, the smart and pain, came across her mind, and urged her
on, and made her work with greater swiftness than before. At last the
weary, weary day drew to a close, and it was getting quite dark, and the
dew was beginning to fall, and Judy was expecting every moment to hear
the order for them to return home. But still they worked on, and hour
after hour passed, until it was almost midnight, and not till then did
the joyful summons come for them to stop."
"Why, mamma, do they make them work so late as that?" asked Cornelia.
"Yes, my daughter, in the busy season the poor slaves are often kept out
very late. After they had received the order to return home, Judy, with
aching limbs, joined the other slaves who were wearily wending their way
to the little out-house where the overseer was weighing their cotton. As
they presented their baskets to be weighed, they watched eagerly to see
if their baskets were approved of. Judy gladly heard that hers was the
full weight, and after ascertaining where she was to sleep, and
receiving her allowance of corn, she went to the shed pointed out to
her. She made her cakes for her supper and for the next morning, and
then laid down upon her bed, or rather on a pile of straw with an old
piece of sheet spread over it. Judy was much exhausted, and soon fell
asleep, notwithstanding the roughness of her bed. But it seemed as
though she had scarcely closed her eyes before the plantation bell rang,
and called them to another weary day's work.
"Thus many, many months passed, of toiling from day to day, and from
morning till night. One morning they saw one of the house servants
running toward them; he told them that their master was dead. He had
died suddenly from a fit of appoplexy. The tidings were received by Judy
with joy. You must pardon her, my children, for this man had been a
cruel master to her, and she thought that, as he had neither wife nor
children, his slaves would be sold, and perhaps she would get farther
north, and in the neighborhood of her old home, and might meet with some
of her old friends who would prove that she was free.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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