The Journey | Teen Ink

The Journey

April 2, 2017
By Jetta0207, Bristol, Pennsylvania
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Jetta0207, Bristol, Pennsylvania
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Author's note:

My teacher made us write this and it was fun, I hope you enjoy this!

  This is the story of my life. My life as Georgia Anne, a slave. Being a slave was terrible. I was always forced to clean, do heavy work, and would be forced to walk miles just to get my head master/ slave owner things that he wanted. One day as I was doing chores and I met this lady named Julie she was about the same age as me, around 20 years of old. We first met and then we found out that we were both owned by the same master. After we got to know each other we became very close. We would sneak out to meet up with each other. Sometimes, we would run off to the mountain when the master was asleep and lay there to look up at the stars. They were so beautiful!
          I remembered when I was younger,  I would look up at the stars every night with my mother and make a wish. That stopped when I turned 10 because my mom was sold to another slave owner and I was kidnapped by a different slave owner than my mother. I have been away from my mother for 10 years now. I am on a mission to sneak out and away with my friend to go try to find her, no matter what.

I was walking to the farm a couple miles down from the masters. As I was walking down I saw a man, he was a slave too. I thought he was cute, but he probably wouldn’t be with me. I am too busy being a slave and enjoying that slave life, Haha NOT.

Today is a new day, and it’s the same thing as always, being a slave, doing hard work, and not enjoying life. The first thing I’m doing today is the wash even though i just did it the other day. When i do the wash it takes awhile, because i have to walk all the way down to the lake to get the water. Next, i have to carry the water back to the house and boiled the water so that it is warm. Then i mix the boiled water and pieces of lavender from the garden and then soak the clothes in there. I stir the clothes around for a bit. Take it outside to hang it on the clothesline to let it dry. Once the clothes are dry i take them inside, fold them, and put them on the dresser for the head master. Then i wash all the dishes and cook then wash more dishes and it just keeps on going,  sometimes i don’t sleep for a few days.
I am thinking about leaving the slave life, because I am tired of doing all this nasty work. I had a dream about this wonderful place, in the north, when all people were kind and loving. Instead, I live in the south, where there are a lot of slaves being treated terribile. I will come up with a plan to leave this place. 

I have came up with a plan, i will go get my friend Julie. We will leave this awful village and then head north, Past the mountain where Julie and I watch the stars. Hopefully, if we keep on heading north then im hoping that i see the village that i saw in my dream that I had. I don’t know when I want to leave, but I need to tell Julie still. I thought about how long it would take us to travel to the north and if my thoughts were correct than it would take 26 hours to walk there.

Today is a new but same day. Today is the day I am going to tell Julie my plan, and i’m hoping Julie will go along with the plan. (Heading down to Julie’s home, well owners home.) I am at Julie’s, I had to sneak into the backyard to see her because she was doing the wash outside. No other slave is allowed in another slave owners property. I told her the plan, and she said that she was down for it. I was so happy when i heard her say that. Now we just have to pick a day to go. I was talking to Julie and she said she will go whenever, so i decided we go tomorrow. I told her to pack her stuff tonight and i told her to meet me at my slave owners place.

Julie is here, we have all of our things packed, and we are on our way to the North Mountain. We start running North, we needed to run so that we did’nt get caught by the other slave owners or slaves. If we got caught by another slave they would tell their owner and then our mission to leave would be destroyed. We were running and we ended up going to the old farm. We decided we would just walk in the fields, because no one was there. We decided to take a little break to eat a meal. We made a fire with the wood around us, so that we could cook some oatmeal that we brought with us. All you have to do is take some water and the oatmeal, put it over a fire so that it boils a little, and then you have your oatmeal. We made our oatmeal, we ate it, then we were back on our trip. We kept on walking for 4 more hours. We are used to it since we would have to walk for hours carrying heavy things while we are walking those many hours.

We got a good 3 hour nap, until we heard the sound of gun shots. It was just a “BANG, BANG.” We jumped up when we heard the sound and ran faster than we have ever ran before. My heart was beating faster than cheetah chasing its dinner. I’m sure that Julie’s heart was racing too. The noise was coming from the same direction we were heading in. We didn’t want to waste a day on getting freedom from the North. Julie and i kept on running north, we wanted to see what was going on, and we wanted to get away from the slaves.

As we are running we get closer and closer to the area that we think the gun sounds came from. We find out that it is near the north mountain. To our surprise we realized that we made it to the North mountain in only 10 hours, so my calculations was wrong since I said it would take us 26 hours to get to the North Mountain. I stop running for a moment and i immediately start jumping up and down screaming “WE MADE IT, WE MADE IT TO THE NORTH MOUNTAIN.” it feels so good to be here. Julie and I might really have a chance at freedom here.
We walk up the mountain and we get to the top and I see many rows of people. Some people are from the British Colonies and then others are American Colonies. We hid behind a big rock because we didn’t want to get into the fight or whatever was going on. All we would hear is BANG, BANG from the guns because of whatever was going on. We ran to the first big rock that we saw and there was another person behind there as well. I asked him who is he and what is his name, he responded “My name is George Washington, I am part of the American Colonies, I am a new colonist, I got brought into this war, and I didn’t want to at all. I’m just a young 20 year old boy.” Julie asked him, “What is this war about”. He said the war was about the American Colonist fighting to win their own independence. We asked him if we could join the battle with him because we wanted independence too and we thought we could try to help. George Washington agreed to let us join. He gave us a uniform and weapons. Julie asked George, what is it that we have to do and he told us we have to shoot the other team with the guns. I was not the one who would want to kill people. I backed out, and so did Julie, neither of us wanted to kill someone. Another BANG BANG went off and two more people were shot.
I told George and Julie that I have an idea, I could probably be a nurse for the people that got shot and are hurt. I asked Julie if she wanted to be my helper and she was all for it. I asked George Washington, if he was okay with the idea. He told us that it was a great idea. I had one favor I needed from George. I needed him to drag the injured people over here behind the rock that we were at and then we could help them. He started to do that, the first guy we had over in our little area had two wound spots. I took the tin pan we had, and put the last of the water and oatmeal in there, mix it together. Then, you wipe the mixture over top the wound. Next, take one of the clothing items and wrap it over the wounded area with the oatmeal mixture, and that is how you fix a gun wound. I repeated this many times to many other people. In total, it ended up being 75 people I have done this to and it took me 3 hours to do it with the help of Julie. 

After there was many people dead, the war ended and the American Colonist have won their independence, and Julie and I got our freedom. It was a good day all around. Even George Washington brought us to his land that he owned, we were nurses there, even though we helped people a lot, it was nothing like being told to do unkind chores all the time. I wondered if the slave owners have realized we were gone yet. I also wondered if they would be out to look for us, I mean, I don’t think they would come this far to come and get us? Would they?

“STOP ONCE THIS INSTANT, AND COME OVER HERE!”, it was the slave owners they were after us! Julie and I ran to George. “CLICK, CLACK, CLICK, CLACK, it was the slave owners horses that they were on trying to come after us. When we got to George’s place we told him we needed his help. Julie explained to him that the slave owners were here to capture us again. We didn’t want to leave the amazing place George showed us and let us have a wonderful home in this great town. We had to start running to the most secret spot of the town. It is called the “Lost Tunnels”, it is what the name says lost tunnels that are underground. The only way you can get to it is through George’s secret door in his bedroom. We went to the secret tunnels and that is where we hid at for a while. They never found us which is great, but when we came out from hiding the town has got a lot of damage to it. There was buildings that were ruined from the slave owners trying to find Julie, George, and I. We asked one of the people in the town if the slave owners have left and they did. Julie and I was very happy to hear that. We finally are able to live our lives safe and full of freedom.

I saw this man named Robin Patterson, who is really cute and I really like him. I want to marry him, and since I don’t have a father to pick out a husband for me than I have to find one myself. There is this big dinner coming up for christmas, and the whole town is invited. George Washington is in charge of the dinner and seating arrangements, so I asked him if he could seat me next to Robin and he said yes! I am nervous and excited at the same time, because I don’t know if he will like me back or not. I guess I will have to see when it is the time. I need to make something for me to wear. Tomorrow at sunrise i will go down to the village and trade some fruit from my garden for a nice material that I can use to make a dress for the dinner.

I just woke up, got dressed, and i’m heading down to the village to get the materials for my dress. I brought many fruits from my garden to trade for the perfect material that I want or my dress. As i’m walking by all the tables that have fabric, I find this pink pearl silk fabric. I walk up to the table and ask to trade my fruits for the dress. The person running the table said that this fabric is worth more than the amount of fruits that I have available for trade. After, I start talking to the guy he gives me the fabric and I give him the fruits. It was a good trade, and I was very happy. I ran all the way home so that I could start working on the dress. When I got home I started working on the dress right away. I was cutting all the fabric and I had to hand sew the whole dress. When I was done the dress looked perfect, I am so excited to wear it to the dinner. The dinner is only a few days away and I am so nervous.


Today is the day of the dinner. I got my dress and my shoes on. I took one of the horses from the town stable to ride to the dinner. My favorite thing about the horses it the sound their hooves make when they hit the ground. It goes “CLICK, CLACK, CLICK, CLACK”. I arrive at the dinner, and I get seated next to Robin. As soon as he sits down and gets settled I start talking to him. We have a really good conversation going on about the horses. He said that he works at the stable. I told him I was looking for a job, and he told me I could work at the stable with him. I was really excited when he said that because I like horses, so he said he would teach me what to do. Then, the food came out we all had turkey, mashed potatoes, and corn. It was a very good meal. The table was all decorated in yellow, orange, and brown. There was a big flower centerpiece on the middle of the table. After, the dinner Robin took me home on the horse, and dropped me off, then he took the horse back to the stable for me. That was the end of that amazing night.

We decided that we really like each other, and we wanted to go out on a date. We went on many dates after the dinner. Those dates lead to a marriage proposal. It felt amazing to know that I was loved and I would never have to be treated like a slave. We already had our wedding planned we just wanted everyone in the town there. There is only 50 people in the town, so it is a pretty small wedding. Our wedding in very soon and I just can not wait for it to come. I’m going to wear the same dress that I wore to the Christmas dinner to my wedding.

OH MY GOSH, Today is the day of my wedding. Over the couple of weeks I was preparing for it. I had to send out invites, I had to wash my dress, and find a perfect place to have the wedding. The wedding is going to be at the town’s church. We both start getting ready for the wedding. We asked some people in the town if they can set up for us, so they are doing that now. After a 2 hours the wedding is ready to start. I asked George Washington to walk me down the aisle, since I don’t have a Dad to walk me down. We got on with the wedding, and Robin and I said our vows it was such a beautiful moment.Then, we ran off to the stable to get our horses. After that we rode in the the fields.



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