The Story of a Slave

Swish! Crack! The whip flew through the air and cut into the back of the slave working next to me. I dared a sideways glance, it was my friend Ernest. "Work harder!" the slave master yelled. I bent down and carried on working as fast as I could, hoping I wouldn't be the next victim. As I worked my thoughts were filled with anger and hatred toward the whites. "What right did they have to own us, and make us work. Who gave them the right to beat us when we didn't work fast enough." My thoughts were interrupted by the slave master yelling at us to stop work and gather in front of the Big House.

Once we were all gathered together in front of the Big House the master came out with a man I had never seen before. Master said that he had been told that a man had been seen around the neighbouring properties and that he was a danger to us all. The stranger held up a photo of a man with curly brown hair, laughing eyes, and a bandanna tied around his neck. We were told that he was an abolitionist, and if we ever saw him we had to tell the master. We were told that if we did, we would be rewarded. I didn't know what to do, the man didn't look dangerous, and could anything be worse than the life we were living now?

Over the next few weeks I overheard talk of someone called Abraham Lincoln who wanted all the slave owners to free their slaves. Some said he was going to start a war to try free us. I didn't know what to think of all this. Why would people risk their lives to free us when they didn't even know us? All I knew was that I wanted to be free.

A few weeks later, we were woken up in the middle of the night by the slave master coming in and herding out all the males. Once we were all gathered in front of the Big House the master came out and told us that a war had started. Major Robert Anderson had surrendered Fort Sumter. We were told that we would have to fight to protect the South. I was shocked. We were being made to fight to stay slaves! That was the last thing I wanted. I didn't want to be a slave, I wanted to be free. To live my own life. But there was nothing I could do. If I tried to refuse they would beat me. I knew I had no choice, I would have to fight.

Battle of Saratoga

September 18 1777 - Battle of Freeman's Farm - Slowly we moved forward in the dusk. I might have been tempted to admire the beautiful farmland if we hadn't been heading into battle. As we moved on I tried to decipher my feelings. I was excited, I'd trained hard to get to this, an American sniper, but I was also scared. This was my first real battle. I knew I was good enough, ever since I was young I'd had a very good aim, but how would I handle a real battle.

There was no more time for wondering, it was time to attack. I saw our General, Daniel Morgan, give the signal. All 500 of us knelt and readied our guns, waiting. There it was, the signal to fire. The night erupted in the thunder of guns. I saw many British solders fall, around me I saw my companions fall. Blood everywhere. The sound of not only gun fire, but also the agonizing screams of wounded and dyeing men. I tried to block it out, the sound, the smell, the realization that I was ending others lives.

Suddenly I heard Morgan shout for us to retreat. We all turned and made our way to Bemis Heights. We had suffered 320 casualties, the British had suffered 600.

October 7 1777 - Bemis Heights - After our retreat at Freeman's Farm we had come to Bemis Heights. Here more men joined us until we had an army of 20,000. I was wondering if the British where going to attack again, and is so when, when a solder came running over telling us all to prepare to fight, the British where attacking. I jumped up, grabbed my gun, and raced out. This time I found that it wasn't as hard to kill.

It didn't take long to set the British to flight. I and most of the army followed General Gates to purse them. After several days we caught up to them, and surrounded them. The British surrendered on October 17 1777.

Ferrymead History Museum

Today we went to Ferrymead. I was so excited because I knew we were going to dress up. I was also excited to be able to wear our new bonnets with our matching aprons.
These are the clothes that they gave us to wear. I was glad that my new friend Layla was also there.
Today we are going to pretend that we are school children living 100 years ago.
First we got instructions on what was going to happen today.

We were told to always sit up straight, shoulders back and hands folded. When we walk we have to lift our feet so that we don't drag our shoes on the floor and no one was allowed to put their hands in their pockets. We were also told that children "must be seen and not heard". Children could only speak when they were spoken to or when no adults were around.

We were split into groups for the activities.

We had some morning tea before we started.

General Store

Our first stop was at the General Store.

First she showed us some of the things that were sold in those days.

Then she showed us where things were in the shop and how to package them.

We were then given a basket and a shopping list and had to get everything on the shopping list - exactly. Here Layla and I are measuring the rice.

There was a lovely old piano in the shop and the lady said that Ruth could play on it.

This was a beautiful old organ - but unfortunately it did not work. Ruth enjoyed pretending though.
We had to wrap some of the things in paper. There was no plastic then.

Hannah found the old fashioned telephone booth outside.

Bakery

The next place we went to was the bakery.

The lady there told us that some of us would make butter and some would make damper. Damper is a type of bread but it did not have yeast so that they could make it quickly.
I had made butter before but not in a proper butter churn. Ruth had a go turning the handle too.

First the cream gets really thick.

And then bits of butter start to form and the buttermilk is left behind.

The buttermilk drains out the little hole and I got to drink it.

I made the damper. It is made of flour, salt, baking powder and water. Dad said "with a little bit of sugar it would be a nice scone".

The oven is HUGE!!!!!! The pole in the bottom photo is what they use to get things in and out of the oven. So it gives you an idea of how deep it is. The oven takes up half the room. The fire is on the right and the chimney is on the left. So the heat goes across and heats the oven up. Once it's hot they let the fire go out and then put the food in. If they put the food in when the fire was still going the food might burn and it would have a smokey taste.

House keeping

Next we went to an old fashioned house where we did some of the chores that the children would have done.

She showed us how to wash the clothes. We used the wooden boards to scrub the clothes on.
Ruth and Hannah also enjoyed having a go. Then we got most of the water out with a rolling thing.

Then we did some ironing with very hot irons. This was NOT easy.

We also scrubbed a table.

We also tried to make the bed. It is so so difficult. There were so many sheets and blankets. They have lots of old things in the house like the baby's pram in the corner. They even had a chamber pot under the bed. YUCK!!! I am so glad we have toilets.

School

The last place we went to was the school house.

The teachers in those days were very strict. He showed us some of the outside games that the children used to play.

This was my favorite place even though he was so strict and cross.

It was nice that we had some younger children in our group (under 7) because we got to see how it worked. The teacher actually left the "infants" in the care of the oldest child.

Children 8 years and older got to use ink pens and do fancy writing. The ink pens were really difficult to use. Then we used a slate and a slate pen to do sums. At the end of the time the teacher hit a desk with his cane really loudly and we all got such a fright.

Lunch

It was fun using the water pump.

Then we had lunch. Yummmyyy. Mum made a really nice knotted loaf and she wrapped cucumber, butter, cheese and salami in paper for our picnic. After working in the store I know why Mum wrapped them all in paper.

I really enjoyed lunch.

We got to taste the damper with the butter on it. It was nice but I can't imagine eating that every day though.

Some of the mothers were also dressed up for the day.

I really enjoyed it and hope that we can come to Ferrymead again some time.