I was born in west Kentucky to a slave family. When I was a child, I did not know what slavery was. It was the worst part of my life, because I knew at a certain point in my life I had to work to death. When my owners separated me from my mother, I grew up with an old woman who was too frail to be a slave anymore. I grew with her as my mother.

I thought that I would not work, but sadly, after four autumns, I started to work on a farm with horses and other cattle. I also started planting and harvesting cotton. My owner gave me a small room in the house to live in it. My hands got torn, hard, and as dry as a desert because of working hard all day, all season. After the first season I worked, winter came. My owner moved me out in a barn to live with horses, because my master’s daughter moved into his house. I could not complain to them. If I said anything, my owners would hang me, and whip me until I fainted. Or was fully submerged in smelly, dried, sweaty, nasty blood.

It was freezing at that time and I had no cover or heavy clothing. So I asked for a coat. I did not know that slaves could not ask for anything from their owners except for what they gave. The coat never came. What did come was forty lashes with a long, thick, hard stick on my back. My back bled as if it were a river of water, and burned with sweat that stung like fire. Those whippings were my first step in down the road of slavery.
When it was time to eat, they gave me a small, stale piece of bread which was as hard as rock to eat. It felt like a rock traveling down my throat and to my stomach. This piece of bread was supposed to last me a week. The problem was that they would bake it every day. When I smelled the fresh, soft, and hot bread from a distance I thought they would give me it fresh, but I was wrong. They would serve the masters first then, when it was dry they would serve it to me. The piece of bread would have to last an entire week. I would eat nothing until the next week.

This continued for many seasons. My master bought other slaves and saw that I would be more helpful inside than outside because his daughter got married and left the house. One day, I received a knock on the door. I opened the door and a woman, a man, and two kids came in. They told me that they were my real uncles. What I did not know was that slaves could not have visitors.

My master came and saw them, took them, and whipped them until they fainted. When they would wake up he would whip them again and again until they were fully submerged in sweaty, blood and eventually, but sadly they were dead.

At this point in my life in my life, I decided to escape slavery. I would do so during winter. It was the night when I had my first opportunity to escape, but I did not. I did not know where to go, or with whom, so I slept. The next morning I had some of my questions answered. I would escape to Michigan using the underground railroad and pass over the Ohio River. I had a conductor on the railroad which would take me to a free state.
A few days later, my master went to sleep because he was drunk. So, I moved away from the barn and I headed toward the underground railroad, I was alone because I do not want anyone in the village to see me, when I headed away from the house the only way to the railroad was moving through a meadow. It was my first time ever smelling the blooming, growing flowers as the deer ran through. There was no one in the village that was awake. It was a nice evening with a bright moon lighting the way before me.

Finally, when I reached the trail of the underground railroad, I found Peg Leg Joe. He was one of the best people who led slaves through the underground railroad and would free them. So I moved with him, with some other slaves. We headed north to Michigan.

The first few nights I was scared, frightened that someone would find me and return me to my owners, but no one did. On my journey what I saw was thin, tired, sick bodies of starved cadavers which had not eaten for days. It was nothing compared to the look of fear on everybody’s face. I did not care about cadavers or their fear, I only cared about myself and wanted to escape.

When we moved further along the railroad, the slaves with us started to get tired, sick, starved from walking for miles every day. I had not eaten for days either. My stomach was rumbling and growling, but I did not care. The best sound I ever heard was the snapping and cracking of bushes and shrubs as the animals moved through.

After some miles, we heard a loud, beautiful, strong neigh of horses heading toward us as fast as a bullet. Our leader, Peg Leg Joe, knew the best places to hide. We moved as fast as we could into one of the nearest hiding spots. It was a small barn and full of freshly cut hay. It had a fresh, sharp, and musty scent. After some time the horses left, and we continued our way.

After a day of walking, our clothes were wet, cold, and soggy due to the rain and snow. We found some old, spoiled, black peas on the ground which we ate to survive. At this point, the snow was half a knee high and we could not complete our journey. We stopped, we sat, and we saw a small, dead rabbit. It was uncooked, bloody, and it was left over from dogs that ate it. We had no choice but to eat it.

We proceeded on our journey until we reached the Ohio River. It was the only major obstacle left between a slave state and free state. Two of my slave friends were so thin and brittle that if you touched them they would die. Finally, but sadly, they died. The only people left was me, Peg Leg Joe and my friend, which I met him in the railroad and we became friends. He came from another state just to move with Peg Leg Joe.
It was the beginning of winter and the snow did not completely freeze the Ohio River. We thought that the river would handle our weight. Our feet were bare, freezing, and blue. We were halfway through the river and suddenly the ice cracked and we fell into the freezing river.

I thought to myself that I could not die in a river in a slave state. Peg Leg Joe was used to these kinds of circumstances. He had experience. I had faith and courage to escape, but my friend was weak and feeble, like a dead man walking. He could not handle the freezing river, so he froze into a human-shaped ice cube. Regretfully, we could not help him because he was already dead.

We swam the rest of the river, because the ice layer cracked and we could not walk anymore. We almost drowned many times. When we finally reached the river bank, our bodies were nearly frozen, but because we did not stop moving, the ice on our bodies melted. We finished the most difficult obstacle we had. Now we just needed to follow the drinking gourd north to Michigan through the St. Joseph River.

It was halfway through the winter season. We finally reached Indiana which was a free state. It was my first time ever in my entire life that I felt like a human, but we did not know anybody there. Behind us were slave hunters, so we hid in a large box which was nasty, full of dead cattle which were bloody, the smell was like a rotten, black cheese.

After they left we continued through Indiana, at the center of the state we stopped to eat. It was my first time eating since we felt into the ice river water. The smell of the freshly baked, warm, soft bread, and the freshest, greenest peas tasted like the most satisfying thing I ever had eaten. I ate too much and I could not walk.
After three days in Indiana, we moved on to the St. Joseph River. It was halfway through the winter season, so the river was completely frozen. It was much easier to travel across, but it was slippery and I slipped over the river. It felt like falling down on a hard, rock as hard as steel.

When I slipped over the ice, my right ankle twisted, which made it even harder for me to move. But I did not stop because I wanted to see my relative in Michigan. When I was a kid, I heard from the local people that I had a relative in Michigan. When I reached the beginning of the state, winter started to become spring.
It was the most beautiful spring I had ever seen. Green grass was growing everywhere, beautiful flowers were blooming all around, Leafless trees became alive, the fields were parsley-green, and lonely calves were lowing in the fields.

I saw an old man and asked him, “Do you know where Andre’s house is?” (The local people knew this relative of mine by Andre). I knew his name because he used to work the same area I worked, but with a different owner. He managed to escape to Michigan.

He admitted, “His house is the first to the right on the next street.”

When I knocked on the door, a man with winter-white hair, blood-flecked eyes, faded skin, unsteady movement, crooked fingers, a pleasant smile, and sparkling eyes came out. When he saw me, he cried like river floods after the rain. When he hugged me, his hand was warm and soft. That made me feel that I am taking a nap. I was shivering from missing my relative.

When we sat he told me that he was my real grandfather. His master moved to another state that was close to Michigan and he also moved. He successfully escaped to Michigan. Then my mother moved the same thing as her father did. After my master separated me from my mother, she escaped with Peg Leg Joe to Michigan.
I lived a happy life with my grandfather for many years. After many years I married and had two girls and a boy. Sadly my grandfather’s wife died in childbirth. I worked at a new job and made a decent amount of money. I bought a large house for me and my family. And I never told my kids what I was when I was a kid.