My way to freedom

I was a slave, and I had been that as long as I remembered. I worked for a farmer in Maryland and the only day I didn’t had to work in the fields was Sundays, but I still couldn’t live my live as I wanted to. But then a day, I heard someone whispering about escaping, and I started thinking: “what if I escaped, what if I could be free, and what if I could live a normal life and maybe get a family.” But then I realized how hard and dangerous it would be to take the chance and try to escape. Then a few days later I heard about Moses. She was a former slave who ran away and now helped slaves escaping. So I decided to take the chance and try to escape by her help, to my freedom in Canada. Then one Sunday where I didn’t was working I packed my things and ran to the forests where I had planned to meet Moses and the rest of the group of slaves there also was escaping. She tolds us to sneak across the bridge over the Choptank River and where to find friends in a place called Delaware. After we had been walking for a long time, we come to a house, where there’s a lantern on a hitching post, which Moses told us, meant that the people in the house, wants to help us and that it’s safe. After discussing in the group, if we were willing to take the chance and knock on the door, we spitted up, the ones that wanted to keep walking and the ones that would try to see if the people in the house could help us. I was one of the ones that took the chance, and lucky as we were, the family that lived in the house was nice. But then in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep I heard the bloodhounds, I knew they were looking for me and the other escapers. Then it got quiet and I fell asleep. The next morning we got up, ate a little bit of food, packed our bags with the food we got from the family and then went out on our journey again. I knew there was a long way, until freedom, but I was closer than ever. After walking for many hours we arrive to a big city called Wilmington. My host there was a very friendly businessman named Thomas Garrett, showed me to the The Underground Railroad, where he also have been working for over 40 years. A few years ago he was arrested and fined $5,400, but I’m glad didn’t stopped him for a minute. When I came to Philadelphia I met a man, William Still was a successful, confident merchant and a leader in the fight against slavery. He could read and write—skills denied me. And then he helped me getting prepared for another long stretch of travel, on my way to New York.