EHI

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

FEW YEARS LATER
_________________

She smiled, gazing at the sunset, the evening breeze caressing the strands of hair that flowed down her waist as she watched the children play in the stream.
They seem so carefree and oblivious to the pain and chaos around them.

"What are you Negros looking at?"
"Keep working!!!"
"If you keep slacking, you will be put to death by my rifle", the head guard snarled.

Ehi didn't have to be told twice, she picked up the seeds and went back to planting on her master's tobacco plantation.

Her new master was a rich Lord and a business tycoon, aside from his title and inheritance," he was quite the fat cat". A term she overheard from a group of pale-skinned women who had once visited the lady of the household for tea.

He was a brutal man when it came to business and was not scared of getting his hands dirty.
He amassed his wealth by buying slaves to work on his plantation and serve his household.

Ehi has learned a lot in the years she has been here.
At first, it was hard because of how they communicated and acted.
But she had quite adjusted and could understand their rules and culture properly.

The women here were always so neatly dressed, always looking prim and proper.
The same goes for the men, she knew exactly who they were under the expensive clothes, jewelry & posh words.

The men here were worse than the guards on the ship. Her new master and his guards were cruel and did not hesitate to kill and torture slaves.

It's been a few years since the ship arrived in England. They were all separated and sold off to new masters.
She had clutched amenities to her chest as they were being inspected for purchase, in hopes that her new master would buy them both.
They were brought to a household with more pale-skinned men and women, who treated them worse than animals.
They were made to work on the farm, under the blazing sun and chilly rain, all year.
A slave quarters was provided for them, far from the household of her master.
Food and water were provided for them once a day and that was it.

Many slaves and some of her kinsmen had tried to escape, but they were caught and tortured in front of the other slaves as a warning.
The living environment was completely unbearable.
The whips and constant yelling of the head guard, whose name turned out to be "Duncan", made her mad with rage.

But whenever she saw her daughter (Amen) all of that disappeared. She is reminded of the good choice she made in saving the beautiful child.

Ehi was no longer the child who was captured, she had grown into a beautiful woman.
She had a strong build from the constant hard work, and her glossy eyes could tell stories of misery and of the ones she had lost.
All that was in the past now, she made the choice, and presently she had to live for Amen. She had to be strong for her.

________________

It was getting dark and that meant they had to stop working and head back to their quarters.
They all knew the routine as they stood in a single line and walked back slowly with their heads down, eyes lowered, no words exchanged with their fellow slaves or any pale-skinned person.
Exactly how they were taught to behave when their master purchased them.