Jesus Gomez Braña Gonzalez
Hello my name is Tom this was the name that my master gave me in 1848 now it’s 1852, and this is my story. Every night I used to go my cabinet a scratch my bolded head and leave blood on it. I get the blood from the work I’ve done over the day working, Here in Texas working is exhausting due to the intense heat but at least is not as hot as my home back in Africa but still the working conditions pretty bad. Picking up the cotton is a torture I simply hate it since the thorns keep cutting me. But I’m used to it already it barely hurts anymore not like at the begging. I can remember those tough days when I was new here it was about 4 years ago, 1848 I think. But the cuts weren’t what hurt the most. The fact of that I was taken against my will from my family was what did. I got here and I was called ni**r all the time I never took it offensive since I never knew what it meant, I didn’t know any English when I first got here so I didn’t really care.
All I knew was that I was terrified. The first day I got here there was this man hanging from his arms while another one would hit him with this thing, I think it’s called a whip. As you see I’m not perfect with my English yet since all I hear is “ni**r, work, color people can’t learn, you’re not people your animals that look like us.” I guess they are wrong with the part of we cannot learn since I managed to learn how to write. But maybe we are animals I’m not sure since we are not all like them. Well back to the guy getting hit. The white man would hit the color one and he would ask him “what’s your name son?” he would answer “kong” then the white man would replay “no wrong answer your name is Rod” and they would go on like that for five more times until he finally said Rod. You might ask how what they said if I didn’t know English back then well simple one of the guys there translated me everything he said. Actually he was the one who thought me how to read and write. Guess I got lucky to meet him. His name was Shane well that’s the name his master gave him. Our master seems to like him more than any other of his slaves. I think it’s for the fact he is tall and strong which helps him do tougher jobs I guess that’s why he gets a better meal than everyone else. I wish I was tall and strong like that I wouldn’t have to starve all day. Seriously sometimes I think they just want to kill us by feeding us so few that we will die even slower than if we didn’t eat. The first day when they said lunch I was excited because I was hungry but then I saw it was beans and this I kind of salad but its barley anything.
I was so jealous of my friend. But if it isn’t bad enough yet well our cabinets were even worst we were around 20 in just one. When I saw it I thought “it can’t be that bad can it” well I was wrong all the beds were taken so I went and took a spot right beside the chimney. I knew I would probably die in case of a fire but it could be useful on the winter. But still it was nasty in there. I was trying to be quiet and serious to avoid any trouble and maybe I could sleep to be rested for the next day. Since things got worst even when I thought it couldn’t be any worst I had to expect tomorrow to be worst. I only hoped this would end fast. I hope it was temporary I was decided that if they didn’t make it temporary I would. I decided to plan how to escape. But first I had to see if there was an easier way to be free. But all I could do today was sleep which didn’t seem to be a problem except for all that snoring and the creaky floor that would creek every time someone the slightest move. But what could I expect I was a slave I was not more than a piece of garbage that would do the hard work for those heartless Americans. But I had to sleep so I just laid down then this women came and slept right beside me. I didn’t see any problem with that but then I woke up. I felt this wet and sensation all night I thought it was my sweat. But then it got dry when I woke up my head was stuck to the floor by this red thing. It was easy to break it but it felt nasty and dirty then I looked up at the women who slept beside me. There I saw more of that red stuff in her hand and that’s when I figured out it was all blood.
