My Journey to the North

September 17, 1857

Now, where did I leave off. I see...

Now once we were at a safe distance into the woods we stopped a bit and he turned to face me. "You're probably confused why were running right little birdie, well I've decided that we should try and get mom so we could go to the north together and we'll all live a better life than we are now." I liked the idea since I had the same thoughts as him. "But where's momma? How do we find her?" Those were my main questions. "I'm not sure, but I do know that we need to leave now and try to find her before those slave hunters notice we're gone." It's settled then. We go an try to find momma and then we all go to the north together.

Before my brother takes another step, I whisper-yelled, "Wait!" My brother turned around to look at me and tilted his head meaning he was paying attention. "Which way do we go? How do we know momma ain't dead yet? How are we even gonna get to momma?" He jus smiled and told me that he got a bit of information from the ladies I worked with along with a few other people that he worked with. "Trust me. We'll find momma and we'll be able to go to the north and be free."

After a good few hours of walking, I started to feel hungry and tired. I didn't want to say anything because I was too stubborn to admit that I was hungry. But I hadn't eaten since yesterday so I had to tell Mingo. "Minnie!! I'm hungry!" I said with a little pout. He jus chuckled and threw me a big slice of bread. "What about you?" I don't want my brother to starve either. "I'll be fine I stole more than enough for a good week or so. Besides, I already ate before we left. Unlike some little birdie I know." He replied with a small smile. This was probably one of my most memorable times that I spend with my brother. I only wish I could have had moretime with him like this. I even wish he was with me now as I write this.

Anyway, it took a good 5 days for us to find some sort of land where it practically screamed that someone lived there. It gave us hope and fear. But more like fear than anything else. We sure didn't want to get captured and sent back to the Master. If they did then we'd surely get a punishment for running away. Master would probably beat us to death. We still approached with caution though just in case if something were to go wrong. It was night time so we were practically blending into the night. I looked through the window and immediately saw an old lady on her recliner taking a nap.

"It's just an old lady. I think she all alone." I told Mingo. "Stay here and whatever you do, don't make a noise." I jus nod my head in understanding. I watched him go and go to a rusty looking axe that was pretty heavy look'n. He then started slowly walking towards the old lady. That's when I realize what he was gonna go. He was thinking of killi'n her. I couldn't stand the thought of letting him do it so I quickly but quietly ran to him and stood in between them. "In no way in hell am I gonna let you kill her!" I whisper-yelled. "What you mean you ain't lett'n me kill her! She a easy target. I can kill her I jus a swing! An it'll be good if we get rid of her. We can easily take all her things an sell em for money which we can use to help us get to momma and then to the north." He tried reasoning with me but it didn't work. What can I say, I'm stubborn. An I'm glad that I was.

Because of our little bickering, the old lady woke up and jus ended up listening to us arguing like we were five year-olds. Which ain't that far from the truth when it came to mental age sometimes. After a while , she decided to make herself known. "I think you both have a good point." She said in the middle of our bickering. We automatically stopped and slowly turned our heads towards her. "Well if I were you and didn't trust anyone, I'd definitely kill the poor defenseless old lady. But it's nice to know that there are other people out there that don't discriminate." She finished with a smile.

Mingo quickly lifted the axe again and was about to knock her out but she then said something quite unexpected. " I don't think what your doing is the right decision at the moment. The slave hunters are probably after ya now, if they see that little old me is gone they gonna know you came through here an proly killed me. Since you don't have anywhere to go, I'll offer my house for a bit and give you a place to stay in the north." She was really something else. Later on we found out that her husband was a black, like us, that she helped when she was younger. Together they helped negros get to the north and find their families. "Does that mean you'll help us find our momma!" I said with excitement and thrill in my voice. A 3 months past and we found a lead. But then it ended jus as quickly once we found out that momma was actually killed right after we were sold by the old master.

Two months later the old lady then told us about a man named William Still who helped slaves get to the north from Philadelphia. So me and Mingo made up our minds and headed towards Philadelphia. Before we left the old lady gave us food and directions to where her family lived that lived in the north and to tell them that she sent us there. It took a long time to get there but we did it. When we made it, it was around 1855 when we could finally meet Mr. Still.

It's getting dark, I'll leave this for tomorrow.

I'm not sure if I should go on with this. 

Should I just stop??