Memoirs of Addy Turner

  "The Beginning"

            It was a beautiful sunny day and I remember waking up to the smell of the jungle. I was so happy to be alive and so was everyone around me. I remember my mother calling me into breakfast. She served me a fresh grapefruit and a banana…Oh how much I miss banana’s. Everything seemed to be going wonderfully until two white men barged in and grabbed me. They took my hands behind me, tied them and then jerked me up. Another man was holding my mother back. She was screaming in terror ”Give her back, don’t take her from me.” She kept screaming my name, the name I don’t remember to this day over and over again. My mother wasn’t the only one screaming. It seemed like mass chaos had broken out in the whole village. Everything happened so fast and I only remember screaming “ ma ma! I love you ma ma!” Before I knew it I was out of the small hut and all I could hear were the painful screams of agony and pain coming from my mother. As for my father I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him. He had been on a hunting expedition with some of the other tribe members.

            The white men and I approached a huge boat. They threw mw on and forced me take off my clothes. They then made me get into a small dark room that I couldn’t even stand in. After a while I stopped crying and I unburied my head from my hands. I then realized all of the other people around me. They were all in bad shape. They were shaking and they had scraps and cuts all over them. I wanted to know what had happened to them and where the boat was going to take us but I decided not too. It seemed like days and days before I saw the light again. I was so cramped and I wanted to get outside and move around. I had been in the same position for what seemed like ages. By know I was too cold and hungry. When I finally saw a stream of light fill the small dark room I remember being so happy. It was a white man that gave all of us some food and water. It was all slapped on a metal plate and was cold and soggy, but to me it was fine. All that was on the plate were some soggy tatters and some grits. There was also a hard biscuit and some warm water. While I ate I thought of what my mama and papa was doing.

            I’ve been a slave for two years now and I still long for the smell of the jungle and I want just one piece of a banana. All my life I have felt horrible for not being able to warn my parents about who those white men where and how bad it would be here. 

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"Young and Scared"

            The cold bitter air blew into my wood hut. I stepped out of bed and peeked my head out the door. It wasn’t even light yet so I guessed that it was about 3 in the morning. I went to the little chest at the foot at the foot of my bed. I quietly but on a long red dress with an apron over it, my dress was cold and damp from the day before since I had been washing clothes and water had spilled on me. I then began to braid my greasy, natty and unwashed hair. After I was done braiding my hair I heard some noises outside and I quickly rushed to the front wall of the cabin and peeked through a hole in the wall. It was one of the slave handlers and his dogs. I quickly ran to my bed and jumped into my bed. I quickly covered up and pretended like I was asleep. I then heard the door quietly open, and then it shut. Even though I had heard the door shut I didn’t open my eyes, I didn’t even flinch; I was too scared. 

 A few minutes later there was a loud blow on the conch shell. I knew it was time to get up so I jumped up woke up Anne (the girl in which I was practically in charge of) I quickly put on my shoes and frantically said, “ Hurry Anne! Hurry! There isn’t much time and you don’t want a whipping do you.” Anne was only five and she was very afraid of being beat. After Anne had finished getting dressed I helped her to put up her hair. We then rushed outside followed my Thomas who was Anne’s brother that was nine years old. We stood beside the door silently while the slave handlers called role. There was no noise not even a cough until one of the elderly ladies coughed.

 “You know the rule, no coughing during role call, who do you think you are to interrupt my concentration?”

“I am so sorry, sir.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough”, said the mean handled. The handler then forced the old woman into the middle of all of the cabins. While everybody was looking on he stripped her down and beat her. The old lady got twenty lashes for coughing.

“Get into that cabin and clean up those cut, somebody help her,  when they’ve stopped bleeding get to work!” roared the slave handler!

The old lady then went into her cabin, and I followed quietly and quickly. When I got inside I got her some water and she stopped coughing. I then got a wet cloth and cleaned the bloods off of her back. I then got an old cloth and wrapped it around her to stop the bleeding. I then offered the old women to stay in her cabin and heal while I handled her work and mine. The lady agreed so I rushed off to work.

 I ended up finishing all of the work and went back to check on her that evening. When I went inside I found her dead lying in her bed. I told the handlers and wondered to myself if it was the whipping or the coughing, I would never know.  

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" My Beliefs"

Religion is what my whole life was centered around. The slave handler didn’t like for us to pray but we did anyway. The Bible was our last hope. It was the only thing that we could truly trust.

            It was a hot and hazy summer night and me and Nellie the other girl in my cabin had noticed that our Bibles were both gone, along with my golden cross pendent that my mother had given me when I was born. Nellie was one year older than me and had been moved into my cabin because her father had run away when she was real little and a slave handler killed her mother. I was all Nellie had and she was all I had, we were best friends.  This time when I got up I didn’t have to worry about waking up Thomas and Anne. They had been moved back into a cabin with there parents.

            After we were both awake and dressed we placed pillows in our beds and quickly snuck out. Nellie and I knew that the slave handlers wouldn’t come back and check our cabin for another 3 hours. Nellie and I were very sneaky when we were young and I had just gotten back from the slave breaker. I thought that there couldn’t be a worse beating in the whole world than what I had received from the slave breaker.

            After about thirty minutes of walking on the rough forest floor we had reached our destination, which was about a mile into the woods behind the plantation. To get to the woods we had to get through many of the plantations fences gates and guard dogs. Nellie and I took no chances that night. We knew that we would be severely punished if we were caught. When we got to the little hut in the woods our only other challenge was to get the shed door open. After about 15 minutes of prying at the door me and Nellie got the door opened filled a little brown sack in which we had brought full of things that had been taken from the slaves and we headed back.

            I remember the kinds of things that we put in the sack. There were clothes that were too nice for the slaves to have, priceless family air looms, fruits and vegetables, and numerous Bibles and other religious symbols. Nellie and me took every thing that we could and got back as quickly as possible.

When Nellie and I got back we quickly got into bed. When I woke up at 2 in the morning and had only had about 3 hours of sleep. I quietly got up and put on my clothes. Outside it was hot and humid so I wore no shoes. After I was dressed I woke up Nellie and after she got dressed we began to hide the contents of our little brown bag. We decided that the slave handlers would probably notice what had been taken from the hut in the woods and they would probably beat us all and search our cabins. For fear that the items would be found in our hut Nellie and I dug a hole in the dirt floor of our cabin and we put the bag inside. We quickly filled the hole and then stomped on it to make it look like the rest of the floor.

The next day when we told some of the other slaves that we had recovered all of their bibles and other belongings we all decided that every other night there would be a gathering in a certain persons cabin so that we could all Pray and some of us could read the Bible for the slaves who couldn’t read. It was amazing every other night how many people showed up in that one cabin no matter how many whipping they had got the night before for being caught, No one cared because of their strong belief in the Bible.

            Religion is what my whole life was centered around. The slave handler didn't like for us to pray but we did anyway. The Bible was our last hope. It was the only thing that we could truly trust. It was a hot and hazy summer night and me and Nellie the other girl in my cabin had noticed that our Bibles were both gone, along with my golden cross pendent that my mother had given me when I was born. Nellie was one year older than me and had been moved into my cabin because her father had run away when she was real little and a slave handler killed her mother. I was all Nellie had and she was all I had, we were best friends.  This time when I got up I didn't have to worry about waking up Thomas and Anne. They had been moved back into a cabin with there parents. 

            After we were both awake and dressed we placed pillows in our beds and quickly snuck out. Nellie and I knew that the slave handlers wouldn't come back and check our cabin for another 3 hours. Nellie and I were very sneaky when we were young and I had just gotten back from the slave breaker. I thought that there couldn't be a worse beating in the whole world than what I had received from the slave breaker. 

            After about thirty minutes of walking on the rough forest floor we had reached our destination, which was about a mile into the woods behind the plantation. To get to the woods we had to get through many of the plantations fences gates and guard dogs. Nellie and I took no chances that night. We knew that we would be severely punished if we were caught. When we got to the little hut in the woods our only other challenge was to get the shed door open. After about 15 minutes of prying at the door me and Nellie got the door opened filled a little brown sack in which we had brought full of things that had been taken from the slaves and we headed back. 
I remember the kinds of things that we put in the sack. There were clothes that were too nice for the slaves to have, priceless family air looms, fruits and vegetables, and numerous Bibles and other religious symbols. Nellie and me took every thing that we could and got back as quickly as possible. 

             When Nellie and I got back we quickly got into bed. When I woke up at 2 in the morning and had only had about 3 hours of sleep. I quietly got up and put on my clothes. Outside it was hot and humid so I wore no shoes. After I was dressed I woke up Nellie and after she got dressed we began to hide the contents of our little brown bag. We decided that the slave handlers would probably notice what had been taken from the hut in the woods and they would probably beat us all and search our cabins. For fear that the items would be found in our hut Nellie and I dug a hole in the dirt floor of our cabin and we put the bag inside. We quickly filled the hole and then stomped on it to make it look like the rest of the floor. 

            The next day when we told some of the other slaves that we had recovered all of their bibles and other belongings we all decided that every other night there would be a gathering in a certain persons cabin so that we could all Pray and some of us could read the Bible for the slaves who couldn't read. It was amazing every other night how many people showed up in that one cabin no matter how many whipping they had got the night before for being caught, No one cared because of their strong belief in the Bible. 

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