“Couldn’t your husband just buy you?”
Harriet chuckled. “Lord, no. He ain’t got that kind a’money. My owner would charge him too much. Besides, if you buyin’ a slave then that means you approve of them bein’ property in the first place. If you don’t approve of human beings bein’ property then you don’t buy 'em. You just help 'em get away.”
Zammie thought about that for a moment. “When did you first run away?”
“Just last year,” she said. “Three of my sisters had already been sold off to traders down in Georgia an’ I wasn’t gonna be the one to go next so I ran off. The way I see it, there are two things we’ve all got a right to in this life. One is death, the other is liberty. And one or the other I intend to have.”
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| Slave Auction from Harper's Weekly |
Zammie liked the passion that Harriet spoke with. She imbued a confidence and electricity unlike anyone he had ever met before.
“They sold away your sisters?” asked Zammie.
“Yeah, they do that,” said Harriet. “Masters don’t care. Two sisters was separated from their own little girls. Kessiah was lucky she was being auctioned with her kids. A lot a’ women ain’t so lucky. Lot a’ kids lose their parents that way.”
Zammie thought about his own parents, and how terrible it would be to have them taken away and sold like that, never to be seen again.
-- Harriet tells of her family
from Time Trip #2 (Chaper 7)
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| 1850s family of slaves from PBS |
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING
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