Thesis For Slavery

“Mary! Back to work!” the loud slave driver yells at me. I was only helping Old-Man Sam up. I go back to my back breaking job in the cotton fields, that I don't get paid for if I might add (2). Its 1852, there are rumors the a girl named Harriet escaped and started something called the underground railroad (1). No one's really sure when it began, all we know is it's a way out(4). Slavery has been a part of most black lives since the colonial times, there's not many ways to get out of it(4)I’ve asked my mama about it, but she shushed me and told me not to talk about it in front of the white folks, especially the slave drivers. I heard some people signed something called The Declaration of Independence in 1776 and they started to ban slavery
But Sam and Izzy wouldn’t stay any longer than they had to. I've heard laws were passed to stop runaways so we’ll have to be careful(4). That and that the underground railroad isn’t really a railroad, that kind of disappointed me, but didn't stop me from wanting to go(3). And now it's Saturday night, the best time to escape(4). Sam, Izzy, and I are hunched in behind a bush. I look back to make sure no one is watching and signal for us to run to the woods. Izzy and I sprint to the woods but once we are at the tree line we hear a loud thump. I turn around to see Sam on the ground. Before I can make a move to help him a light lands on sam. He waves for us to go and leave him, Izzy had to pull me half of the way back to the trees. “Come on! We can't save him, it's either he stays or we all stay.” Something clicks inside my head when Izzy says that and I turn and run with Izzy not far behind
Slave tags are used for when slaves travel between plantations(2). “Ya good point, what state should we go to once we’re free?” I ask. “Well there’s 31 states in all and only 16 to choose from, I say we go to Rhode Island(3).” I nod my head, it may be tiny but that just makes it adorable. Izzy and I follow the path on the map that henry gave us, he’s tried to escape many times but always got caught so he knows what way to go and what way not to, and he was nice enough to draw us a map. “It says if we go this way there a house with an old woman that will help us.” I reply pointing to the map. I remember hearing someone saying that anyone who helps the slaves escape could spend time in prison and have to pay a lot of money(4). “Let’s go there, it's closer than the others and should only take us a few more hours to get there.” Izzy states and walks in the direction of the house. Once we get there we see the old woman hanging her clothes, and she sees us and puts her hand up for us to wait in the forest. We nod and go in a little deeper so no one will see us. Around midnight the old woman walks out of her house and towards us and tells us to come out but stay quiet. Once we’re in the cozy little home she hands us each a cup of cocoa and a biscuit. We ate the food so fast I almost bit my finger. We stayed in the house over night, but around 8 in the morning there was a