WHEN GOD GIVES US SPRING - an excerpt
PAGE 43 - 44
I always listened with care to the dinner and after-dinner conversations held by Master Alfred with his plantation owner friends. I learned that when a run-away slave was caught, if he was not hung by the neck on a tree branch or lynched or dragged behind a galloping horse until he was dead, he would be jailed and then delivered to a judge who would do a property evaluation before the slave was put up for public auction. Often this evaluation was reached dependent upon the number of whip welts on a slave's back. Too many welts meant he tried to run away too often; was too difficult to control and therefore not worth as much as a run-away with fewer or no welts at all.
Of course some owners offered rewards, sometimes as much as twenty-five dollars, for the return of a run-away slave. I thought that when I ran away from home Master Alfred would probably offer a big reward for my return.
I felt fearful but I would not be deterred. I began to make my plans.
There were many obstacles to be dealt with and overcome. First of all, I had no geographic sense of my location or of a feasible destination. Particularly during the War of 1812 I had heard talk about a place called Canada. I had no idea where this place was in relation to Alexandria, Virginia. I didn't know if it was five miles or five hundred miles away. My first goal was to determine this distance.
I wondered how I could accomplish this goal. Would I find my answer in one of Master Alfred's books? When he was not at home I would spend hours examining his bookshelves, not only those in the drawing room but also the many more books in his private library. In my entire life I had never seen a map. I had overheard maps mentioned in conversations but I had no idea what a map should look like. The fact that I did not know what I was looking for did not deter me.
For many months I searched at every opportunity and finally one afternoon in the summer of 1835 I found a large book on a library shelf. This book contained colourful shapes and I saw printed the names of many towns and cities. I was able to recognize the name Alexandria in Virginia. Such a small dot on the page for such a large place. Alexandria was the only world I knew much of anything about.
From these pictures I could see that Canada was massive. I could also see that Canada was very far away; more than three hundred miles away I figured not knowing whether my figuring was an accurate one.
I wondered how long a mile was; how long it would take to walk one mile. I had no idea and there was no one I could ask. ..................................
WHEN GOD GIVES US SPRING is available on all Amazon sites. You will find it on my Amazon Author's Page at https://amazon.com/author/audreyaustin
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