The Man With The Golden Tooth It all started the day some black people took us from our hot, sunny, and fertile Africa. They burned our houses, they killed our elders and chained up the ones left alive. They made us walk a lot, some died while walking, and we walked for days and days with nothing to eat, and nothing to drink. If we wanted to rest, they would scream at us in an unknown language and then they would whip us. After many days of walking, we arrived to a big body of water. We were give to some people that had white skin and wore very colorful clothes that covered alot of skin. Some of them had weird shapes on them that looked liked the craft we made with triangles, circles or squares. The white people called the body of water the sea. Sometimes they even called it the ocean. I learned that the whites used many names to refer to one thing. None of us had seen it before. It had waves like our river sometimes did and it was blue. As they took us closer, the sea grew bigger and we could not see the end of it. Floating on the water, there was a very big canoe waiting for us. The big canoe had small windows like a house and was brown. It also had white flags, I think that I was used to help move the canoe around the water. It was so big that I felt scared of it. They took us inside and the nightmare began. When we arrived to the big canoe, they made us sat beside each other chained up. I felt like an animal that was being punished. I remembered that back in my tribe, we used to chained up the animals that we will kill to worship our Gods. I remembered that there was a believe back at home which said that what we did will come back to us if it was good or bad. I had only done that once and this was my punishment? I prayed to one of our Gods, the God of the dead to please forgive me. About two moons had passed and we arrived to a point in the sea in which the water sometimes came inside the big canoe. I had been so many times near the whites that I learned their language and I got to understand it. Some people got very sick, they threw up so many times and some of us got very thin than we were before. One day, they took us to a place, which they called the deck. The big canoe was called boat. They called us negros. The white people chained the blacks that were sick. They were put in a row, chained all of us together, threw a stone to the sea and most of my sick family was taken with the stone to the ocean floor. They also threw the ones that were weak. My mother was taken with the stone and I felt very sad for many days. I felt that my life had been taken with her. My hope to be out of this boat was also taken to the ocean with her. Days after, they fed us what looked like the thing we throw out of our mouth when we are sick. But I ate it any way because I felt so hungry. It was little, because I shared it with a friend who was sick and they did not give food to her. I felt that I was doing a good thing because I heard that the next day she will be taken to the ocean floor with the stone. I felt sorry for her, because she had a baby inside her and her husband was left in Africa. He was hunting while the other tribe came to capture us. I wonder how he must have felt not seeing her again. As the days passed, some friends died and the ones about to die were thrown to the sea. After another moon passed we arrived to a beautiful island. When we arrived to the island there were many other pale people. I felt good to be in firm land again, because I thought that if I was one more moon in that boat, I will have gotten very sick. We got out of the boat and they rubbed oil all over our bodies. I felt sticky and hot. They also checked our teeth like we did with our horses. They opened my eye alot and felt all the wind coming into my eye, why was this man looking at my eye like this? As we were followed into a big room, some of us were whipped because we moved slowly. The room was full of people who were wearing very colored clothes on them. As we went into that room, the strangers were quiet. They look at us like if they wanted to eat us. I felt very weird. The one who whipped us was called by a lady, the lady pointed with her finger at me and she said: � I want that strong man for ten dollars� �Who will give me more?!!!!� the whipper asked � I will give thirty dollars for him� a man with a golden tooth said. He looked very mean. The lady said � I will give fifty dollars� The man said �Sixty dollars� �Seventy dollars� What were they doing with me? I did not understand. But some of my friends said that they were selling us. He had been here for about six moons and if he was not sold this time, he would be killed. I felt sorry for him. The golden tooth man said: � I will give five hundred dollars for that Negro� The man who whipped us had a grin on his face and the kind looking lady had a frown in her face. Her face was too beautiful to be seen with a frown. The man said: � Who will give more? How will give more for this healthy and shining Negro? O.K, 1,2,3 sold, this Negro now belongs to that man,� the man said as he pointed to the man with the golden tooth. The lady looked at me disappointed. I did not like being called Negro, I felt like if the people did not approve me. I was taken to a wagon, which was exposed to the sun and made my body feel with very hot, in the wagon there were other people who had the same color as my skin. They knew the whites language and they also knew mine. I wondered why was I being sold? Can people be sold? Then the man who I was sold to came in to the truck with another African friend. We drove to another sea and we were put into a smaller boat. In this trip, to who knows were, we were also chained up, but we were feed much better. This time, the trip was much shorter and about two half moons later we were on land again. We arrived to a big house with sugar cane around it. I saw other persons that looked like me, some were being whipped, others looked like if they were walking dead and the others looked like working very hard. We were taken down of the truck like beasts and one white person said: - � From now on, you will be working in this plantation, you will sleep in that cabin over there. You will have to be awake by 4:00 a.m. and then water the entire plantation. At 6:00 your break fast will be served. Until 2:00 you will have to cut the sugar or plant it. Depending what time of the year we are at. At 2:30 you have to make our lunch and what is left is for you. At 2:50 you will have to have ended your lunch and start sowing the package were the sugar cane will be transported. If you do no finish this work at 7:00 p.m. you will be grounded. At 8:00 our lunch has to be ready and what is left is for you. At 8:30 you have to be finished so that you can start the domestic chores, which includes washing and everything should be in its place. Everything has to be perfect and you may go to sleep as soon as you are done with this. If something is not the way it is supposed to be, all of your friends will be grounded. Do you understand?� �Yes� We replied �Every time you have to say something to one of us� he said pointing at the white people. �You have to say yes master. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?! I hope that I do not have to repeat this many times because you will be grounded!� �Yes master� we replied � How would we be punished?� I asked � How do you dare to ask me something, you will be punished for that. Remember everyone, you would never, ever ask us something. You will now see how this stupid slave will be punished. Andrew, bring me the whip. He will be grounded for asking me something for 50 whips, and if after this I find that he is not working because it hurts to much, I will put a mark on his rear end just like I do with my cows� I was confused, why was I going to be whipped? I was afraid to ask, but they still whipped me fifty times, it hurt alot. I cried a lot. I was chained to a wall and I was put facing to the wall. I wanted to kill my master, but I was afraid of what the other whites might do to me. I did not know why he treated us like that, what had we done to him? How I am going to live all my life like this? At least I only had to sew the sack for the sugar. After I was punished, I followed the peple who look like me. Sewing the sacks would not take much effort. I wondered how big was the house. So I asked to one of my friends who had been here for a long time: � How big is the masters house?� We were all sitting at in a circle, sewing the sacks, in a road made out of stones which led to the masters house. It was uncomfortable to be sitting there in the road and the sun making us very hot. �Pretty big, but we divide the work so we have to do small things� he answered � For how long have you been here� I asked � Like for, I do not know, like since I was a kid, I also forgot how many moons I am old� the old man answered � keep working if you do not want you rear end to be burned� I kept sewing until it was time to make dinner. We had to do 100 sacks for the sugar by 7:00. Thank God this was very easy for me because back in Africa I had to sew my family�s clothes. Actually I made like 150 sacks. What we did for dinner was what the ladies told us to do. I actually liked to do the dinner. We talked, sang and had fun. While we were waiting for the scrubs for us, I heard: � Moses is coming today, pass it to the next person� � Who is Moses� I asked �Moses is the nickname for Harriet Tubman. She comes every month to free the slaves. She takes them very far were no master can catch us. She takes about five slaves from each plantation. They say that in total she takes about 3000 from the south in each trip she makes� he answered We cleaned the house like until 10:00 when every thing was done. I slept in good soft mattress. Eventhough my back hurt alot, I slept like a baby. I was in the middle of a dream when I was woken up by some soft hands that reminded me of Africa and my mother. I got tears in my eyes. The hands took mine and they guided me out of the cabin. The body said: � I am Harriet Tubman and you have been chosen to be freed next time. You are to young to be here. Every time you hear about the Underground Railroad is that I am approaching to this plantation and you should be getting ready. Now go back to sleep and do no talk about me to the masters. Good Bye� I went to sleep and imagined that I had not been here for a day and I was about to be freed in one month. The next day, the master was really mad at us because some part of the house was burned down. No one knew who did it and no one confessed. Even if some one confessed, they would have killed him. So we were all tied up to the wall and we were marked like cows. After we were burned, they put us water on the mark and that was the part that most hurted because it felt how my rear end cool down. I cried and could not seat the whole day. I wanted to be out of here very soon. I also wanted to kill my master. The next three weeks were awful, they whipped us, they burned our faces and other parts of our bodies. I still wondered why he hated my friends and me so much. I couldn�t wait to be in the land of freedom. I now realized why Harriet was called Moses. She promised us the new land, the land of freedom, just like Moses from the bible did. One day, while we were doing the house chores I heard about the Underground Railroad. I had nothing with me, so I was ready at any time. But just when my life was better, my master got very angry at me and killed me hitting me in the head. But I finally found the freedom and the rest I needed in heaven, with God and the real Moses.
Copyright © 2000 Natalia Pedroza |