Slave+Essay+JBD08

Hello my name is Erick Evans. I was a slave in Madison, Georgia and was owned by a man named John Hanks. I was a slave from the day I was born. I was only a slave for about ten years though. Our mistress didn't like the idea of having slaves. She didn’t like it one bit. She didn't want us but Hanks wanted us to stay there. They argued about it but after their argument the subject was never brought up again. In the household I lived with the younger slaves learned how to work in the fields. When you turned eight you began "school." The day you turned ten you started plowing fields, picking cotton, etc. This was the way my life was. I never officially started working in the fields. I was released before I turned ten because the war had ended. Learning what to do in the fields was a very long process. Every morning the young slaves including me would go across town to an open field so we were not in anyone’s way. We worked from sun up to sun down. Once our "schooling" was over we would go back to the plantation and eat dinner. Our dinners usually consisted of cold tea, dried bread, and salted meat. It wasn't that bad but it wasn't good either. Never at all did I think of running away. My life was on the plantation. Everything I had was there. Yeah I wasn't a slave for very long but it was my whole life. After we were released some of us moved to the North. Even though I was young at the time I got a job as an apprentice. I began to work with a newspaper company. Now I am fifteen and I have some money to my name. I wasn't a slave for long but that was my life.