Fictional Slave Narrative

My name is Jeremiah Freeman, though I wasn't born to that name. I chose it after I found out we were freed in 1865. Originally, I was born in 1850 and named Jeremiah Mayerson because I was the property of the Mayersons, as were my Mammy and Daddy. They'd been sold to Massa Tom when they were little. Lucky for us, Massa Tom and Missus Helen believed in keeping families together as much as possible, at least until the children were grown and ready to make families of their own. Daddy said it was because we were worth more to them if we were healthy and content than if we were sick and sorrowful. , ,

Mammy was a God-fearing woman who worked up at the house, waiting on Missus Helen. She loved it when the colored preacher came to visit on Sundays. That was her special time, talking with the preacher about the Bible. Then there was the singing and dancing during and after the service. Whenever anything bad was going on, Mammy would say that she would pray on it for us. If it was real bad, then she would pray on it with the preacher. She'd often shake her head and say that the Lord works in mysterious ways. ,

Missus Helen took a special interest in Mammy and taught her to read and write, though some white folks didn't hold with that sort of thing. Mammy had done her best to teach us how to read and write as well, but she told us to not tell anyone as it might get us into trouble. Mammy loved reading her Bible, especially the Old Testament, and she wanted all of us kno

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or looking in on the other parts of the plantation, while Missus Helen ran everything in the house. That all changed during the War. For awhile we just went on as we always did, but after a while the oldest son joined the Confederate army. Later, Massa Tom joined up, and a few months later, the younger son joined him. They all wrote the Missus when they could, which wasn't often. She did her best to run the plantation herself, but after a while, she just had to hire an overseer to help out. That's when the trouble started. Mostly, Massa Tom just let us get on with things. The overseer didn't see things the same way as the Massa Tom had. The overseer started rationing our food and we got less if he thought we were slacking in our work. There were more whippings those few months than I remember the entire time at the plantation. Daddx had a hard time talking people down and an even harder time watching as his whips hurt the people he loved on the plantation. We just got run into the ground by that overseer. Missus Helen tried to tone down the overseer's ways, but he didn't respect her and just went back to the same old ways as soon as she went away. I wasn't too old, maybe 15 or 16, when we saw Massa Tom trudging down th

Category: History - F