Kiana+Meadows

=Name: Cassie Hodden - Im a slave living in Charleston in the south. I live on Hodden Plantation with fourteen other women, twenty men, six teenagers, and five small children. My massa's name is Massa Hodden, and he is a very cruel ungrateful person, he treats us like we're all animals and he doesn't show us any respect at all. I don't like the life i live. I strongly feel that if you ever get into slavery it can feel like there is no way out. It's as if you eat, sleep,drink, and maybe even breathe work. A lot of us work in the fields picking cotton, and others chose not to which makes it worse for everyone. If you ever refuse to obey, the massa says you will die. No one ever tries to disobey the massa because we all know we will suffer. Bad things always happen when one of us does wrong, even if we don't deserve it, the massa decides he wants to take it out on all of us.= == = = =A page from the journal of= = = = = ==Entry Number 1: It wasn't long before i thought my life as a slave would get any worser. The Congress just produced a new law called the Fugitive Slave Law. It just went into affect in 1850 and now it's becoming even more advanced. This law stated that if any person shall find a runaway slave they must send them back where they came from. I am really against the new law because i believe that if you're a slave you deserve to be free no matter what a dumb piece of paper says. Besides going to freedom is a big deal for every slave who wants to start a new beginning. The congress just don't care about anyone but themselves. They are happy as long as they make every slave miserable. The fugitive slave law will change the course of any slave running away to freedom. Now every slave will be at risk. Im scared for any slave that doesn't make it. The Fugitive Slave law caused a huge problem, so Henry Clay wanted to resolve it, and end the crisis. So Henry Clay came up with a compromise. It was called The Compromise of 1850. He urged the admissions of California as a free state. Henry Clay also allowed slavery in the rest of the territory gained from Mexico. Even the end of the slave trade in the district of Columbia. Henry Clay also had an agreement that Congress could not end the institution of slavery in the district without a vote and the rest of Maryland. The agreement of tCongress that it could not stop the interstate slave trade and the passage of a Fugitive Slave Law which would punish anyone who tried to stop a slave owner from recovering a runaway slave. Henry Clay was a very brave person because he understood slavery wasn't right and that anyone can change anything, it took a lot of courage. == ==Entry Number 2: Word around the plantation is that there is this person they call Moses. Some think this person is a male or a female and others think really differently. But i think otherwise because i know who she is. Her name is Harriet Tubman, she was a runaway slave from Maryland. One day she was brave enough and she ranaway to freedom. After Harriet Tubman became free she continued on, and now she helps hundreds of other slaves to freedom in the North. Slaves in the plantation i live in, say "Moses" or " Harriet Tubman" will come and help us get to freedom tonight, i really don't know what to do. But i guess the best thing for me to do is go with Harriet and the others to the North to get to freedom. Even though i know this will be a very dangerous experiance, i want to do this because i want to live being free. I want to know that everyday my family and i will be safe and be able to breathe another day. I want to know that every single day for the rest of my life i won't have to struggle for anyone. Tonight i will be going to freedom, i just know i will. == ==Entry Number 3: I'm so scared for my life right now, we have been hiding out for two days now and we haven't gotten anywhere. But i guess things like this take time. The overall positive thing about being a runaway slave, is that i found out what the Underground Railroad is. The Underground Railroad is a secret network of safe houses, where runaway slaves like me stay on their journey to the North to freedom. Harriet says there are kind people that are against slavery, and they want to make a big difference by helping us get to freedom. They provide their warm, humble houses, and they allow us to sleep in very cozy places, they even give us food to eat, and help to heal wounds that bother us during the night. We finally arrived to a place where i knew everyone, including me would be safe. They were kind to us, and invited us into their house being very welcome. Before i knew it we traveled really far and we were now in Pennsylvania, traveling through Ohio. We were almost to freedom all we had to do was travel through New York and i knew everything would be alright. It would only take us one day to get there and i know with everyone being anxious we would get there. With all our hopes alive we would make it, and i was so right. After coming through Vermont, i could finally say we were free at last. I knew from then on me and the others, wouldn't have to go through anymore struggles and trials. I thanked Harriet Tubman for being so kind and taking the opportunity to give us a chance. I was no longer a slave, i was a free indivual and i thank GOD i made it this far. I'm finally free.== = =