1. Who are you? (Name, Age)
2. Where are you? (Location in USA)
3. What is the date?(a specific date as well as one contemporary event from the periods to give your narrative historical context)
4. In your experience, does our democratic government establish equality among Americans? (Explain your answer)
5.What are the challenges to equality that you or those around you experience? How are those challenges overcome?
My name is Maria Weems. I am writing the story of how I got to Canada, escaping from my horrible past slave-owners. You see, when I was twelve I was sold to a slave trader from Rockville, Maryland named Charles M. Price. My master’s house was never a home to me. Mr. Price was a heavy drinker and became violent when drunk. Mrs. Price was also harsh. I was determined to become free, like some of my relatives who had been bought freedom by abolitionists. But being determined to become free was not unnoticed by my slave-owner, he was determined to keep me close. The Prices even made me sleep in their bedroom on the floor because they were afraid that I would run away. A wealthy Quaker lawyer named Charles Bigelow tried to free me by trying to purchase me for $700, Mr. Price just laughed at the offer. Mr. Bigelow was worried; he turned to the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. So the plan was formed that one night while the Prices were sleeping I would run away. I was disguised in male attire as I took on the persona of “Joe Wright” the stagecoach driver of a doctor who had been sent from the Anti-Slavery Society. We stopped at a friend of the doctor’s once to rest and stay the night, the doctor had proclaimed he had stomach illness and therefore needed me to sleep in the same room as him to help him when needed. His friend was a slave-owner and the doctor had not wanted me to converse to the slaves of the friend about our excursion. When arriving at Canada, abolitionists in hiding rejoiced upon hearing that I had escaped from the Prices, apparently my story was well known amongst them. I never understood why I had been sold as a slave in 1869. Because, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, stating, “that all person held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free.” That same year, Lincoln issued the Gettysburg Address. He gave a brief speech, he spoke of “a new birth of freedom”, referring to equality in America in the Declaration of Independence. It transformed the Civil Rights War from a war for Union but a war for Union and freedom. I was sold 6 years after the documents were issued. Saying that white people did not listen to their president, their leader, the one they chose to lead them in a time of separation, segregation, and just plain confusion. They asked for his advice and he gave it, but somehow they did not receive it until later in life. I have seen many fight and die for their freedom, I cannot say whether or not equality will ever truly exist in America. Chances are people will still be prejudice to those different from them, whether it’s for their religion, how they act, their way of life, their language or skin color. Equality is a dream, a hope man created thinking that there are people who are just like him and didn’t care about his social status or wealth, that he was not alone in this world. Equality might exist, but it’s very hard to find.
Citations
Beschloss, Michael. Our Documents. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
Carbone, Elisa L. Stealing Freedom. N.p.: Random House Children's Books, 1998. Print.
Hoose, Phillip. We Were There, Too! USA: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2001. Print.
Prince, Bryan. A Shadow on the Household: One Enslaved Family's Incredible Struggle for Freedom. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2009. Print.
Wagner, Tricia Martineau. It Happened on the Underground Railroad. N.p.: Morris Book Publishing, 2007. Print.
Maria Weems, age 16
ReplyDeleteFebruary 24, 1873
Ontario, Canada
My name is Maria Weems. I am writing the story of how I got to Canada, escaping from my horrible past slave-owners. You see, when I was twelve I was sold to a slave trader from Rockville, Maryland named Charles M. Price. My master’s house was never a home to me. Mr. Price was a heavy drinker and became violent when drunk. Mrs. Price was also harsh. I was determined to become free, like some of my relatives who had been bought freedom by abolitionists. But being determined to become free was not unnoticed by my slave-owner, he was determined to keep me close. The Prices even made me sleep in their bedroom on the floor because they were afraid that I would run away. A wealthy Quaker lawyer named Charles Bigelow tried to free me by trying to purchase me for $700, Mr. Price just laughed at the offer. Mr. Bigelow was worried; he turned to the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. So the plan was formed that one night while the Prices were sleeping I would run away.
I was disguised in male attire as I took on the persona of “Joe Wright” the stagecoach driver of a doctor who had been sent from the Anti-Slavery Society. We stopped at a friend of the doctor’s once to rest and stay the night, the doctor had proclaimed he had stomach illness and therefore needed me to sleep in the same room as him to help him when needed. His friend was a slave-owner and the doctor had not wanted me to converse to the slaves of the friend about our excursion. When arriving at Canada, abolitionists in hiding rejoiced upon hearing that I had escaped from the Prices, apparently my story was well known amongst them.
I never understood why I had been sold as a slave in 1869. Because, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, stating, “that all person held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free.” That same year, Lincoln issued the Gettysburg Address. He gave a brief speech, he spoke of “a new birth of freedom”, referring to equality in America in the Declaration of Independence. It transformed the Civil Rights War from a war for Union but a war for Union and freedom. I was sold 6 years after the documents were issued. Saying that white people did not listen to their president, their leader, the one they chose to lead them in a time of separation, segregation, and just plain confusion. They asked for his advice and he gave it, but somehow they did not receive it until later in life. I have seen many fight and die for their freedom, I cannot say whether or not equality will ever truly exist in America. Chances are people will still be prejudice to those different from them, whether it’s for their religion, how they act, their way of life, their language or skin color. Equality is a dream, a hope man created thinking that there are people who are just like him and didn’t care about his social status or wealth, that he was not alone in this world. Equality might exist, but it’s very hard to find.
Citations
Beschloss, Michael. Our Documents. New York, New York: Oxford University Press,
2003. Print.
Carbone, Elisa L. Stealing Freedom. N.p.: Random House Children's Books, 1998.
Print.
Hoose, Phillip. We Were There, Too! USA: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2001. Print.
Prince, Bryan. A Shadow on the Household: One Enslaved Family's Incredible
Struggle for Freedom. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2009.
Print.
Wagner, Tricia Martineau. It Happened on the Underground Railroad. N.p.: Morris
Book Publishing, 2007. Print.