CHAPTER 1

                                   UNDER ATTACK

    The smell of smoke was in the air. Everybody was screaming. The town was under attack by the American soldiers. Easther was scrambling away. He could smell burning wood from the fire all around him.

     “Mom, Dad!” he struggled to say, coughing the words out. He rushed under the canoe rack by the water, trying to hide himself from the American soldiers. Easther was just about to go under the rack when he heard a scream he would know anywhere. 

   Addi, his friend, was fighting with an American soldier. Easther rushed over to help her, grabbing a log on his way. He ran right up to the soldier and smacked him in the leg. Wails of pain were heard from the soldier. Blood came streaming out of his wounded leg. Just as he was about to bring Addi to his hiding place, another soldier appeared behind them and grabbed them. They twisted and turned, but couldn’t escape the man's firm grip. Then, the soldier tossed them into a boat and everything went black.

                      Chapter 2

                                   PLANTATIONS 

    Easther woke up and looked around. He was in a big boat. Addi walked up to him. 

    “How long have I been asleep for?” Easther asked Addi with confusion.

        “Three days,” Addi said in her soft voice. “In that time I made a new friend! Her name is Ada and she is thirteen.” 

        “Hi, I’m Ada,” the girl behind her said, with a smile on her face. I could tell that we were all weary from what had happened a few days ago. 

We decided to go back to sleep and try to gain back some of our strength.

        “GET OFF THE BOAT NOW!” a man shouted in a rough voice. Slowly, they walked off the boat. Easther and his friends were almost blinded by the light of the sun outside. There was a man waiting there with big dark brown eyes and brown, short hair. He owned a wagon and a horse. 

        “Load them up,” another man said in his musty, rough voice. Easther and his friends moved into the wagon.

       Soon the horse started to move along a dirt path. 

    “What are we going to do?,” Addi asked Easther. Easther didn’t know what to do. So he just said, 

    “Right now all we can do is wait.”

    When they got off at the plantation, the master told everybody to go straight to work. While Easther was working, he was thinking if they could try escaping to Pennsylvania. Maybe they could get back to Africa. The kids his age are forced to work in the fields in the area, which is bad. Easther learned from older slaves that when you are going to escape, you sing a song called, 

    “Let My People Go.” Easther started to hum it softly.