Escape
As time progressed, the idea of freedom Raped became more and more real. One day, John Andrew bought a pony from one of the slaves on a neighboring plantation. When the mistress found out, she threatened to have the pony killed, and asked two of her son-in-laws to get rid of it. Hearing of the jeopardy of his pony, John hid the pony until Christmas. On Christmas Day, John took his pony and rode off from his plantation never to see his mother or father again. As he rode off to Boston, he ran into many white people who asked where he was off, to where John would respond that he was on his way to his plantation. John made it to the Santé Fe River where he boarded a small ship that was being run by a black man. John and his pony were dropped near land, but had to struggle upstream in order to reach it. After almost drowning, John and his pony made it to shore.
Then, John heard about a special badge that all African Americans had to produce in order to prove they were allowed to be free. John, not having a badge, sold his pony to buy a cloak to hide from patrolmen. The cloak worked to his advantage till he was able to find a ship to Boston.
When John found a ship heading to Boston, he tried to board but the crewmen refused to let John on board. The crewmen were afraid that he was working for a white man and trying to set them up. After being refused passage, John hid in a five by three foot box that was loaded onto the ship and put in the lower levels. Eventually the crewmen found him and threatened to unload him on the next ship. There never was another ship, and John made it to Boston safely.
From Boston, John Andrew went on to settle in Salem, Massachusetts. Once settled, he sought to purchase his family members still enslaved. He sent a letter to inquire about his family, and shortly after it was received, a slave agent was sent to search for him. Jackson avoided capture and was assisted by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who gave him food, clothes, and five dollars. He left Salem for Canada.
Read more about this topic: John Andrew Jackson
Famous quotes containing the word escape:
“We must understand how to hide in darkness in order to escape the gnat-swarms of utterly annoying admirers.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The struggle of literature is in fact a struggle to escape from the confines of language; it stretches out from the utmost limits of what can be said; what stirs literature is the call and attraction of what is not in the dictionary.”
—Italo Calvino (1923–1985)
“However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)