The Life of a Slave

  A young woman named Mindy had been a slave all her life. She had lived in Maryland with her brother, the only family she had left. She now had a child of her own with her husband who had been sold months ago. That morning she had been sold to a slave trader,  put in a cart and driven a long ways away from what she had always called home. When the cart finally came to a stop, she crawled out with her child in her arms. Mindy had to wait in a coffle for a couple of hours. She was finally unchained and lead behind a black man, up onto the action block. She knew she wouldn’t see her child ever again, and so she held him close and tried to hold back the tears. The man in front of her was sold. Now everyone was looking at her and the child in her arms. She couldn’t hold back the tears. They came streaming down her face, her head hurt and she felt dizzy. A man, older than her, came up and ripped her child out of her arms. She fell onto her knees. All she could do was cry as she watched him walk away with the only thing she had left.      After a minute another man, only a few years older than her, helped her down. He pulled her away and she never looked up until she was shoved into another cart. She was chained to the wooden sides, as the tears on her face dried and her cheeks felt sticky. Two more black women around her age were also chained to the cart. Mindy didn’t say a word and never looked up, to see the women faces just sorrowful as hers.