From Slave To Freedom Essay, Research Paper

This is a story about an African-American woman who died when she was 110 years old. My story will tell about how one woman went from a slave named Ticey to a legend by the name of Jane Pitman.

A slave girl named Ticey was going about her normal everyday duties when she heard the sound of slow, tired horse hooves coming down the path of the plantation she lived on. Then she saw them. Through all the cuts, bruises and battle wounds she could tell they were the Confederate soldiers. Her master saw them at the same time and yelled at her to get them some water. Ticey showed no fear when the soldiers took the water from her so greedily.

All of the sudden a soldier galloped into the camp shouting something like, “The Yankees are coming! They were right behind me, and they’re coming this way!” During this time there was a war going on, which was the Civil War, for the freedom from slavery. There were the Confederates who thought that the black people were not equal to whites and should remain slaves. Yankees on the other hand believed that all men were created equally including the slaves. Recovering from the first battle the Confederates were trying their best to stay on the run until they were ready to battle again. Therefore the soldiers got on their horses and galloped away as quickly as they could.

As soon as they left Ticey’s master ordered her to keep silent about the Confederate soldiers stopping there to rest. When the Yankees, arrived they were all very kind to Ticey, especially the captain. He told her that she could choose any name she wanted instead of the slave name she had. Given some suggestions, Ticey picked the name Jane. The captain told her that, that was to be her name until she grew up and that if, when she grew up if she ever wanted to live in Ohio she was always welcome. She ended up telling him about the Confederates and which way they went. His men were ordered to pack up when he heard this. They thanked Jane and Jane’s master and headed off.

In the next few days everything went by normally, but about a week later the master of the plantation called everyone to a meeting in front of the house. Jane knew it was going to be something big that he had to say because he was wearing his best suit.

First he got everyone to be silent and to pay attention to him and then someone handed him a scroll and he started to read. It said that all slaves were to be freed. When he was finished, he told everyone that they could stay if they wanted to and help work the land. Just about everyone dropped what work tools they had in their hands and walked away. On the next day the people that were in charge of the plantation provided provisions for the now free black people’s journey.

Everybody traveled together and slept together in one area peacefully until one morning while everyone was still asleep inside an old barn people in white masks came in and killed everyone. Luckily Jane and a little boy named Ted hid and were saved but they had to witness the killings. Ted and Jane came out of their hiding spot when the K.K.K. left. Everyone in Jane’s and Ted’s family were dead, so Jane decided to adopt Ted. There were flint rocks sitting on a blanket so Jane took them and placed them inside Ted’s hand and told him that if anyone ever asked they were just plain old rocks.

After the massacre Jane decided that she was going to go to Ohio with Ted. On their way they met a lot of people, some which helped them and pointed them in the right direction and some people who told them to get away and threw things at them.

One day they met a black man who told them that he would take them close to the Mississippi River because that is as far as he thought they would get. Where he dropped them off was not that close to the Mississippi River, but he told them to get off, so Jane and Ted started to walk again. Wide as the Mississippi River was, Jane and Ted were unable to cross it, so they stayed at a plantation until they grew up.

Ted started to call Jane Mama and Jane accepted him as her son. Jane was very proud of Ted when…

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