Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group Member Acahia Phillips ETH/125 June 12, 2011 Susan Harwood

My name is Lucile and I am an 11 year old African American. I was born a slave, and have been a slave my whole life until now. My family and I are the rare lucky ones. For as long as I can remember, we have lived on a plantation. Most slave families wereseparated because of their owners, but we are owned by the same family. We were told that we have to get on a ship. It has been very difficult and confusing for me these past few months. My family and I have had to move to the Americas on a boat. This situation has been difficult to deal with because my family and I have been together for most of my life. Most of my family has been separated, but I am still here with my mother and sister. The men and boys are on another boat, but I am not able to see them. I do not understand or even know why we are moving from the plantation, but we were told we had to go. According to Matthew Kane ( 2001), "There were many instances on board ships where slaves had thrown themselves over board, thus committing suicide and ensuring a life away from the slave trade. (Slave facts, para. 2)Not very many things have change for us slaves in the Americas. When I try to use the restroom it always turns out that I am using the wrong one. Everything I use is different than what is of our owners, and their race use. Everything is label whites only or blacks only, I am too young to fully understand why that is. My only hope is that in the future things will one day change. I dream of a place where everyone is no longer segregated. Where it will not matter what color you are to use the bathroom just simply male or female. I currently attend an all-black school. I used to have a Caucasian friend who kept me company, but we could no longer be friends because we had reached an older age and mainly because she was not my race. Everywhere I go and everything I do I have to do with my own race because interacting with other races is not permitted here in the Americas just like when we were in Africa.

My mother tells me many tales all the time about our ancestors and how it came to be this way. She tells me that our history starts a long time ago when our ancestors, the first slaves from Africa, were brought from Africa on a Dutch ship. She also told me that an English Colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia years before the ship sailed. The slaves were branded with hot irons and restrained with shackles. Their "living quarters" was often a deck within the ship that had less than five feet of headroom -- and throughout a large portion of the deck, sleeping shelves cut this limited amount of headroom in half.4 Lack of standing headroom was the least of the slaves' problems, though. With 300 to 400 people packed in a tiny area5 -- an area with little ventilation and, in some cases, not even enough space to place buckets for human waste -disease was prevalent. ( PBS, n.d.). According to Eddie Becker ( 1999), "Before the war a child would sell for about $50.00, a man at $1,000-$1,800 and a woman from $500 to $1,500.00 ( 1830, para. 2). She told me that she overheard our slave master saying that we slaves are essential to the economy of Virginia, which is where we lived. Apparently, there was another race that used to be slaves also but is not as much anymore. Natives of Americas were previously just like us, but because of reason we do not know they are not really slaves now. They were slaves mostly in the South Americas. After hearing all of these stories, I became angry. I did not understand why all of this was happening to us. My mother comforts me by telling me that one day things will change, and we will not be slaves anymore. I can only imagine such a day. I asked her how this will happen. She simply told me that one day people will see us as equals. That means that we will be able to eat at the same place, play together and use the same restrooms, and also be friends no matter the color of our skin. I talk to my mother often because I do not know when she will be taken away from me and then I will be all alone. One time I went into the wrong bathroom an older lady saw me and

told my slave master. I was beaten, and I thought I would lose my family because of the mistake that I had made. I have seen it happen before in other families. It happens all of the time and I was afraid. I did not lose my family, butmy mother had to show me which restroom to use again. I do not understand why I have to use that bathroom. It is dirtier than the white bathroom. It smells very bad, and does not really work at all. The white bathroom is so much better and cleaner than ours. I ask my mother why we have to have different bathrooms because I do not understand what makes us different. She tells me that it is just the way it is. After all of that I just try enjoy the time that I have to myself. I imagine a future when things are no longer separate this way. Hopefully that happens one day soon. Maybe I will be the one to do it. African Americans experienced segregation in cruel treatment in slavery for almost two century long.President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."(U.S. National Archives & Records Administration, n.d.).

Reference Page Matthew Kane. (2001). Slave Facts. Retrieved from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_kane/index.htm PBS. (n.d.). Africans in America Part 1. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html Eddie Becker. (1999). Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism. Retrieved from http://innercity.org/holt/chron_1830_end.html U.S. National Archives & Records Administration. (n.d.). Featured Documents. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/