Charles Margerison - Amazing Slaves

Welcome to this inspirational eBook, which provides you with a unique and fascinating collection of life stories. It is part of a series developed by the Amazing People Club, written in the form of a BioView, which is a short name for a biographical interview. A BioView is a new concept that reveals amazing stories, as if the person has given an interview about their life. Each of the stories can normally be read in around five to ten minutes. They are based on the known facts of each individuals life, plus what they may have felt about their experiences. The unique format and flow enables each persons story to come alive, as if it is being personally told to you.

Each one of them reflects the interests, emotions and passions linked to the amazing persons achievements. They are stories that can provide inspiration and ideas for your own journey through life and we hope you will enjoy them. The career notes at the end of each story supply information on each persons life, reflecting their achievements and some of the recognition they have received. They provide the background to the stories, and an easy way of learning about people who made major contributions to our world. The stories show how ordinary people did extraordinary things to tackle problems and opportunities. Amazing people all had one thing in common.

Rather than accepting the situation before them, they developed and implemented plans of action to make improvements. We can all learn from their experiences and the ways they dealt with the challenges and, in this eBook, you can understand their troubles and triumphs. To learn more about the Amazing People Club books and audios, please visit www.amazingpeopleclub.com .

We cannot choose our parents However, if we are free, we can choose our own path Therefore, my first task was to gain freedom Being born into a family of slaves, it was not easy My mother was Harriet Bailey, but I did not know my father I was born at Holme Hill Farm, Talbot County, Maryland White folks, of course, were in charge They knew that reading and writing were a source of power As the son of a slave, I was forbidden to learn such skills With the stroke of a pen, I could be sold Indeed, my whole family could be separated Once sold to many different owners we may never see each other again With letters and notes, white people had control and gave orders To the slaves, those documents were in a foreign language It was a complicated code that we did not understand We could only communicate by word of mouth That was dangerous Loose talk could lead to severe punishments If we wanted our freedom, we needed to work together Reading and writing were essential skills The chances of me learning those skills was very low There were no schools on the slave plantation where I was born Shortly after my birth, I was separated from my mother Not sure if she was sold or escaped She named me Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey For some years, my grandmother, Betty Bailey, reared me No one told me who my father was Playing with the other slave children was how I learnt Outdoor practical games that built our strength The strength we would need to work in the fields Then, my life began to change At the age of seven, I was sent to Wye House Plantation The overseer there was Aaron Anthony, a white man Some people suggested that he was my father As there were no papers, who knows? From the start, I was given various jobs Work replaced play When Aaron Anthony died, another change occurred Thomas Auld became my slave master He sent me to Baltimore to work for his brother, Hugh Auld At that time, I was about 12 years old His wife, Sophia, was kind to me One day, she made a decision to break the law She started to teach me how to read For that act of kindness, I was always grateful It was hard to understand the letters, but I tried hard Her husband found a book in which I had written some words He was very angry You are not allowed to read or write, he screamed at me Then, he shouted at his wife Do you realize, you are breaking the law? If people find out we will be in trouble Of course, he was right If I could read, I might learn things of importance Maybe I could use my knowledge to gain freedom However, the slave masters wife had given me the basics It was the start that I needed White children could read and write In my meetings with them, I learnt more Also, I began to decipher notes that were written at work Eventually, I was able to read a newspaper The Columbian Orator was also valuable Important political ideas and philosophies A source of inspiration that gave me hope Suddenly, a new world was opening up A move to another owner proved to be a changing point I was hired out to a Mr Freeman, who read the Bible Being a religious man, he wanted slaves to do the same Therefore, he helped me learn how to read it Each Sunday, I attended church It was the best, and only, school I had More slaves joined the congregation We arranged meetings, to help each other learn to read Also, we began to understand how to write Soon, there were more than 40 slaves attending They came from different plantations We were able to compare notes on conditions Clearly, Mr Freeman was a good man, compared to most In contrast, one of the slaves said his master was very angry He was visiting other slave owners to stop our church attendance His objection was to the tuition in reading, not to the service Shortly afterwards, many slave owners invaded the church They drove the slaves out with sticks and bats That was the end of my lessons in reading and writing In 1833, I was recalled by Thomas Auld to his plantation It was like going back in time He rented me out to Edward Covey, a poor farmer That put fear into me, as he was known as a slave breaker Indeed, that is what he attempted and I was whipped For any reason, he would physically abuse me The torture was as much to my mind as to my body I felt at a low ebb and breaking point Should I run or rebel? There was nowhere that I could run to, so I rebelled Aged 16, I was just about strong enough to do so Therefore, the next time I was attacked, I defended myself Covey realized my strength and never attacked me after that It also made me realize that I had to escape Having learnt to read and write, I wanted my freedom Therefore, in 1836, I left Coveys plantation The plan was not sufficiently well thought out On being captured, I was returned and punished The next time, I resolved to do it better!! It took nearly two years to organize I was sent to work in a Baltimore shipyard Working as a caulker, I was able to keep some of my wage I used some of the money to join an organization The East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society A young lady called Anna Murray was a member She gave me a kind welcome and we talked My parents were manumitted, so I was born free, she said You are fortunate, I replied and told her my story At the next meeting, I told her a secret Anna, I want to escape from slavery, I whispered Before long we were good friends and developed a plan I can sell some furniture, she said With the money, we can buy you a sailors uniform You could use that when you are ready to escape It seemed a wild idea But we decided to try it, as Anna knew a retired sailor Also, he still had some old official travel papers Anna did a deal with him on my behalf On September 3 rd 1838, I was ready and made my escape Instead of running through the forests, I took a train