Z1-NightJohn++journal

Chapter 1 journal entry (13-19) It is very hard to impress the master. He wants you to do every thing to meet his standards. I feel sorry when I see everyone in the fields when it is hot and even when it is cold. The master has I out there in the garden making sure it is growing right. Sometimes he has me in the chicken coop gathering eggs. At night I lay on the pallet thinking about my mother and asking questions like was she dark skinned, was she tall and other things. I have to clean the yard around the quarters. And sometime when i don't work to hard I will lie down and think about things. Clel Waller is my father he thinks he is a mast or the boss he is nothing. Chapter 2-3 Journal entry (20-32) On this part of the story Sarny had to chew tobacco and spit it out to kill the bugs. I said that the tobacco made her stomachs hurt. When I was walking under the window the ladies in the house saying that if Waller keeps buying thing that sooner or later they will go broke. And then she remembered when was working she found a penny. And she said that she can't read money but she knows that it 1,000 dollars is more that 1 penny. And even more than 100 pennies. When they are in the house she said that her mammy will get the kettle that they eat out of and prey in it, so no one will hear her. Chapter 3 journal entry (32-41) I was laying down when John walked in and got in the corner by the kettle and sat there. When he sat there he said who have some tobacco he needs some. And I know that she still have some tobacco and she was going to keep it until someone was willing to trade her for it. That’s when John said that he will trade them for some and she go up and went by him. He said that he will give her some letters. I asked him what are letters, he told her that they are something that you read so she asked him to come with her to a spot where a little light was showing and wrote100 and he told her that it is numbers not letters and he told her if she gives him some tobacco he will teach her how to read Chapter 4 journal entry (42-58) When a girl named Alice was little she was a beautiful little girl. They said that when she grows up that and she start working in the fields that she will be a beautiful girl with a nice body. One day she was going to sell her. But when she got bigger she was very cute. They made took her in a place, tied her to a chair, and raped her. When they did that she was mopping around and not doing the work as she used to do. And one day she was walking and she went by the white house. We are never supposed to go in the white house. When she went in there the master Shaw her and took her in the spring house and made everyone watch her get beat. He beat her very bad, he beat her until her skin started to pill off. When he got finished beating her with the black cotton gin belt, he made Mammy take her and rub salt in the wounds to make it hurt worse and also to clean the wounds. Chapter 5 journal entry (59-77) I got to learn her first family of letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G. With those letters she got to make her first word it is bag. I was so excited that she was making it everywhere. I made it by the white house and Waller came out and saw me writing it. I didn't know he was behind me, so he put his hand on my shoulder and asked me what I was doing in the dirt. At first I didn't answer him but then I lied to him and told him that it was something i saw on a sack that I was carrying. He doesn't believe me. Then he punched me in the head, I started to see lights. When he kicked me a couple of times then I ran in the quarters with mammy. When Waller came in he grabbed me by the arm and looked at mammy and asked her who is teaching me how to read. At first I thought she was going to tell him that John was teaching me but she said that she doesn't know. Then he took her and drug her to the spring house. He hung her there and then left her in and he went into the house. I walked in there and told her that I Thought that she was going to tell then I told her that she was going to get whipped as I was crying. Chapter 6, 7, and words (78-92) the day after Waller punishes John, he just sit there and stare at the ceiling. Then he said something to me, he told me that the next letter was H and then he told me to get him some rawhide so that he could make him some shoes. Then Mammy came in and I thought that she was going to yell at him but she came in with a large smile then she said that you are still teaching her you know what Waller is going to do if he catches you. You don't have a lot more toes. Then he told me to get him lard and pepper so when he runs away the dogs smell will get thrown off and they couldn't find him. The next day he left, when he left I only could have A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. that means that I still only have enough to be on two hands. Now John has been gone for a long time. While he is gone I just think about what he had told me about before he left. Then when I was lying down I saw him. I saw John he was sit beside me. He told me to come on and follow him we were going somewhere. I asked him where we are going. He told me that we were going to school then he said that we need to go fast because we need to get back before the first light shows. So he took me to the back of the field and then we went into the woods it was very dark. I couldn't see anything then he whistled and I saw lights. It was torches then I saw 4 people holding them. Out of nowhere I saw people lots of kids. Then he told me that he will need my help to him and that is the end of the book.