Duncan

=//**Weird and/or** **Interesting**// //**Facts**//= By Duncan O'Brien

-Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (http://www.dysan.net/weird/show/646.html) -Walt Disney was afraid of mice. (http://www.dysan.net/weird/show/646.html) -

__Gone and Forgotten__
by Duncan O'Brien

Someone was shouting from far away, I couldn't make out what they were saying or where it was coming from, but all I know is that it was getting closer and closer. I saw people running off into the distance trying to get away from the white men, but most of them didn't make it. My dad and I were chained up in a line of people walking on to a ship up ahead. I was scared as some of the white men yelled at me and forced me to go on the ship. I didn't want to go on the ship. It was big and scary looking and smelled like puke that hasn't been cleaned up in days. Tears welled up in my eyes as I started to think about my mom and dad. My name is Balland and I'm 10 years old. I've lived in Africa my whole life with my dad. I didn't know much about my mom because she died when I was born. My dad didn't like to talk about her. For years I've been asking about her but the answer I always got was "It's to hard for me to talk about her." My dads name is Oso and he is 32 years old. He has been living in this village for most of his life. When he was young he use to live in a village far away from here. He said that this village is way better. He is now chief of the village and has been for the past 4 years now. I couldn't help myself from thinking about the good times we had together. It was a nice sunny day. It seemed like a perfect day too go play in the field, but my dad was going to take me fishing. I didn't like fishing because the fish were smelly and we never caught more than twenty fish a day. My dad was bringing a bag to put the fish in and I had to bring the net. The river was flowing rapidly like a stamped of animals running away from the predators that hid in the bushes. I could see fish trying to swim up the river, but it didn't look like the were going any were so I tried to grab one of them. But as soon as I reached out the fish swam like lightning bolt up the river. The fish had splashed me and the water was cold as ice. But it didn't feel so cold because it was so hot out. My dad was laughing at me because I got splashed by the fish. "That's not funny dad!" I said, madly. "It is to me." He said, still giggling. We walked down the river where my dad said the fishing was good. Their was a little pond right in the middle of the river where fish would just stay in the same spot. "This is the place Balland." He said, proudly. "How many fish do you think we'll catch?" I said, still I was looking around. "I don't know," He said. "but I think it'll be a lot." We stayed their for hours. We didn't know how many fish we caught, but it was a lot. He was showing me how to gut the fish, but wasn't listening. I was imagining I was a great hunter who had just brought back food that would last us the the whole winter, but that dream floated away like the blood of the fish in the river. "Balland!" Oso said, sounding angry. "Are you paying attention?" "Yes." I said, quietly. We started walking to our village. It was calm and seemed like a good day to go for a little walk. So we started walking down a narrow path, heading towards the sunset. The sun was shining directly at us and was very hard to see. It was beautiful to see the sunset. We sat on a rock and watched the sun until it went down. "We should start heading to our village." My dad said, calmly. "Yes." I replied. We started walking home, and I couldn't help fell that their was something different about where we were walking. The path seemed different, the trees looked different, and my dad was acting different. He was looking around wildly like he knew something was going to happen to us. I herd something in the bushes right next to us. I tried to think it was the wind but I knew in my heart that something bad was going to happen. "Run!" My dad yelled, but it was too late. I was trapped inside a net like the fish we caught. Oso was caught too. "Are we going to be okay, dad?" I said, softly. "I don't know Balland." He said, quietly. I saw men walk out of the bushes, the man in front looked very strong and was holding a club. "Tie them with the others!" The man in front yelled to the people behind him. "Where are you taking us!?" Oso yelled. "You will find out." The man in front replied. I watched the man in front hit my dad with the club over and over until my dad wasn't moving any more. I turned away and prepared myself for the hit, but they didn't hit me.

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We were walking to the bottom of the ship. On the way I saw a dead body laying on the floor. The body was motionless with flies flying over his head. The white men ordered us to lie down on the floor. I couldn't help myself from thinking about the dead body. My stomach aced and be for you know it I was throwing up all over myself. I couldn't do anything about it because my hands and legs were chained together. The smell of my puke was horrible.======

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"I've been spying on them for almost a year now." He said very proud. "One day when I was walking back to my camp, I saw them searching it saying take what ever you can. I had a whole bunch of anger and rage that I started to attack them. But they overpowered me in a matter of seconds. They hit me over the head with brown sticks that make very loud noises. The next thing you know I was chain up to everyone here."======

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A white man came down and made everyone stand up. He ordered us to start walking to the deck of the boat. When I looked out all I can see is huts with some sort of shining thing covering the window hole. They didn't have grass for roof tops or mud for walls they had red, square rocks covering the walls and wooden boards that swing in and out of the entrance. A man was standing on a flat surface raised in the air and yelling to a group of white men wearing fancy clothes. They put us in a line facing the white men wearing fancy clothes. Some of the men came up and touched me and my dad. I was scared but I didn't want to say anything to my dad because I was afraid something bad would happen to me.======

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The man on the table yelled out something and one of the white men replied. Two of the white men from the ship came over and pulled my dad, me and another guy to a wooden box with circle thing that make it move and big beasts pulling it. The beasts pulled us to a place with a huge field and people who looked like me working with sticks. Their was a huge, white, hut with the same things I saw on the other huts. Near the white hut their was another hut. It was a little bit bigger with big wooden doors in the front of it.====== "Dad." I said softly. "What?" He replied. "Are we going to be okay?" I said, as I looked at the chains around my hand and anckles. "I don't know." He said sadly.



It was getting harder and harder to work in the field because it was the begining of summer. The heat was beating down on me like a lion attacking its pray. Five people have died out here from too much heat. My dad and I were afraid we were next. But if we make it through today then we would be gone befor tomarrow. We hope to make it to escape so we can havve freedom in the north. It was only me and my dad leaving because if their was lots of us then we would get caught and whipped 50 times. "Dad, are we going to escape tonight?" I said like I was ready to escape right now. "Shhh, someone might hear you." He said, angery. "Okay," I replied. "but are we?" "Yes." He said, noding his head. The sun was going down and our master ordered us to head to the big hut. I was exsited and nourves at the same time. I was really hoping that we wouldn't get caught. My dad seemed nourves too so I didn't want to bother him. We were going to wait until everyone was sleeping when we made our escape. My dad and I looked across the field and waited for the right molment to make our escape. "Go!" My dad said, quietly. We ran as fast as we could across the big field. From behind I heared a guy yelling "Their escapeing! Their Escapeing!" over and over. I looked back and saw my master, at the front of his hut pointing a brown stick at me and my dad. I looked away and herd a loud BANG from behind me. Right as I herd the bang I also herd something hit the ground. I turn around really fast and saw my dad motionless on the ground. I didn't know what happened until I saw a hole in his back with blood coming out of it. I ran to him and neeled down next to him. "Dad!" I said with tear drops in my eyes. He was able to roll over and layed on his back. "Son," He said with blood coming out of his mouth. "Never forgget me." "I will never." I replied as I saw his head slowly lay back on the ground. I layed my head on his cheast and started crying. I stayed their until my master came over and draged me away from my dad. I looked up at a group of slaves picked him up and sang a song that would make sure he would rest in peace.

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Did you know that Europeans and Americans stole slaves from Africa? You might know that they made Africans slaves, but you might not know that they were taken against there will and if they disobeyed they were killed? This historical fiction story your about to read will give you a glimpse of what it was like to be a slave sold away from your family.=====

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**//What is the historical setting of this story?//** I've set this story in 1777, during the transatlantic slave trade, which was ships that stole 12-30 million slaves from Africa. The Americans needed the slaves to work for them unpaid on *plantations*. At the same time slaves were escaping and trying to get to the north for freedom, but they weren't free until they were put on trial and their owner can over and said their free or their not free. This affected slave owners, many of their slaves ran away from the plantations to the north to try to get freedom. =====

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**What is true in this story? Slave ships were real, as was slave owners/buyers. Slaves would get thrown off the if they were very sick or had just died. Slaves would get put up for rich white men to bid on them. It is true that slaves would try to escape; they would try to escape to the northern states, but if they were found they were found they were returned to their owners. Slaves on plantations who were not doing work or were working very slowly often got whipped 30-80 time on the back. ** =====

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**//What is fictional in this story? Balland is a fictional character, and so is his dad and all the slaves he meets. However, they are all based on real accounts of slavery and on real slaves who lived in the South Carolina plantations in that time. Ballands friend that he meets is fictional to. //** =====

"The slave market; What people saw." Accessed Fed. 5 2010. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASauctions.htm
 * __If you want to read more about these topics, I used these sources for my story__:**