my life as a slave...
interviewed near north Carolina
interviewed by Eduardo Gonzalez...
age when interviewed: 111

dear people of tomorrow...

my name i Carl Johnson...they call me CJ for short..
my life begins on a winter day of November 11, of 1717
I was born on a small plantation off the shores of the Mississippi river...
i want you all to know that its awful living as a slave and that a man does not have the right to treat another human Bean as an object because all men are created equal

since i was a baby i was owned by one family
and my first masters name was Vladamir Vandyke...
i lived with my mother and father...they told me i had 12 brothers....which i only knew 2...
because the master would sell them separately...
my brothers were Jordan Johnson. 2 years older than me and Shannen Johnson... 4 years older than me....

we had good food, plenty of warm home made clothes,and a cabin...
the house where the masters lived in was called the great house...

no one was allowed there unless they were invited in.....
there were a total of around 60 slaves in that plantation
but out of those 60 only 5 got the easy job...
the others had to work night and day

i was luckily put in that list...
this is how this worked... the master had 3 children,Arthur,Christopher,and Elisabeth...
a wife named Mary...and him....
now he had a personal slave for himself,a and for her wife..
but he needed one for each of his sons...

on October 20, 1721 i was Mr. Vandyke took his sons to the cabin there each son chose their personal slave...Mr. Arthur at the time around 14 years old chose me...
and i was terrorize by the news....
well it turned out he wasn't such a bad master.... he treated me like another of his brothers...
since now Arthur was my master i would sleep in the grand house. one room in front of Arthur's.
i would have to wake up at 6:00 in the morning and hand him his coffee and his clothes for the day...
then my day was over... Mr. Arthur would leave to school and come back at around 9:00 pm...i would take off his shoes ask him about his day and then he would go to sleep..

one summer afternoon Mr. Vandyke takes my mom my dad and my tow brothers to a place the white folks referred to as big city..
he came back empty handed... according to one of the slaves...i was never gonna see them again... it hit me like a bucket of water...

i still lived with the hope of seeing them once again....

the years went by and the only thing i got out of living with Arthur was a small period of what you can call education.... i learned to read and write...

by 1740 i was 30 years old and Mr. Arthur was 50... that was the year my master married to a woman named Polly...had 3 kids and moved to Virginia...
of course i went with him...miss Polly was the meanest lady i ever new....
i knew that the next few years were going to be the worst of my life....
when Mr. Arthur wasn't home Polly would make a mess around the house and make me clean it....
wile i was doing that she would boil a bucket of water...and when i wasn't looking would trough the burning water at me...then when Mr.Arthur came back she would tell her that i had an accident wile cooking...it was the most pain full and antagonizing thing that i ever went through.....

another day i was dusting near the stairs and i was at the 3 floor of the house mean old Polly put her foot in front of mine and pushed me ....
i went rolling down the stairs... i broke 36 bones and injured my neck....
when Mr . Arthur came back she of course lied and told him i tripped down the stairs....

after 7 years of suffering old Polly broke Mr. Arthur's heart...
he came back from work and found Polly with another men in his bed...

Mr. Arthur left and told her he did not want to see anything of hers when he came back....
Ms.Polly was so mad she wanted to take it out on me but not this time...

she started heating a bucket of water on the 3rd floor kitchen...
i left her continue since i had my own plans... when the water was just ready..... she went to the kitchen and I followed her just steps way... she was about to pick up the bucket,
and i called her "Polly" i took out my pocket knife and carved my initials on her back...
then i grabbed the boiling water and threw it right in her face... she was screaming in pain...
still conscious i dragged her to the stairs and pushed her down...
i walked down and she was looking at me screaming for help.. i said "how does it feel?"
"not very good does it"
then i grabbed all her belongings and took her and her stuff to the nearest road i could remember...
there i told her to never come back.... she was then piked up by a passing car...
i never hear of her again...


the next few months Mr. Arthur was very sad and started to act violent towards his children
and towards me specially....
he started to whipped me ..

20 years passed by and he was 70 he then realized and told me....

that his brain had turned to mush an that i was no longer needed....
there on a February of 1770 he gave me my freedom......

i then went in such of my brothers.... i never found them....

the years passed by and i keep getting older ....i just kept my age to my self until now...
now i await to meet my mother father and siblings in the promised land...........................................................................................................