A Harsh New Beginning

Matt Slaby

Bryan Wegner

It was July 3rd, 1832 and the heat was becoming unbearable. Our owners were enjoying the shade inside their big homes while us workers lived outside on the hard ground on itchy so called blankets. There were about twenty of us in the same small area, but we have learned to realize this is our life and this is the way its going to be. Though these harsh conditions were hard to deal with, we understood that we were a big family that worked for the same people.

It seems as though the past week had been quite hard for our plantation owners. It seemed as though the war of Cabanos had an effect on them. It seemed as though the price of cotton and cane sugar was declining due to the financial difficulties in which the new regime was facing. Foreign trade was almost at a stalemate and our owners were loosing large amounts of money.
This scared me very much because the last time our owners were having a hard time, they began selling slaves to make money. A few years ago our plantation owners were loosing money due to a drought in the area and as a result of these difficulties they sold three of my good friends to another plantation in the Vale do Paraiba. This area was known for their numerous large coffee plantations, in which i have known many friends that have been sold their in the past.

It's July 5th, and the difficulties continued. Our owners were becoming quite upset and were taking much of their anger out on us workers. The verbal abuse was very relevant at all times and it seemed as though the already harsh conditions were becoming even worse. The heat was still very intense and working in the fields was becoming very brutal. Our plantation was one that was known for the production of cotton and cane sugar which of course was loosing its value due to the War of Cabanos, so not only was our owners loosing money due to the war, but the plantation was also loosing it's buyers.

It's July 7th, and a slave trader just showed up to the gate of the plantation. I knew this day was rapidly approaching but I wasn't quite ready for the outcome. The slave trader was greeted at the door by our owner and they immediatly began negotiating. Us workers were all very worried about the outcome of this trade, we didnt want our family to be broken apart at all.
It was time to find out who stayed and who was leaving, the slave trader walked into our quarters and grabbed three of my good friends before walking over to me and grabbing my hand. I was traded away from the only plantation and family i've ever known.

I was tied with my hands behind my back in the back of a wheeled wagon headed somewhere I would soon call home. I had never been outside the gates of my plantation and was amazed by the scenary as we rode along the rocky road. All i could hope for as i headed towards my new destiny, was that i could make this new place my home. I felt that as long as i was with my friends who were also traded that this new environment would be nothing new.
As we arrived at our new home, i realized very quickly that this place was not like the old. Brazil is known for their production of cane sugar and mining and it had seemed that we were not at a plantaion, but a mine.

Three days later, i had come to the conclusion that slaves at this mine were a dime a dozen, fore in the last few days ten's of my new friends had died while working in the dust filled mines. I realized that my new owners cared nothing about us slaves, as long as we retrieved their daily productions. I missed my old home very much, not only because of the people i had left behind but because of the conditions in which we lived there. I had thought we were treated poorly in the plantation, but now i realize that I had it good.