By: Madison Trent and Morgan Pritts

My name is Georgia, I was twelve years old at the time. I was on a slave ship headed to North America while being treated like I was unnecessary cargo. We were all chained from head to toe next to each other. It was a bitter three months. The smell of vomit wreaked through the tiny ship. Lots of people were sea sick, luckily, I had a strong stomach. Our numbers decreased day by day from unknown diseases of all sorts. Some people were very weak and no one cared so they just took them up top and no one knew what they did with them after that.

There was a young boy sitting to my left and an older woman to my right. The older woman always tried to look on the bright side of things. She was always teaching us songs of the happier times. Each day the young boy became skinnier and frailer.  At times it was hard to fall asleep, but one day I did and it felt like only for a few minutes. I was awoken by the screaming of an old man in front of me and the crying of the older woman next to me. I looked to my left only to find empty chains lying on the floor.

Later, I asked the woman what happened, she said they took him up to the top. After that she didn’t know what happened. The old man was screaming because he was afraid. They told him he was next. Whatever that meant.

One particular day a woman who was pregnant, started screaming. She was over near the far side of the ship, so I couldn’t see her, I just heard her. My guess was that the baby she was carrying was ready to come out, but where was her help? She could not do anything because of the chains and nobody was coming to her. The baby was born that night, but with no sound. The slave traders took the baby and the mother up to the top. They were never seen again, but the smell added to the numerous smells, which made the aroma even worse.  

I was starving for I hadn’t eaten in weeks, maybe months, it was hard to keep track. I felt sicker by the minute. I tried my best to stay well and happy but, it was hard since the older woman had gotten sick too. I was afraid they were going to take us up to the top.

After several months on the treacherous trip we finally reached North America. The older woman and I had been kept together until, her very last breath, one month later. It definitely had not been worth all that time. We were put on a plantation and were whipped all the time. At least they had given us food but, this is the end of the line for me. I never did find out what became of the boy next to me.