"Sarah! Go to bed!" Sarah was not in the mood to go to bed. She was reading a really engaging book about Harriet Tubman and her life helping slaves escape to freedom.  

Sarah marched unwillingly upstairs to her room. She got ready for bed and placed the book about Harriet Tubman under her pillow. 

******** 

"Tap, tap, tap..." 

"What?" groaned Sarah in her sleep. 

"Tap, tap, tap...." 

"What is that noise?" Sarah very sleepily found her way downstairs. She went over to the front door and peeked out the hole. 

"No one is there. What is that noise?" asked Sarah to herself. She looked at the clock to see what time it was. "What? That's not our clock." She looked around some more. "This isn't our house!" 

"Tap, tap, tap..." The taps were getting faster and faster. "Missy, let us in! The dogs are comin! Hurry! Please!" 

"What, who is it?" asked Sarah uneasily. 

"It's Harriet, now please let us in!" 

Just then a woman came gliding down the staircase straight to the door.  She opened it and let a group of negros into the room. 

"Gracious Annabelle, get off the carpet! And you know to always let Harriet and the other slaves in. Now move so I can open the hideaway door. Them dogs are a comin!" 

"Annabelle? thought Sarah to herself.  "What?" 

"Knock, Knock, Knock!" There came a loud knock on the door right when the woman closed the hideaway door and fixed the carpet. 

"Annabelle, sweetheart, answer that please." 

"Yes ma'am." Sarah opened the door and in paraded several large men with smug looks on their faces and ropes in their hands. 

"Pardon me madam, but have you seen any runaway slaves wanderin around here?" 

"No sir!" answered the woman. 

"Can we have a look around anyway?" 

"Yes sir," responded the woman. She sat down and started playing a tune on her piano. 

Sarah didn't know what was going on or what to do, so she sat down in a comfy armchair and drifted off to sleep. 

If and when the men left, Sarah did not know until she woke up. The woman was down in the hideaway handing the soon to be free slaves warmer clothing. 

"Annabelle, go upstairs and get yourself dressed and ready to leave. We have a trip to Philadelphia that we need to make shortly." 

Sarah went upstairs and found a dress lying on the bed. She quickly put it on and hurried back downstairs. 

"Hi, my name is Tojak." A boy about Sarah's age walked up behind her. He was part of the group of slaves. 

"Hi, I'm Sa... I mean Annabelle." 

"Are you nervous about going across the bridge?" asked Tojak. 

Sarah remembered something in her book about slave wagons having to cross a bridge to enter Pennsylvania to become free. Crossing the bridge was the most dangerous part of the journey because men would check the wagon, and if they found slaves in the wagon, then the slaves would go back to their owner and the person driving the wagon would go to jail. "Yeah. It is the worst part of the trip."  Sarah told Tojak. 

"I don't want to go back to being a slave. It is horrible. My older brother told me that when you're free, you can choose to do the kind of work you want to do and the whites don't whip ya." Sarah felt badly for Tojok. She could not imagine what it would be like to live in a tiny one room house and work all day long, hardly getting any food. 

"Annabelle, hurry and help me get the wagon ready." The woman led Sarah out a door and into a small garage-like room. At the far side of the room was a large wagon and beside it was a pile of bricks and a huge pile of hay. 

Then the slaves cam into the room. One by one they piled into the wagon. When it was Tojak's turn to get into the wagon he asked Sarah, "Hey, maybe you could come in the wagon with us. It would be fun." 

Sarah asked the woman and she said it would be OK, this one time, if they promised to be quiet. They agreed and Sarah and Tojak climed into the wagon. 

***** 

It was not very comfortable in the back of the wagon, but Sarah had a fun time whispering to Tojak. Harriet got mad and told them to be quiet. 

Soon the ride was coming to an end. Sarah could tell that Tojak was getting nervous and one man in the wagon threatened to leave but Harriet told him to stay put or else she would shoot him. 

The wagon was pulling to a stop. They were at the bridge to cross into Pennsylvania. Then they heard voices and a sharp metal spear poked through the sides of the hay. 

"OK, You can go." 

Sarah could see a sunny smile spread across Tojak's frightened face. The slaves were finally free! 

***** 

After a few more miles the wagon pulled up behind a bunch of trees. The woman cleared the hay from the top of the wagon and let everyone out of the back. 

"I hope you have a good time being free," Sarah said to Tojak once he was out of the wagon. 

"I'm sure I will. I can't wait to wake up in the mornin' and know that me and my family are free." 

"I will miss you," said Sarah. 

"I will miss you too....Hey I have a great idea!" Tojak suddenly burst out.  

"What?" 

"We did it when my brother Sam was sold and had to go to another plantation. I give you something and you give me something special. That way we will always be together as long as we have each others special gift." 

"Perfect! What should we trade? It has to be something special." 

Tojak pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. "My momma gave me this little sculpture of an elephant when she had to leave Africa. I could give you that if you promise to take care of it,"suggested Tojak. He handed her the miniture carving of the elephant. 

"This is really incredible. I promise to take good care of it. Hmmm... I know! I could give you my lucky penny. I found it on the road by my house. Whenever I have it with me I have good luck," Sarah handed Tojak a penny from the year 1995. (Oh well, maybe he will not notice) thought Sarah to herself. 

"Now we will be friends forever." 

"Come on Tojak. We have to get to Philadelphia before dawn," said Harriet. 

"Well, I'll see ya later Annabelle. I will keep your penny with me all the time," said Tojak. 

"Yeah. I'll always remember you. See ya later," said Sarah. 

"Yeah, maybe. It could happen." 

"Bye." 

"Bye." 

The emancipated slaves and Harriet Tubman strolled down the road happily. They were free! 

Sarah got onto the wagon. She clutched the ivory elephant figurine tightly in her hand, and fell asleep. 

***** 

When Sarah woke up the next morning she was in her own bed. "Wow, what a dream." She was getting out of bed when she sat on something hard and sharp.  "What?... No way. An ivory elephant? Tojak?" Sarah got up and went over to her desk. She looked for her lucky penny. It was gone....  

<Back to top> 

Alizabeth Anne Bronsdon 
wrote this story in Spring '95. She was given the line "Tap at the window" by her teacher and came up with the story herself. She wrote it in two 45 min. periods. 
 
 

Did you know that... Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1820. 

In 1844 she married John Tubman, a free black. In about 1849, before the Civil War started, she made 19 trips to lead an estimated 300 slaves to Canada along a hidden route known as the Underground railroad. 

She was known as the Moses of her people. 

 
 Harriet Tubman 
 
 
The Underground Railroad 
Click for larger image. 
 
 

Related topics:  

American Women 

Women in China