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Colonial Life
__The Diary of Marques Sumsky: African field Slave.__ Week1 My name is Marquez Sumsky. I am a 15-year-old enslaved African. This diary is the only luxury I have. I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. It’s unbearable torture, but not as bad as the middle passage. I was just working on pottery one day, and some guy of different color comes up to me and puts me in chains. I was then leaded to a strange boat. I was about to struggle, but a deep voice said to me, “Resist and we will whip you” I spent the next few months chained in place. We were stored like spices. We did not even get bathroom privileges, so we constantly had feces dropping on us. It was the worst experience ever! When we finally reached land, no good came. I was sent to an auction in some place called Virginia where I was sold to some man. I was separated from my family of 8 and even my two 3-year-old brothers were separated from each other and the family. I was brought back to a plantation and stuck in a shed, never to see my beloved family again Week2 We just got put to more work. My back is nearly collapsed. I had to spend the entire day planting, watering and harvesting a crop called tobacco in the cold climate. After all the work I put in I only got mere corn mush soup as a reward of my hard days work in the sun. So I tried to sneak some apples and they broke my ankle and cut up my wrist with a harsh knife! The next day a nice boy took over for me on my last hour because the pain of my ankle was simply agonizing. I didn’t get the boys name, so I’m going to call him hat boy because he was wearing a hat, unlike the rest of us who wear headscarves. Week3 I can’t even begin to explain what happened on the fields today. I collapsed from the pain of my ankle, and hat boy reached out to help me out. When he did so, I saw a flash of skin, but it was the color of a fresh onion, not dark. I tracked him down late at night and talked it out. He is the plantation owner’s son! He was explaining the whole thing to me! Once he go taken out of school, he watched us working for days on end and felt so bad he decided he needed to help. After he couldn’t change his dads mind he gave a shot at helping the injured or ill field slaves like me. HE also told me stories about the different colonies, and how people come from England for religious freedom and financial reasons. The colony we’re in is Virginia, and were under the Church of England. After staying up with him, I face a problem.

I think I love him.

Revolution
Source:

Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. "The American Revolution." //History alive!: the United States through industrialism//. Palo Alto, Calif.: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2011. 90. Print.

Topic: Britain Almost Wins the War

Subtopic: African Americans and the War

Wondered if the "rules of independence" applied to them

" Did Jefferson's Words "all men are created equal," apply to them?" (Hart 90)

Britain bribed slaves with freedom in return for warfare

"In contrast, britain promised freedom to slaves who took up arms for the king. As a result, thousands of runaways became loyalists and fought for britain." (Hart 90)

Black militias fighting for America before

"... a number of African Americans had joined the patriot side. Black militiamen fought.."

Source 2:

1777-78, the winter of, 000 from disease, desertion. This, and slaves.. "Africans in America | Part 2 | The Revolutionary War." //PBS: Public Broadcasting Service//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2narr4.html >.

Most undecided/ loyalist

"The great majority were neutral or Loyalist" (p1)

Wanted freedom

" For black people, what mattered most was freedom" (p1)

Many left (or died off) plantations

"An estimated 100,000 African Americans escaped, died or were killed during the American Revolution." (p1)

Plot:

Exposition- Explain situation where blacks are turning to patriot or loyalist sides. Introduce slave friend (23 years old)

Rising action- More work due to less and escaping slaves. Friend joins Patriot side.

Climax- Friend killed by slave loyalist. Marquez is unaware that it was her father

Falling action- Marquez take's friends place and finds out that her father killed her

Dénouement- Marquez helps lead te Patriots to victory- killing all Loyalists in a base except her father- who she doesn't have the heart to kill.

Theme: My story will show the social effect or the revolution

Story post 1 Dear Diary,

It's been a while. I haven't written in you for 7 years, so let me catch you up. Remember Hat Boy? Well now he is my best friend, and his name is Lucas. He told me that this guy named Thomas Jefferson wrote a Declaration of Independence and sent it to Britain and it started a huge war. He said some of the words were "All men are created equal under the eyes of god" or something like that. He also said that it should apply to blacks and me and my new friend, Isabel, agreed. Isabel is also a slave, and her slave name is Cott, because she picks cotton. She is the same age as me, 23 years old. Anyway, now a bunch of slaves are going to fight for Great Britain, because they offered freedom.

Dear Diary,

First of all, I know it's been a week, but you'll never guess what happened! Isabel went out to fight! She is fighting for America! Right as she was escaping she told me that it was better than working here. I hope she doesn't get killed! Already 1/4 of the slaves are fighting in the war now! That means we have about 7.5% more work. Or is it 25%? I have no clue. The bottom line is, we have a lot more work. I had to work late last night and I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight