Chasing Freedom Read Online Free PDF

his hand to his forehead and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Your rations will be distributed through him,” he puffed.
    Sarah’s family settled into the black quarters while hundreds of others arrived daily on ships. Two weeks later, they gathered in a group to hear Benjamin Marston, the chief surveyor. His news was good. The provincial secretary had issued an order to the magistrates to situate the Negroes on the northwest arm of Shelburne Harbour. He joked and laughed and Sarah warmed to his friendly tone. The next morning, Marston filled his sloop with free Negroes. This time Sarah stood on deck. A place to call home at last, she thought.
    Such cheering as Marston’s boat approached the arm! Sarah’s spirited shouts of joy mingled with the rest. But when the anchor was lowered, Sarah’s jaw fell. To her dismay, there was neither a building nor a hut in sight, just rocks and woods so thick not a bit of light came through. She waded ashore with the others where they were met by Pyncheon. He informed them that this was to be their new home. Then he ordered the Negroes to take to the woods and do what they could to survive.
    THE CHATTER, THE PRAYERS AND THE SERMONS … IT HAD ALL been about “gettin’ some of that ‘sweet freedom land’ and riches.” Well, Sarah was fast realizing that this new Birchtown was a far cry from that.
    Colonel Black, being of high rank, built a comfortable house with a garden on a large lot. The remaining Negroes would have to wait for surveyors to lay out their land.
    When winter came, unfamiliar cold took many lives, for they had nothing to fend it off with. Sarah and Grandmother gathered materials, sought rations and tramped back and forth to Roseway to work. They scavenged for usable materials, goods and clothing in Port Roseway. They made baskets, and Uncle Prince built make-shift carts and sleds to transport things. They pooled their money and got themselves chickens and a pig. With no buildings for shelter, they lived in a pit house—a hole in the ground supported by rocks and a roof of long poles and spruce branches.
    With the first spring came hope, more rations and shacks. Prince and a few Birchtown men helped Grandmother build a small dwelling. Sarah helped too. They used rough logs and poles stuffed with mud and moss, and put up a pitched roof. The only door opened into a tiny rectangular room with one small window fitted with a thick sheet of canvas, a fire pit made of rocks in the floor, a table and chairs shaped with an axe, two shelves holding dishes and pots and a table for water buckets. Along the opposite wall was a small wooden bunk. The air was always thick with smoke and the aroma of food cooking. A canvas curtain partitioned off a space at the back for sleeping. There was barely room for two small bunks, a washstand and hooks for hanging clothes. Behind the hut was a dug well and a small dump.
    They enjoyed fish, sometimes a little wild meat, venison, rabbit or porcupine, and gathered wild apples and good-tasting berries in season. They often received vegetables, dairy goods or bread in exchange for work.
    Grandmother kept to herself, though Sarah preferred company. She tried hard not to complain, at least not aloud, but she could see how the worry and strain creased Grandmother’s face in ever-deepening lines as she tried to keep their spirits up, pleading with God to spare the last of her “brood.” Sarah worried too. There was no telling if her father would ever return.
    Under the bleak clouds of poverty, Sarah watched with interest as the settlement began to take shape, what with its endless paths, hustle and bustle, and strange goings-on. Hundreds of unsightly shacks sprang up as more freed slaves, runaways and rough characters came to Birchtown, many with all manner of disabilities attributed to the war or misfortune. Fifteen hundred free Negroes. It was not a safe place, but as time pressed on, a little of