The lot of us were standing in a large field, over the hill above the river. Duke and Resin had managed to get the flatboat close enough to the far bank. Massa Edward, Howard and our other captors had been beaten to death and their bodies tossed overboard. Only Louis remained on the flatboat, crying over the death of Massa Edward. He was beaten pretty bad by Resin and Jo. His nose and left eye all bloody and swollen.

“We needs to head upstream a ways. Those three white trees are about a mile away,” Resin said, pointing east.

We ran through fields of corn, and woods to remain hidden from view. Soon the authorities would be looking for us once they noticed the flatboat unattended.

I ran beside Lizzie, Duke and Wesley. The others ran ahead of us after we got separated in the corn. We stumbled upon Jo and Resin sitting beside a tree. 

“Where’s everyone else?” Wesley asked.

“They ran ahead. We couldn’t keep up. Jo’s leg is bleeding bad. I need to stop the bleeding,” Resin said, looking back nervously. “Is anyone following you?”

“No, haven’t seen anyone yet,” I says, handing Jo one of my shirts.

“You need to keep running. If they catch us, they is gonna hang us for murder,” Jo says, thanking me for the shirt. “We’ll be right along as soon as I get this bleeding stopped.”

We ran towards the white trees on the river, stopping long enough to catch our breath. The trees were a lot farther away than we thought. When we reached the trees, we met up with two of the slave women named Carrie and Sally, who had been kept in the basement. They were thin and tired from being chained up for so long. 

“Where’s everybody else?” Duke shouted.

“We got lost. They told us to look for white trees with lanterns. I think these are the trees, but somebody done took the lanterns. What do we do now?” said Sally, clinging to her friend Carrie who was crying.

“We can’t wait here. We need to head north. I guess we’re on our own,” Duke said, pointing up the bank. We need to get as far away from this place before it gets light. Stay hidden and don’t let anyone see you.”

We found a garden with cabbages and sat just long enough to get our belly full. 

“Duke, do you have any idea which way to the safe house?” Wesley said, as he stood guard.

“No, we were supposed to meet a man at the trees. I have no idea where it’s at. We just need to hide during the day and travel at night.”

Duke looked over at me and said, “You still carrying that fiddle, Jasper? You best leave it behind.”

“No, my daddy made this for me. It’s all I gots to remember him by.”

“He’ll be alright, Duke. Uncle Jasper is a tough old bird,” Lizzie says. 

“We must keep going. When they find that empty boat and the bodies, they will be out looking for us,” Wesley said, pacing back and forth.

I got my second wind and we ran hidden through stalks of corn. Our clothes were soaked from the heavy dew as we ran through the fields. 

Duke spotted an old barn at the top of a small hill. There were no houses to be seen.

“Maybe we can rest there until dark,”  Duke says, leading us up the hill. 

The barn was very old and abandoned to the weather. Part of the roof had collapsed and the entire structure was covered in poison ivy and black berry briars.

Inside the barn was the remains of an old wagon. The wooden wheels were broken. Duke looked the barn over and said, “It ain’t much, but it’s gonna have to do for now.”

Sally and Carrie sat in a far corner of the barn clinging to one another like little frightened birds. Wesley peeked through the planks staring off to the direction we had come. 

“I think we all should try and get some sleep. We need to be all rested up before night,” Duke says grabbing some dry grass to make a bed for him and Lizzie to lay on.

“I’ll take first watch,” Wesley said, peering through the cracks between the planks.

I sat down near the door with my fiddle lying by my side and drifted off to sleep as the day wore on.

The sun felt warm against my skin. My head jerked up to the sound of dogs barking off in the distance. I looked over and saw Wesley sleeping soundly by the wall. 

“Psssst, wake up. Wake up,” I whispered. 

Wesley jerked awake out of a sound sleep looking wide eyed and scared. “What’s happening?”

“I think I hear dogs barking.”

Sure enough, we heard them again, but this time they sounded much closer. Everyone got to their feet and peeked out through the cracks.

“They sound like hound dogs to me,” Duke said, waking Lizzie out of a sound sleep.

“What should we do?” Wesley said, pacing the floor. 

“We need to distract the dogs if they come this way. The rest of you need to run off in different directions and then head north after a while. They can’t catch all of us if we’re lucky.” Duke says.

“I’m scared to death of dogs,” Sally said, bursting into tears. “I seen dogs rip my brother to pieces once.”

The dogs were definitely getting closer. Then I heard the sounds of gunshot and a scream. The dogs were barking crazily.

“Oh Lord have mercy on us,” Lizzie whispered. “They must have caught one of us.”

Wesley motioned for everyone to keep quiet. “I see a dog.”

Duke ran to the door and whispered, “When I say run, I want you all to run in different directions. I’ll distract the dogs.” 

“No, we can run together, Duke. You don’t need to do this,” Lizzie cried.

“Yeah, I do. You’re my woman and I don’t want them to catch you. Jasper, you keep Lizzie safe and I’ll meet up with you. Just run north after a while.”

“Duke ran out into the open and yelled, “Go now!”

Lizzie and I ran through the tall weeds towards the creek. Wesley and the two sisters ran towards the woods. We could hear the dogs baying and we knew that they were chasing Duke. I just prayed they wouldn’t catch him.

We ran wildly down a hill. I fell and twisted my ankle when I stepped in a rabbit hole. Unfortunately I busted my fiddle in half when I fell. I tried to stand up, but the pain was too much. You need to go on Lizzie. I can’t keep up.”

“I ain’t leaving you uncle Jasper. You the only family I got left,” Lizzie said, trying to pull me to my feet. You can use me as a crutch.”

“I heard a yell and by the sound of it, they must have caught Duke. The dogs were growling and barking.

I held Lizzie in my arms one last time. I handed her the fiddle. My daddy made this here fiddle. I wants you to have it to remember me by. Go, and meet up with the others.”

Lizzie looked back at me one last time and then she was gone, running up the creek to keep the dogs off her scent. I sat down in the tall grass and cried. 

It must have been a half hour before the dogs found me. One of them grabbed my shoe and shook it. Soon there were three men with rifles pointed at me.

“Hey, Bob, Found another nigger over here. This one ain’t going very far. He done busted up his leg,” the young white guy said in a giddy tone. 

That very day, the local men had captured nary everyone of us. In a grassy area near the river, I saw Duke, Wesley, Sally, Carrie, Resin and poor old Jo with his leg nearly chewed off. Most of the other slaves I really didn’t know. They brought young Lewis who was limping and bruised, to the spot where we were being kept. One of the older men kept yelling at the boy to tell them who killed Massa Edward, Howard and the other white men. We sat on the ground eyeing Lewis with contempt.

He looked us over and pointed out five men. “Jo and Resin are the ones who beat me. That one there with the “R” on his forehead. He’s the one that killed my Master Edward. I tried to stop them, but they beat me up,” he said, pointing at Steven who sat with his head hanging in defeat. Then he pointed at Duke and Wesley. “And them too. They all had a hand in this murder.” 

Duke looked over at me and smiled, knowing that Lizzie had escaped. I gasped when they pulled Duke and Wesley to their feet and beat the two men with whips. I was powerless to do anything but watch. 

By the end of the day, they had still not found Lizzie, Roseberry’s Jim, or Gracie’s little boy, Stu, and a dozen other slaves who somehow managed to escape.

There was a total of 56 slaves captured those few days after the escape. We were lined up in a row, shackled ankle to ankle, standing along the roadside as a cold wind blew the fallen leaves from the trees. Angry white men with rifles marched us to the Breckenridge jail.