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Violet is a 19 year old girl, a runaway who was enslaved in a house in the South before she escaped.
She is able to read the stars - a skill that she learned from her father - and she is following the North Star to freedom in Canada.
She made it to Bucktown, Richmond. She is rather scared. She is hungry and malnourished.
Bucktown is a busy city. There are lots of people. Violet needs help.
To left are [[woods]]. To the right is small Black [[girl]] with a baby. In front of her is a [[hotel]].
Where should Violet go?
<img src="img/map.jpg">Violet thinks that the less people there are around, the safer she will be so she chooses the woods.
She hikes deeper and deeper into the darkening forest. She is very hungry but she fears that if she stops, someone might find her.
To the left is a swampy area. Ahead, there are bushes with tasty looking red berries. To the right are tall trees.
Should she go towards the swamp so that the [[water]] can hide her scent from hunting dogs in the search party? Or should she stop to eat [[berries]] to keep up her strength? Or should she [[climb]] one of the tall trees nearby to get a better view of the area?Standing in the distance, Violet sees another Black girl. They find shelter together in a cave. There they exchange stories and agree to travel together.
They walk in the forest at night and see a tree with symbols carved on the trunk. The girl says it means a safe house is near. They walk further up and see a house with a lit lantern in the window.
Should Violet enter the house with the [[lantern|latern]] or go [[separate|seperate]] ways.
<img src="img/lamp.jpg">Violet goes into the hotel. She is very lucky because it turns out to be a safe house. There she meets an older black woman who says:
"Hi, my name is Harriet and I'm here to help you."
At the safe house she is given food, better clothes and a bed for the night. In the morning she needs to decide how to continue her journey North.
Harriet offers "You can hide and travel in the back of a cart, hidden from view."
Violet asks "How long will I be in the cart?"
"It could be weeks."
Violet has to make a choice. Should she travel in hiding in the [[cart]] or take a chance and [[run]] from this place?
<img src="img/Violet.jpg">The journey is long. Along the way, the cart is stopped by bounty hunters.
Oh no! The bounty hunters found Violet. She is captured and taken back to the plantation where she used to work. Luckily, Violet had another chance to escape but there will be consequences.
If she was to [[runaway again]] - several of her fellow enslaved men, women and children working on the plantation would be punished.
Or does she [[stay]] and obey the rules of her slave master?
THE END
[[Try again|Start]]?Violet runs for her life. She finds a barn to stay in. She meets a white man in the barn, he is the owner of a house nearby.
Violet is so frightened that she can't speak but the man can see straight away that she has run away from enslavement. However this man is an undercover abolitionist, Mike Jones.
Mike promises to escort Violet to Pennsylvania, pretending that he has enslaved her.
On the way they meet bounty hunters who confront Mike about his intentions. Violet is conflicted.
Should she help [[Mike]] fight or run to [[survive]]?
<img src="img/hunter.jpg">Violet tries to help Mike, but gets hurt in the cross fire, caught by the bounty hunters and is taken back to her [[previous owners|stay]].
In the confusion, Violet runs and hides in some nearby bushes.
Mike fights off the bounty hunters and whistles to let Violet know the coast is clear.
Mike and Violet travel, posing as master and his enslaved servant to the free state of Vermont.
There, she finds freedom and begins a new life joining the abolition movement with Mike.
<img src="img/anti-slavery.jpg">
THE END
[[Try again|Start]]?
Many people try and try to escape, continuing to resist and fight for freedom, facing difficult odds along the way.
THE END.
[[Try again|Start]]?Plantation life is hard. Violet is whipped as punishment for running away.
She is then put to work picking cotton in the fields. The work is difficult and exhausting. Violet only survives 5 years on this plantation.
<img src="img/shackels.jpg">
THE END.
[[Try again|Start]]?Violet wades through the swamp, trying to wash away her scent.
Something brushes past her in the water then she feels a sharp pain in her arm. A snake bite!
She recognises the snake and is luckily carrying medicine, a cold compress of herbs in her bag which would draw out the venom.
Still, she is so tired that after scrambling out of the water she falls asleep.
She is aware of someone lifting her.
She wakes in a station, where people offer her help to travel north to freedom.
<img src="img/water.jpg">
THE END
[[Try again|Start]]?
After two days with no food, the berries taste delicious.
But, they are deadly and their poison makes its way quickly into her system.
<img src="img/swamp.jpg">
THE END
[[Try again|Start]]?
Violet climbs and takes a rest high in the tree branches. She hears a twig snap nearby and freezes.
A shadow emerges from the bushes. It is a bounty hunter!
Violet tries to stay silent and still but hunting dogs sniff out her hiding place.
She is captured and taken back to her [[previous owners|stay]].
<img src="img/dogs.jpg">
<p class="caption">Richard Ansdell - The Hunted Slaves</p>
<img src="img/quilt.png">They go up to the house, it's a station. There they meet a conductor - Harriet, who promises to guide them north.
Violet and the girl pretend to work in the home while waiting for the right time. They make quilts with secret codes for people who wish to escape after them. After a month, they make the journey north when it's safe.
THE END
[[Try again|Start]]?Violet is not sure about meeting more strangers. She decides to set out on her own.
On the path she runs into her plantation owners on horseback. They take her [[back|stay]].
created by the <a href="http://www.belvedereacademy.net/">Belvedere Academy History Club</a> with the <a href="http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/">International Slavery Museum</a> & <a href="http://re-dock.org/">Re-Dock</a>.
Tales of Escape