Escape To The Underground Railroad

Eli, who lived in Virginia, was a young slave on a tobacco plantation. Eli, his parents and his younger brother Josiah all lived together in a very small one bedroom cabin. He also had older siblings, but they had been taken and sold to other plantations. Eli was afraid that he would someday be taken from his parents too. He knew his parents felt the same way because he could sense the fear in their eyes, but they were always comforted by a song they had learned from other slaves who had visited their plantation. The song went like this: When the sun comes back and the first quail calls, follow the drinkin’ gourd. For the old man’s waiting for to carry you to freedom, if you follow the drinkin’ gourd. The song gave Eli’s parents hope, even though he did not know what it meant. One spring night a quail began to call outside of Eli’s cabin. It called over and over again. Eli’s parents ran to the window to look at the sky and then at each other. “There’s the drinkin’ gourd” his father said, “it’s now or never”. Before Eli knew it his parents were leading in through a field, that’s when he realized they were escaping. They traveled through fields and over hills on that dark, scary and confusing night. They didn’t want the search dogs to find them so they traveled through rivers to hide their scent. For hours they traveled quietly always watching the big dipper to point them north. The next thing Eli saw was his