In my book about Moses, a slave boy who runs away on the Underground Railroad, Moses talks about how the overseer would blow a horn every morning, calling the slaves to work. The work day often began before dawn. The slaves had usually worked until long after dark. Most of them never had enough to eat, never got enough sleep, and had primitive sleeping quarters.
Imagine having to wake up every day bone tired and hungry. Imagine looking forward to nothing but back breaking work with no pay. Imagine having no dreams, no hope, and the threat that even your family might be taken from you. Such was the lot of the American slave.
No wonder many slaves heard the call to leave the plantation and travel on the Underground Railroad to freedom