Storyline taken from Runaway to Freedom, by Barbara Smucker

Freedom

Part Five: The Possession

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Now I come at last to the day we came to Peace Land’s shore. After the last slave hunters had left the ship, the Deliverance set out across the waters of separation. I did not look back on Sinful Misery even once. As Lisa said, “We are just going to keep ourselves as far away from that shore as we can!” With the fresh breeze in our faces we were able to sit back and rest.

“All passengers ashore!” the call rang through the air like the sound of a trumpet.

Suddenly we were really there, standing on the free rocky soil of Peace Land. Lisa knelt and kissed the ground. I stood tall, too glad to hardly say a word. I no longer had to be ashamed. I was free!

The Captain wiped tears from his eyes and said, “You are safe now and I’m glad to have brought you. Master Good has sent word to your friends and you will find a cart waiting for you farther down the shore.” I looked at him gratefully, wishing I could pay him back for his kindness. Instead he handed me a purse. “Something from Master Good to help you on your way,” he said simply, and returned on board.

Lisa was still kneeling and I gave her a shove. “You can’t stay there all day—this is Peace Land and someone is waiting for us,” I said with a laugh. “See?” The driver of the cart had spotted us and was waving.

Lisa rose to her feet quickly when I touched her. “Julie, we must hide!” she whispered. “Why is that man waving at us? Everyone will see us!”

I laughed again. “Lisa, we don’t need to hide ourselves any more. We are no more slaves to sin. We are free!”

A glow came to her cheeks then. “Free?” she repeated, and a glad smile lit her face. “Free to do right and live like the people of light? Free to raise up our heads and smile at God’s sunshine? Oh, Julie, I’m so happy I could fly!”

I felt the same way, and when we were greeted by the cart-driver it seemed like a greeting from heaven itself. “I know how you feel,” the dark-faced man said with a grin. “I came to Peace Land last year.” His name was Harold Forgiven and he told us that George was waiting to meet us at Saint Abidington. “He has a job at the Pilgrims and Strangers Hotel there,” he said. I was afraid to ask if anyone had heard of my mammy, afraid to know what had happened to her. Besides, Harold was in a hurry to be off.

As I took my seat in a pile of fresh hay, I rememberd the humility straw that had hid us when the slave catchers were after us. How long ago that seemed now! Here we were in Peace Land at last, riding like queens in our own carriage.

“It is like heaven,” Lisa said, as we spread a picnic on a golden carpet of love leaves that evening.

Harold Forgiven looked at us soberly. “I must tell you, this isn’t heaven. There are many troubles and trials yet, and life is hard for us that escaped old Sinful Misery. Here in Peace Land we don’t have nice houses and fine food on our tables. Most of us don’t know much about the Word of Truth and learning to read is not easy.”

“We can learn to read the Word of Truth?” I asked, excitedly. Long ago my mammy had told me about the Book that the Master of Love had written, but we never knew much of what it said. No slave could understand it.

Our friend smiled at us. “Yes, here you can learn to read, if you set yourself to work for it. And I tell myself, I’d a lot rather be a working and living by that Truth here, than to be tasting of selfish pleasure back in Sinful Misery. I’d rather be poor and be free.”

I thought back to the would-do-right and Master Good’s promise to us. The journey would be dangerous and difficult, he had said, and living in Peace Land wouldn’t be easy, but we would be free. He had been right, and it didn’t hurt to remember it. To work and live by the simple Truth was fine with me when there was no whip over my head.

So it was that we came at last to the front of the Pilgrim and Strangers Hotel, built by those that had escaped slavery before us. I had just leapt to the ground when George ran to meet us. He was dressed in fine new clothes and grinned broadly, but his eyes still flashed with the old determination. He greeted us as true ladies.

After he had helped Lisa from the cart, he turned to me. “She’s in the kitchen and will want to see you.”

“See me? In the kitchen?” I asked, puzzled. Was I getting a job? Then I saw her in the doorway. A strong tall figure that I knew so well, but with a slight limp and graying hair.

“Mammy!” I cried, and flung myself into her open arms.

“Julie, you’ve come!” she cried into my hair. “Isn’t it wonderful what Master Love has done for us?” I squeezed her tightly, then turned to my friend who stood by shyly.

“Meet Lisa—she’s come with me.”

Mammy pulled Lisa into our circle and smiled on us. “Come! Let me show you our home. It is not big, but it is our own.”

So we all went down Salvation Street together. We were happy and ready to face the future in this new land, whatever came. Like my Mammy says, “In Peace Land we may be poor, but none of us is slaves!”

The End