Free Stealing Freedom by Elisa Carbone

own.”
    From her hiding place, Ann saw Benjamin smiling, though his blue eyes were wide with uncertainty at being atop a large horse.
    Master Charles led Sally, with her very young rider, away toward the cornfield. The last thing she heard him say was “We'll go show Master William what a little man you are.”
    Ann walked slowly back to the stone house. When her mother whispered “Where is Benjamin?” Ann mouthed the words “With Master Charles,” pointing toward the barns. Arabella frowned at her, but Ann assured her he was fine.
    So it was not a great surprise when, several days later, as Ann, Catharine, and their mother sat wrapping canning jars in old newspapers, they overheard a vicious fight between Mistress Carol and Master Charles.
    “I've been shamed in front of all of Unity—hasn't that been enough?” Mistress Carol spat.
    “Stick to your household chores.” Master Charles sounded bored by his wife's pain. “You know nothing of business, and this is a business decision.”
    “A business decision?” The mistress's voice rose to a screech. “I know what kind of decision it is, and I'll not have you making it at my expense!”
    “He's too young to work. In five years he'll fetch a handsome price, but—”
    “I will not be shamed in front of all of Rockville! I'll kill him first.
Then
how much will he be worth to you?”
    They heard a door slam, and there was silence. Ann grasped Catharine's hand and they both looked at Benjamin, who had fallen asleep on the floor. Their mother began to sing softly.
    The very next Saturday morning, Master Charles loaded up his wagon with the last of the chickens, five barrels of tobacco, two sacks of wheat, and his son, and took them all to Baltimore to be sold.

Eleven
    “We had no right to keep him with us forever,” said Ann's mother. “Maybe he'll find his mamma now…someday.”
    Their house was even more empty with Benjamin gone. Ann tried to comfort herself by imagining that he'd been sold to a farm near where Ellie was living and that word would spread about a new arrival—a young mulatto boy with eyes like blue china. Ellie would walk to find him one Sunday and visit him every Sunday after that. Ann had heard stories of that kind of thing, and she prayed it would happen to Benjamin and Ellie.
    With the improvement in the weather, many people now passed through the inn. Ann's mother used an extra apron to hide her growing belly, but her desperation grew along with the child inside her.
    Late one evening, Ann's family sat huddled around the dying fire. The glowing coals gave a reddish light to their faces, and they spoke in hushed tones.
    “Where is the help they promised?”Arabella asked. She didn't sound angry or impatient, just despairing. “We've gotto get away from here. Before they sell our girls away from us, before they find out about the one I'm carrying and put a price on his head. Before they break this family into so many pieces we'll never find each other again.”
    Her husband rubbed her hands between his own. “Reverend Ray said he would work as fast as he could,” he said. But his eyes, too, looked as though he was giving up hope.
    It was as if the heavens heard her parents’ despair and said, “Enough.” Three days later Jacob Bigelow came to their cabin.
    He was a white man, not particularly tall, though he did bump his head on the door frame because he forgot to duck. He had great bushy sideburns and wiry eyebrows, and wore spectacles that magnified his eyes and gave his face a slightly froglike look. He rubbed his chin a lot. He called Ann's father and mother Mr. Weems and Mrs. Weems and called Ann and Catharine “Miss.”
    Rubbing his chin, Mr. Bigelow explained what he'd come to do. “I've been sent by the Vigilance Committee to offer money for all three of you—good prices that I believe Mr. Price should accept.” He shifted in his chair and it creaked under his weight. “You will become my property—but, I promise you, I